Curtis Sliwa, the former Republican candidate for Mayor of New York, is facing criticism from Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N. Y.) after his vigilante safety patrol, the Guardian Angels, detained and headlocked a man they claimed was a migrant and shoplifting suspect—who the police now say was neither. Tuesday’s incident on Fox News comes as tensions rise in New York over property crime and a continued influx of migrants bussed to the city from the southern border. Mayor Adams declared a state of emergency after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending busloads of migrants to the city in 2022, warning that the city’s social services could be stretched thin by the rapid influx. According to the mayor’s office, the city has seen over 100,000 asylum seekers pass through the city since April 2022, with an estimated 58,000 remaining in the city’s shelter system. In January, Adams announced a lawsuit against the bus companies that transported the migrants, asserting the new arrivals cost the city $708 million since the Texas governor’s policy began. But critics like Sliwa have still placed blame on the mayor. On Hannity, Sliwa claimed Adams was “single handedly destroying this city by giving illegal aliens everything,” criticizing a pilot program that provides about 500 migrant families who have children with pre-paid debit cards, worth about $12 per day, to purchase food. More recently, on Jan. 27, four migrants were caught on camera beating two NYPD officers near Times Square shelter. A total of seven people were arrested after the attack, but only one person has so far been detained and charged in the attack. The other six were released without bail, drawing widespread criticism from leaders, including Hochul, who called the move “wrong on all accounts.”Sliwa has been a figure in local New York City politics for decades. In 1979, Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels, a volunteer public safety patrol originally intended to fight the growing crime wave on the subway system. Sliwa quickly became a fixture on conservative talk radio and local news programs, often appearing wearing his signature Guardian Angels red jacket and matching beret. Years later, Sliwa would admit to faking at least six stunts and crime busts for media attention, including getting a friend to fake his kidnapping in 1983. Sliwa later told the New York Post the fake kidnapping was “probably the biggest mistake I made in my life.” In 2021, Sliwa ran for mayor, securing the Republican nomination. He ended up losing to current Mayor Eric Adams, an NYPD veteran and former Brooklyn Borough President, by about 441,000 votes. Although New York is experiencing a rise in petty crimes like shoplifting, violent crime saw a significant decrease in 2023 back to pre-pandemic levels, according to officials. According to the NYPD’s year-end crime statistics, murder decreased over 33%, while shootings by 24% over the course of the year. However, robberies rose in the Big Apple by about 22%.
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