The Guardian Angels have stepped up patrols in Manhattan’s Chinatown following a brutal attack on an Asian woman that took place in broad daylight.
Members of the volunteer crime-fighting organization – easily distinguished by their bright red berets – were pictured protecting the neighborhood in exclusive images captured by DailyMail.com on Thursday.
In recent months, violent attacks on Asians have surged across the Big Apple as overall crime continues to skyrocket.
‘People can’t even go out to have a little lunch in New York City without being afraid that someone is going to harm them,’ Guardian Angel Benjamin ‘E.Q.’ Garcia told DailyMail.com during his daily patrol of the area.
His presence comes as a relief to Chinatown residents reeling from the fact a 55-year-old woman was randomly sucker-punched as she walked along bustling Bayard Street on Monday afternoon.
Her assailant has been identified as serial felon Alexander Wright, a homeless man who has clocked up eight arrests in the past year alone.
Many have blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s bail reforms for the crime spike, which have put suspects straight back onto the city’s streets, even if they’ve been arrested for violent crimes.
Garcia has been volunteering with the Guardian Angels for 35 years and says it feels as if New York City is returning to the 1980s and 1990s when shootings, murders and muggings were rampant.
‘If this continues the way it’s going, this could be one of the worst summers on record,’ Garcia predicted.
The Guardian Angels have stepped up patrols in Manhattan’s Chinatown following a brutal attack on an Asian woman that took place in broad daylight
Benjamin ‘E.Q.’ Garcia (right) and a fellow Guardian Angel are pictured on Bayard Street, where a 55-year-old woman was sucker-punched by a serial felon on Monday
The victim (in pink) is seen strolling along minding her own business before the man (in the orange hoodie and denim vest) punches her in the face
This chart shows how serious crimes – including felony assaults and murders – have soared in NYC over the last 12 months
The Guardian Angels is a non-profit group first established by Curtis Sliwa back in 1979 as crime rates began to soar across New York City.
Volunteers of Good Samaritans would patrol the city’s sidewalks and subways in a bid to help prevent violent attacks.
The volunteers became a reassuring sight to nervous New Yorkers and were easily identifiable by their bright red berets and jackets.
In the 1980s and 1990s they became a fixture on New York City streets as the crack cocaine epidemic sparked a rise in muggings.
Crime in the Big Apple began to drop in the late 90s and into the 2000s under the mayorships of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.In recent years, a spate of articles were published wondering whether the Guardian Angels had become redundant because the city felt so safe.
But in the past 12 months, as crime has started to surge again, the Guardian Angels find themselves as relevant as ever, providing safety for those who are too afraid to leave their homes.
‘My wife doesn’t want to go out on her own, even during the day,’ Garcia explained.
He added that a number of lifelong New Yorkers that he knows personally have recently decided to flee the city.
‘They have children and they’re leaving because they’re afraid something might happen to them, God forbid,’ he stated.
‘It’s sad when you hear from women and from elderly people that they’re afraid to take the subways, and they want to leave the city.’
‘My wife doesn’t want to go out on her own, even during the day’: Garcia has been volunteering with the Guardian Angels since 1986
Benjamin ‘E.Q.’ Garcia (right) and a fellow Guardian Angel are pictured on Bayard Street, where a 55-year-old woman was sucker-punched by a serial felon on Monday
Garcia has volunteered with The Guardian Angels since 1986, and says the violent attacks in recent months differ to those that occurred in the city in the past.
While many muggings in the 1980s and 90s were linked to the crack cocaine epidemic, Garcia says there now appears to be an increase in random assaults perpetrated by those who are homeless and suffer from mental health issues.
‘We need to get those people the help that they need in the hospital,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Don’t just release them back into the street because they’re going to do the same thing or something worse.’
Felony assaults – such as the one that occurred in Chinatown on Monday – were up 35.3 per cent in the past week when compared with the same week in 2020.
The latest information from the New York Police Department’s CompStat website showed murders were up 28.6 per cent last week over the same week in 2020, with nine homicides in 2021, and seven in 2020.
Meanwhile, serious crime overall was up 49 per cent over the last week, with a total of 234 reported – 77 more than the 157 flagged to cops for the same seven days in 2020.
Despite the fact a police precinct is located nearby, the Guardian Angels have increased their foot presence in Chinatown
Guardian Angels are pictured on patrol circa 1980 in New York City
The Guardian Angels (pictured in 2005) was launched during a period of surging crime in the Big Apple
Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted New Yorkers don’t feel safe in their own city.
‘We’re building new projects, stimulating new business -but what comes before that is public safety, otherwise none of it works.
‘New Yorkers don’t feel safe and they don’t feel safe because the crime rate is up. It’s not that they are being neurotic or overly sensitive – they are right,’ he stated.
He added that defunding the police – which Bill de Blasio agreed to last summer by taking $1bn from the NYPD budget amid pressure from BLM activists – was not the answer.
Meanwhile, there is growing outrage of de Blasio’s bail reform laws after it emerged that the man accused of Monday’s sucker-punch attack has been arrested 41 times since his 17th birthday, including eight times in the past year.
Police records reviewed by DailyMail.com show Alexander Wright’s first arrest was a robbery in September 1989
At his arraignment Wednesday, prosecutors highlighted Wright’s most recent arrests in recommending high bail to actually keep him behind bars this time, including an open case in the Bronx from last July.
‘In that case, the defendant is accused of striking a 72-year-old man in the face with a closed fist, causing the victim to fall to the ground,’ Manhattan assistant district attorney William Darling told the judge. ‘The victim in that case did then seek treatment at a hospital. He is currently released on his own recognizance. The defendant has failed to appear twice on that case and has been returned on warrants both times.’
‘The defendant pled guilty to two violent crimes in New York County only four days ago,’ Darling continued, one where he ‘threw a rock through a window, causing damage to the window, and minutes later grabbed a stranger by the face, scratching the victim’s face causing lacerations to his face and substantial pain.’
In the other, ‘the defendant threw hot coffee into the faces and eyes of two traffic officers, causing redness and substantial pain.’
He then detailed Monday’s assault, pointing out that Wright walked up to a complete stranger and ‘struck her in the face with a closed fist so hard that her hat flew off her head, she fell to the ground, and lost consciousness.’
Judge Angela Badamo agreed with the prosecution’s recommendation to set bail at $15,000 cash.
Alexander Wright has been arrested 41 times since his 17th birthday in 1989 – including eight times in the past year alone, DailyMail.com has learned
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue8KroKadX5zCor7DopinZZGjtKa40maumqqeYru6r4yiqmaqlanCs7rIp55mrJ9isaK6xp6pqK2jYrGixdJmpp9lpJ2ybn2YcWesZZGoerW0xLJkrKyVpXq2vIypmK2qn6HAcA%3D%3D
