Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels’ Complex Legacy
By all accounts, Curtis Sliwa wears many figurative hats. As a political activist, radio host, and former mayoral hopeful, Sliwa has been in the public eye of New Yorkers for more than four decades.
In reality, Silwa has only donned one hat during all that time: the signature red beret of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit he founded in 1979 that encourages unarmed civilian intervention to prevent crime in the streets and subways of New York City.
However, while Sliwa’s commitment to the uniform remains steadfast, the credibility and practical function of his organization have not.
Since 2019, Sliwa has neglected to file the required tax information for the Guardian Angels, which effectively lost its tax-exempt and 501(c)(3) status as of March 2023. More seriously, the organization has not provided their annual filing to the New York State Attorney’s office since 2005, which has legally barred them from operating and soliciting within the state.
Filing the appropriate annual registration is a state-level statutory requirement, according to a spokesperson from the Charities Bureau. The Guardian Angels’ noncompliance with these state regulations has created several liabilities, including the potential for fines. However, the spokesperson provided a caveat to these consequences, that rather than levy these penalties, the NYSA was more concerned with encouraging organizations to adhere to the requirements.
Despite all this, the Guardian Angels continue to advertise themselves as a nonprofit online and remain operational in New York City, along with 130 chapters in 13 countries. The organization runs youth martial arts classes at a community center in Washington Heights and is active on social media, advertising various street patrols and highlighting other chapters’ activities around the world.
Leadership continues to meet annually, according to Fordham professor Harold Takooshian, who has been a board member since 1980. When asked about the Guardian Angel’s legal status, Takooshian said he was unaware that the filings were outdated and that the board, some of whom would occasionally provide donations of up to $10,000, had “certainly reviewed the financials this year.”
Distribution of funds for programs runs entirely through Sliwa, according to long-time Guardian Angels members Dennis Torres and Peter Melotti, who run the youth program. The Junior Guardian Angels work entirely off donations. According to Melotti and Torres, they receive no funding from the city, and their martial arts center cannot even afford wi-fi.
“We don’t get paid for this,” said Torres. “The only reason we do it is to keep the kids out of harm’s way.”
The Guardian Angels most recent filings from 2019 show that they had very small profit, generating $252,000 in revenue and running $249,000 in expenses. All of their revenue came from contributions in the form of grants or gifts, with only $25,000 going towards employee salaries and benefits. A majority of their incoming funds went to insurance or travel expenses, according to the filings.
Onlookers have historically had conflicting opinions on whether Sliwa uses the Guardian Angels to advance his personal agendas. A slew of court documents, radio broadcasts, and news headlines over the last four decades certainly speak to Sliwa’s desire for publicity. Several of Sliwa’s past and present associates corroborate his polarized position in the public eye.
Some suggested that Sliwa used the Guardian Angels as a funding and publicity platform for his personal ventures. Others believed that Sliwa kept the Guardian Angels separate from his political and radio activities. Some Guardian Angels, like Torres and Melotti, totally avoid politics, focusing instead on the Guardian Angel’s mission to help the community.
“The biggest misconception about politics is that they forget, Democratic or Republican, about being a human being,” said Torres. “I don’t get involved in politics, but Curtis does, according to who he is.”
Sliwa did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
From high school dropout to mayoral candidate, Sliwa’s story is a tumultuous one. Raised in Brooklyn, Sliwa was a night manager at a McDonalds before founding the Guardian Angels. After gaining publicity with the formation of the Magnificent 13, a multiracial team of volunteers who would patrol subways, Sliwa’s group gained fame and were subsequently called upon by residents to help maintain order on the subways and streets as New York faced record levels of crime in the early ‘80s.
However, “shortly after the founding of the Guardian Angels … the group essentially ceased to exist except for media events,” said Ronald Kuby, a defense attorney and former host of “Curtis and Kuby,” a news analysis show done alongside Sliwa .
The show lasted from 1999 to 2007, framed around the liberal vs. conservative debate, with Kuby on the left and Sliwa on the right. Although they continued to collaborate well after the end of their show, Kuby and Sliwa also constantly clashed over their respective political beliefs and activities, even to this day.
According to Kuby, the organization’s participants have dwindled, which was confirmed by Melotti.
“There’s not that many active people to be honest with you,” Melotti explained. “And as far as I know… [Torres and I] are the only ones that are supporting the youth.”
Kuby alleged that the Sliwa utilizes the Guardian Angels name and his few loyal supporters to drive publicity towards his political aspirations. “The goal is exactly what you see,” Kuby explained. “It’s all getting attention for no ultimate purpose.”
If attention is the desired outcome, then Sliwa has certainly made progress. He has gathered over 150,000 followers across all his social media platforms. His talk show, “Curtis Sliwa’s Rip & Read,” has over 100 reviews between Spotify and Apple Podcasts, focusing mostly on local political commentary from a conservative angle. Sliwa’s posts typically include videos of him talking to the city’s most vulnerable residents on the subways and streets, often blaming their situations on the policies of the current administration.
He has consistently appeared in headlines over the years protesting the NYC government, and has now turned his criticisms towards Mayor Eric Adams, or as Sliwa calls him, “the Swagger-Man with No Plan.” Sliwa’s current focus has been the Adam’s administration’s response to the migrant influx, even getting arrested twice in one week for his participation in several acts of “civil disobedience.”
Perceptions of Sliwa are understandably mixed, especially given his politics. “If there was one thing that Curtis was good at doing, and has remained good at doing, is to understand the emotional direction of angry white people,” said Kuby.
Others see Sliwa’s contributions to New York City as a net positive.
“I think what he’s interested in is making New York a better place to live, and I think he spends almost all his energy, time and effort on that,” said Frank Morano, Sliwa’s former radio producer and political associate.
“That is where my strength is, in the streets and the subways,” Sliwa told MSNBC in 2021.
In the early ’80s and ’90s, New York City was experiencing some of its highest levels of crime, leading to a public outcry and desperation for any forms of protection. Founding the Guardian Angels, a group dedicated to crime prevention, propelled Sliwa to local legend status, largely due to being in the right place at the right time.
In one instance, the Guardian Angels were hired by the owners of Restaurant Row in Times Square to help minimize drug-related incidents that were deterring would-be customers.The violence got so bad that a member of the Guardian Angels was stabbed during a regular patrol after he had tried to break up a fight between alleged crack cocaine dealers. Sliwa and others proclaimed that this situation and the overall degradation of Restaurant Row happened because of police inaction, spurring a feud between the New York Police Department and the Guardian Angels.
Law enforcement was initially critical of the Guardian Angels due to the vigilante-style approach many of the members took. The mayor’s office launched an investigation into the organization’s operations, and found a mostly positive response to the group.
The popularity of the organization spurred Sliwa towards “endless expansion” to other cities and countries, according to Kuby. The Guardian Angels also offered Sliwa a voice in local politics, which ultimately turned into a career in radio, starting with his first broadcast in 1990.
Sliwa’s rise was not without missteps. In 1992, Sliwa admitted that he had concocted six fake crimes to gain publicity for the Guardian Angels, including several fake subway rescues and a claim that he had been kidnapped by two off-duty transit cops.
Sliwa’s desire to draw in a radio audience also often trumped the need to be accurate in his storytelling, according to Morano. “He views himself as an entertainer,” said Morano. “The stories that he tells on the radio are not necessarily tethered to the truth.”
However unbothered Sliwa was in embellishing his radio broadcasts, his past lies affected his credibility. After being shot in 2005, Sliwa blamed John Gotti of the Gambino crime family for the attack because he had disparaged the group in the media. The attorney for Gotti, Jeff Lichtman, attempted to sow seeds of doubt in Sliwa’s testimony by referencing his past hoaxes, alluding to the jury that perhaps Sliwa’s testimony was meant to serve his own interests. Sliwa’s account of the shooting was contradictory as well, as his testimony of the events in court did not exactly match the statement he had previously made to the police.
Although Sliwa’s account of the shooting was suspicious, the shots in his body were real. “I’ve seen the entry and exit wounds,” Kuby said.
“How many people do you know, in your life, who have been beaten with a baseball bat, stabbed and shot?” asked Melotti. Physical hazards never stopped Sliwa from putting his body on the line. In the face of danger, “he goes back to the streets,” said Melotti.
Though Sliwa has been involved in many fights, few compared to the battlefield of politics, where Sliwa first became involved via the Reform Party and later as the Republican candidate for New York City mayor.
In 2014, the Reform Party was created by disenchanted Democrats and Republicans who opposed the educational mandate of Common Core. Initially run by gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, Sliwa and Morano came into power after Astorino’s team failed to run anybody for the State Committee. After Sliwa was elected as chairman of the party, Astorino’s team sued Morano and Sliwa, alleging that they had followed improper protocol and conducted a hostile takeover. This accusation was ultimately not held up in court, so Morano and Sliwa were able to run the party until 2016.
Sliwa’s political aspirations came to a head during his 2021 mayoral run as the Republican nominee against Eric Adams. Sliwa ran on a platform emphasizing public safety and only took individual donations to run his campaign.
“For Curtis to receive 20% of the vote in New York City is kind of remarkable…because he’s the opposite of the machine,” said Takooshian.
During the campaign, many likened Sliwa to Trump, given his larger-than-life persona and knack for embellishing the truth.
“I think he has a tendency in Republican circles to maybe emphasize the areas of his political belief system that are a little bit more right leaning. And maybe downplay some of his beliefs that are a little bit more left leaning,” said Morano.
Even as the Guardian Angels finances have gone hidden from public view, Sliwa has never seemed motivated by money. Since the group’s inception, Sliwa never took compensation as chairman, according to previous filings. Furthermore, a 2013 lawsuit revealed that he had no savings or funds to pay off his debts or child support given his fluctuating radio salary.
Sliwa’s relationships have also taken a toll over the course of his career. Three divorces, a scandalous affair with the Queens County District Attorney, and a tense, child support battle with his ex-wife have all muddled his personal life. But one thing his former partners can all agree on, according to Morano, is that Sliwa always put New York first.
Sliwa’s unwavering, personal conviction is that he is “always fighting for the people of New York City” as he stated in a recent tweet. And despite his misdeeds and failures, he has continued to champion for his beliefs with the same fervor at the age of 69 as he did at 25.
Furthermore, the Guardian Angels, though still very much Sliwa’s organization, are still working to support the local community despite the financial and social setbacks. “The most important thing, for me, is the children,” said Torres.
In combination with his public desire to create a better and safer city, perhaps Sliwa is also just looking to leave a legacy.
“Curtis has faced public events that would have just crushed other people,” said Kuby. “He’s an authentically tough guy, and that physical courage is matched by an incredible emotional resilience.”
However, Kuby noted that these positive traits have been so washed away by the character Sliwa plays that it’s hard to see who the real person is underneath the bravado. “It’s actually gotten kind of sad because people do pay attention to him, but nobody takes him seriously.”
On the other hand, Morano offers a different perspective. “I think if we had more New Yorkers like that, you know, New York would be in a better place.”
