The Guardian Angels began their first “official” patrol in downtown Riverhead today.
Two members of the group began walking around the area of the train station beginning at about 2 this afternoon. They will be joined by two volunteers from Greenport for an evening patrol, patrol leader and recruitment captain Benjamin Garcia said.
The pair — clad in their classic red jackets and berets — turned plenty of heads on the street. People at the train station and along Railroad Avenue greeted the Angels with wide eyes and either wary stares or handshakes and grins.
Garcia had a thick stack of small flyers in his hand, which he distributed to anyone who approached.
“That’s my cell number. If you need me, just call,” Garcia told one shopkeeper who expressed frustration with the people who hang out in front of his Railroad Avenue store.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for being here,” a customer told Garcia, shaking his hand.
Riverhead School District security chief Donald Henderson pulled up outside the train station. He said he’d heard from students that the Guardian Angels were there and he wanted to make sure it was really them — and not someone up to no good posing as a Guardian Angel.
“You just never know,” Henderson said.
Garcia explained the Angels’ tactics as he and his partner walked east along Railroad Avenue. “We’re a presence. We’re very visible. If we see something going on, we call the police and we take video of the whole thing,” he said.
Garcia said he’d called the Riverhead Police to let them know he’d be patrolling this afternoon. Right after the pair turned south on Griffing, a Riverhead patrol car arrived and Police Officer Kaley Castantine approached and greeted them.
“We just want to connect and say hello,” she told Garcia, shaking his hand.
Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter has embraced the presence of the group patrolling in Riverhead. He believes they will provide a bridge to the Hispanic community here and help the police better protect them. He has expressed concern over the number of times Latino men have been victims of violent crime downtown, in the area of the railroad station and along the train tracks in particular. He has said he also hopes the Guardian Angels will help prevent Latino men from turning to gangs for protection.
Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller, somewhat reluctantly at first, has also embraced the patrols, saying the Angels will provide extra eyes and ears for law enforcement.
The Riverhead police union objected to the patrols.
“I don’t think we need it,” PBA president Det. Dixon Palmer told RiverheadLOCAL last month. “I think our officers are doing a great job downtown. I think it’s safe downtown and I don’t see where the Guardian Angels are going to make that much of a difference,” Palmer said.
PBA officers, the chief and supervisor later sat down with Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa and Garcia to discuss patrols.
“I thought it was a very productive meeting,” Walter said.
Palmer said the police force agreed “to try it.” He said the supervisor asked that the town police “be open to their coming in and I agreed.” One concern police have, he said, is the possibility of the Angels themselves becoming targets.
Town Board members, who had not said anything about the plan, began voicing opposition last month as well, expressing worries that the Guardian Angels would contribute to a “perception problem” that already negatively affects the downtown area — unfairly, they say.
Those sentiments were echoed by the Riverhead Business Improvement District Management Association, which on May 20 voted to publicly oppose the Guardian Angels patrolling downtown Riverhead.
Walter said he brought Sliwa and Garcia to meet with BIDMA president Ray Pickersgill after the PBA meeting, hoping a personal introduction would help the business organization president to better understand the intention of the patrols and how they’d work.
“The town doesn’t have any official role in this,” Walter said. “It’s like a neighborhood watch. I think it can only help.”
Garcia asked anyone interested in volunteering to join the Guardian Angels’ Riverhead chapter should call 347-942-2886.
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