Guardian Angels

Urging residents to get involved, to show solidarity as a community and help police prevent crime by being their eyes and ears, a Guardian Angels leader, spoke last night before more than 500 people at St. John the Evangelist’s Spanish Mass.

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa responds to comments by Sister Margaret Smith last week about the group's lack of visibility in Riverhead.

Guardian Angels patrolling in the area of the Riverhead railroad station and courthouses Wednesday afternoon turned heads on the streets. They were greeted enthusiastically by some and warily by others along Railroad Avenue, where another violent mugging occurred early Sunday morning.

The Riverhead BID board is taking a public stance against Guardian Angel patrols, saying they will tarnish Riverhead's image, but owners in the area surrounding the railroad station — where Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa says the group will target — believe their presence will deter crime.

Retired Riverhead Police Det. Tim Hubbard speaks his mind on what's needed to tackle public safety issues downtown: better deployment of cops, stepped-up code enforcement and holding absentee landlords accountable — not the Guardian Angels. (Opinion column.)

John Mantzopoulos, who was a member of the group in the mid-1980s in NYC, says he doesn't believe the Guardian Angels are needed in Riverhead, where the Latino gang problem is not as much of a problem as some think.

Riverhead officials and the presidents of the town police union and BID say the Guardian Angels are not needed here and will just contribute to an already negative perception of downtown Riverhead.

After a meeting with Riverhead brass at PD headquarters yesterday and a tour of the town with a police lieutenant, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa says his group will begin local recruiting and patrols in Riverhead before the end of this month.

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter both say the group, which has established successful patrols in Greenport, will begin Riverhead patrols by month’s end.

Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter says some local officials on the East End have their heads in the sand and need to 'wake up and smell the coffee' on the gang issue. The Guardian Angels, 'like community watch on steroids' can provide valuable inroads for communication with Hispanic population, he says.