Global Ministries Boston

Guardian Angels

Local Coverage Guardian Angels fly out of Hub By Jessica Van Sack / The BeatMonday, October 13, 2008 -
Updated 12d 9h ago+ Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email + BioGeneral Assignment ReporterJessica Van Sack is the Herald’s Boston police bureau chief covering crime and justice. She works out of City Hall where you can send tips to jvansack@bostonherald.com.E-mail Printable (24) Comments Text size Share (0) Rate
Eighteen months after the street-patrolling Guardian Angels landed in the Hub – with a lot of hoopla and controversy – it’s hard to find a local resident, city official or a cop who’s seen the red berets pounding the pavement lately.As chapter leader David “Ranger” Liles tells it, it’s not that they’ve halted their efforts, but that only a handful are left to carry them out.On Saturday night, Liles said, about five loyal activists, police radios in hand, canvass the most gang-ridden public housing projects citywide. They pay their own T fares and gas. There’s no money in the chapter bank account – not even enough to register a car donated to them last year.Many have shifted their focus to a nascent Brockton chapter. And though the small band of do-gooders boast one recent success – helping cops locate a thief at Back Bay Station – the deed went unrecognized.“A lot of people got discouraged,” Liles said. “We’d try to do something, and every time, things just got thrown in our way. But we didn’t give up on the community.”So it’s hard to square his take on the Angels with the group’s founder, Curtis Sliwa. As Sliwa takes to the mic for a new radio gig on the Hub’s WTKK, he claims an army of footsoldiers on patrol.“I was just with them last weekend,” Sliwa said. “And I had an opportunity to see what they were doing on the MBTA in Dorchester, and they were at the (Downtown) Crossing where there had just been that stabbing. There were about a dozen Guardian Angels on Saturday night.”Maybe they were there to see Sliwa.Pastor Bruce Wall took a lot of heat for his decision to back the group’s Boston effort and provide his church, Global Ministries in Codman Square, as a home base. These days, it’s tough for Wall to remember the last time he saw the Angels in his neighborhood.“The Guardian Angels will never survive in Boston if they’re not embraced by Boston,” he said.By that he means the mayor and police commissioner, who had but one icy meeting with Sliwa.Still, Wall believes the fireband group of anti-crime activists arrived at the right time.“It caused so much tension in the black community, and we were embarrassed that it took a group coming in to make us realize we weren’t doing our jobs,” Wall said.“I got a call about a week ago from a member who’s trying to get it up and running again,” Wall said. “I said, ‘We still need you. But don’t worry about me. I’m still here.’ ”