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Fox News host Sean Hannity was interviewing the head of a volunteer safety patrol group Tuesday night when the interview took a bizarre turn: Members of the patrol group started manhandling a person they accused of being a migrant shoplifter causing trouble in Times Square.
But the head of the group told The Washington Post on Thursday that the man is not a migrant and has not been charged with shoplifting. He said he was wrong to have repeated what he overheard to millions of television viewers.
“I shouldn’t have been listening to the crowd,” said Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels Community Safety Patrol. “That was my mistake. … I should not have had that knee-jerk reaction.”
Some people online viewed this as another example of vigilante activity from the Angels, who maintain they did the right thing.
The facts
- An influx of migrants into New York began in spring 2022 and has divided people in the city, prompting hateful talk online.
- This came about a week after surveillance footage captured a group of migrants brawling with police in Times Square.
- Hannity was interviewing Sliwa about New York’s pilot program to provide migrants with preloaded debit cards for food and baby supplies, which they both criticized.
- The situation took place at West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, in the heart of Times Square, at about 9:30 p.m.
- Sliwa said the crowd probably thought the man was a migrant because he was speaking Spanish. (The Guardian Angels’ website, incidentally, has a function to translate the site into Spanish.)
- The man the Angels roughed up is not a migrant and actually lives in the Bronx, according to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
- The Associated Press reported that the man was issued a disorderly conduct summons for allegedly acting in a loud and threatening manner on the sidewalk.
- The New York Police Department told The Post on Thursday that the situation remained under investigation but did not respond to a request for comment, including whether any of the Angels were charged with a crime for extrajudicially detaining another American.
What happened on air
Sliwa, who ran unsuccessfully in 2021 as the Republican candidate against New York Mayor Eric Adams, was on television criticizing Adams and the migrant debit-card program.
“I’m his No. 1 hater,” Sliwa said of Adams. “Join the Curtis Sliwa Haters Club of Eric Adams, who is single-handedly destroying this city by giving them everything.”
About then, the eyes of the Angels flanking Sliwa began to dart to their right. A couple of seconds later, they left his side and headed toward a commotion. Soon after, Sliwa declared to Hannity: “Our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner of 42nd and Seventh while all this is taking place.”
Hannity then asked Sliwa to tell the cameraman to turn around so Hannity, and America, could see. Sliwa lifted his hands and said: “They’ve taken over!” Behind him, people and taxis calmly milled about Times Square.
The cameraman turned to show the Angels with their hands on a person they had corralled.
“He is out of control,” Sliwa said. “Out of control.”
Criticism
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine admonished Sliwa, writing: “This kind of vigilantism is the predictable result of the Republicans’ relentless vilification of the migrants. It is wrong. It doesn’t make anyone safer. It needs to stop.”
Brad Lander, the comptroller for New York City, weighed in: “What’s ‘out of control’ is Fox News & Curtis Sliwa fomenting vigilante violence with hateful rhetoric.”
In analysis for The Washington Post, Philip Bump writes: Fox News was there to have the right-wing leader of a vigilante organization opine on the dangers posed to the city by crime and immigrants to host Sean Hannity. That Hannity has long been close to Trump, the guy perhaps most invested in promoting the link between crime and immigration, may not be a coincidence.
Who are the Guardian Angels?
The nonprofit group had its heyday in 1980s New York City, patrolling the streets to curb violence and drug activity. Its members wear a signature red beret and often dress in paramilitary garb. The group has been criticized for targeting people of color.
Sliwa said the group now operates in 13 countries and throughout the United States, including a chapter in Washington, D.C., whose members ride Metro looking for people doing something they deem wrong.
Sliwa said he was happy with the job his Angels did containing the man he wrongfully claimed was a shoplifter.
“These things happen, they happen with the police all the time,” Sliwa told The Post.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Curtis Sliwa was a former police officer. He is not. The article also misspelled Sliwa as Sliwa in several instances. The article has been corrected.