Fuad does not tell UNC about real “Angels”

SAN JUAN/Barataria MP Dr Fuad Khan has not told the United National Congress’ (UNC) leadership that the real “Guardian Angels” (GA) organisation after which he named his own constituency group, has no authority to do the things he claims they can. So said UNC party Chairman, Wade Mark.

On Friday, Khan said his group will be launched today and will comprise young people between the ages of 15 to 18. The Opposition MP said the group will conduct anti-kidnapping and anti-crime manoeuvres, including surveillance.  He has written Police Commissioner Hilton Guy asking that group members be trained in combat techniques, including the use of firearms. UNC chairman Wade Mark told Newsday yesterday that while the UNC supports this initiative, “we (UNC) are not going to establish any of kind of vigilante groups in our society”. Asked if Khan told the party’s leadership that his group was patterned after one already in existence, how that organisation operated, or if he had sought advice from them, Mark said the San Juan/Barataria MP revealed no such details.

The original GA was founded in South Bronx, New York on February 13, 1979 by Curtis Sliwa, a McDonalds branch manager.  In 1992, there were two assassination attempts on his life and last year, Sliwa was wounded when a gunman ambushed him near his New York home. Since the GA’s inception, four of its members have been killed in street violence. The Angels’ website states: “The GA have no special powers of arrest.  A vigilante is someone who makes the decision over guilt or innocence and administers punishment as well. GAs are not vigilantes. The decision over innocence or guilt can only be made by a court of law, which also has the power to decide the penalty for any crime committed. These decisions cannot be legally made by GAs, or a peace officer, or a police officer.” The website said GAs  have no legal authority to carry weapons or undertake surveillance of suspected criminal activities.