Way to go Curtis!:)
Posted on 09/04/2007 7:36:50 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter
Many of you will know me as DieHard the Hunter. I am a Guardian Angel. And this is a Vanity, with apologies to all of you and to the Moderator: I hope I've done this right! If not, please flame me gently...
Three years ago, I was a private individual, a father of two kids, a husband to a wonderful woman married for thirteen years. I was and am a salesman and about as ordinary as they get. I drive a ten-year-old Chrysler and I pay my taxes regularly and otherwise lived an ordinary life.
My life changed permanently one day, and it can never be the same again. You see, I discovered in a moment, like a bolt-out-of-the-blue, that I am a Citizen and that I have responsibilities to help deliver the outcomes that I expect from the Society that I live in.
New Zealand's TV3 covered a milestone in this walk last night. It is found here: http://www.tv3.co.nz/VideoBrowseAll/NationalVideo/tabid/309/articleID/34002/Default.aspx
Three years ago, I was minding my own business in New Zealand, driving between Client sites and listening to the radio. The news was running, and top of the news was the discovery of a P-Methamphetamine lab -- a huge one -- right across the street from where my wife teaches music part-time. Luckily, the cops busted the lab before it could explode. Had it exploded, it would have taken out the school and possibly killed people in it. Including my wife and kids.
I was badly shaken.
A few days later, the cops busted a P-Methamphetamine lab just down the street from where I live. It, too, was huge. And a bit too close to home. And so I got angry. Really angry: pig-biting mad.
I picked up the phone and was about to call our Mayor, Bob Harvey. Because that is what Citizens tend to do when they get upset.
But I never made the call. Somehow, in midair, I came to a realization. It was an epiphany. The Mayor was doing his best to curb Crime in our community, and so were his Councilors. Our Police were doing their best: they had, after all, busted two labs within a few days. And even our Government was doing its best with my money, and if I wanted them to do better they would surely oblige, by raising my taxes.
The person who wasn't doing their best was me: the average Joe Citizen.
I recalled an interview with Barbara Walters, back in 1983, with a guy named Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angels, and I remembered being impressed by the vision that he had: ordinary Citizens taking responsibility and cleaning up their neighborhoods. So I hopped onto the Web to see if the Guardian Angels organization was still around. And lo! It was!
I made my phone call, but this time to New York City. And thus began the most amazing journey of my life.
Folks, you do not need to tolerate crime in your community. Crime is entirely optional. The criminals took over bit by bit, piece by piece, because we let them. We listened to the siren's call of "don't get involved". We listened to the advice of the experts to "call 911 and let the police handle things. Don't get involved or you could get hurt." And in this process our give-a-dam'n got busted.
Your neighborhoods can be taken back incrementally, too: bit by bit, piece by piece.
I am not Bruce Lee, and I am not Chuck Norris. I am an ordinary guy, fat and overweight (in the video, I'm the fat guy in the khaki BDUs). About as average a Citizen as we can get. But my journey with the Guardian Angels has been a life-transforming event.
The day came for me to launch my Chapter, having taken my training by e-mail and correspondence: it is a long swim from NYC to Auckland and so there was nobody who could easily train me -- I had to do it on my own -- and many a midnite hour was spent reading The Manual.
At last I was ready to go.
My press release was loaded into the fax machine, with all the media outlets programmed in. And my hand couldn't quite press the green "GO" button: it was an irreversable step. From that day forward, my life would change permanently if I hit the "Go" button. I was about to become the New Zealand National Spokesman for an organization formed in the Bronx in 1979...
...and then I remembered what had happened that day. I had been in Taupo on business, about a hundred miles away from my family. My wife and two kids had been driving thru Henderson to do some shopping. And a nut, probably strung out on P-Methamphetamine, had gone into my friend's sporting goods store, carved up my friend giving him serious injuries, and run outside and stabbed an old-age pensioner to death. Right in front of my wife and kids while she sat waiting for the traffic lites in her little van. The cops had attended, and one officer had shot this crook several times with a Glock. And he still kept coming. Finally, a heroic parking warden crash-tackled the guy to the ground...
...all of this in front of my wife, who was talking to me on the cellphone, terrified, giving me a blow-by-blow account of what was going on.
I had never felt so helpless in all my life!
And so, naturally, I closed my eyes and hit the "Go" button on the fax machine. Never again would I be powerless against criminals. Never again would I want to feel like I did that day, in Taupo, on the end of a phone desperately wanting to be able to do *something* and being physically unable to do anything.
Two years on from our launch, and we are opening our second Chapter. The Lads have stopped two knifings, two riots, one kidnapping, multiple domestic disputes, and multiple drug deals. We have resussitated multiple street people and prevented two beatings. We have cleaned up our neighborhood.
The first time you save someone's life, it is addictive. Better than any drug, better than any opiate.
And we have only used force once.
Folks, you do not need to tolerate crime in your neighborhood. Get involved!
*DieHard*
Wow....your story is inspiring....it takes one person with an idea and the guts to run with it.....Good on ya mate !!!!
thank you for sharing your story
Good on ya’, Mate.
We need to bring it home, all ‘round the world, if we expect to enjoy civilization once again.
You aint that fat.
Nothing wrong with them at all, but a well-armed citizen who looks and dresses just like anyone else is about as effective a weapon against crime that you'll ever find!
Yay for you! God bless and protect you ... keep up the good work!
You made the right choice.
ping
Bravo
Bully.. Meth as a drug is worse than crack.. as hard as that is to believe.. The stuff eats the brain up even worse than crack does.. Hopefully if your Org. spreads into small towns also Meth addiction can be slowed down..
BUMP TO THE TOP!!!! Excellent, DHTH!!!
The Angels came to Dallas for a bit but they didn’t last. A morning Radio show host summed it up the best:
“Don’t they know this is Texas? Everyone has a gun here, and they’re only armed with Radios? I’ll tell you what folks, a lot of Guardian Angel radios are going to be showing up in pawn shops, bet on it.”
True enough, here we are two years out and the TX GA chapter is folded up and sent back to New York.
Thank you, DieHard the Hunter and the others who have decided to act, you are good citizens.
> Nothing wrong with them at all, but a well-armed citizen who looks and dresses just like anyone else is about as effective a weapon against crime that you’ll ever find!
The problem is, here in NZ we do not have a Second Amendment. And our “Use of Force” provisions in the Crimes Act 1961 Sections 39-48 are very, very prescriptive as to what we can and cannot do.
You have a rare privilege in the US to arm yourselves, and in many states you have the right to defend your homes with deadly force. It is not that way elsewhere.
Indeed, there is a farmer in NZ currently facing charges for firing *warning shots* at a couple of bad guys who were ripping off his farm. And there is a fisherman who is facing charges for firing his shotgun at a fleeing vehicle carrying scroats who had gone on a robbery rampage in the village he lived in.
Guardian Angels patrol unarmed, on foot. We rely on our people skills to deter crime: combined with some handy and pragmatic martial arts skills, the sort of skills that can win bar fights and street fights, but without causing permanent injury. We train our Volunteers for free in the martial arts, first aid and CPR.
After two years, I am proud that our Auckland Chapters have only had to use force once: I did it. I was on Patrol providing security for a club for returned Veterans. One Vietnam vet had too much to drink, and began a fight. I intervened and broke it up. He decided to punch me in the head, but I caught his fist in mid-air, gave it a hard shove, and told him to never do that again. Or Else. I then frog-marched him off the premesis.
And at the end of Patrol, I went home safely to my Family.
Deterring crime does not require massive violence, and it does not really require guns or armed citizens. An armed citizenry is highly desirable for other reasons. But stopping Bad Guys is very achievable with ordinary folk, patrolling unarmed. I know this as God’s Truth, because I do it.
*DieHard*
Thank you for your example, DieHard!
You truly are an Army of One!!!!
The best to you from my corner of the world, Southern Delaware, USA.
> “Don’t they know this is Texas? Everyone has a gun here, and they’re only armed with Radios? I’ll tell you what folks, a lot of Guardian Angel radios are going to be showing up in pawn shops, bet on it.”
Then sir, this is your fault, not theirs. You, as an average Citizen, had the opportunity to make it work. You didn’t. Good one mate, own-goal. The citizens of Dallas should be ashamed.
My Auckland Lads patrol in places just as dangerous as Dallas. Except most of our criminals are all built like linebackers.
I am saddened to hear from you that the Dallas Chapter didn’t last. If this is so, it is because of Apathy, and not from want of effort.
For shame.
I heartily agree!
> Bully.. Meth as a drug is worse than crack.. as hard as that is to believe.. The stuff eats the brain up even worse than crack does..
Methamphetamine is a really nasty drug. It makes the user hyper-alert and super-strong and ultra-violent. It takes three Angels to control one user. Not funny at all!
Much worse than crack, as you say.
> Hopefully if your Org. spreads into small towns also Meth addiction can be slowed down..
The Guardian Angels will spread to wherever there is a need: big town, small town. The only thing that is required are a few Citizens who want to make a difference. If you want Angels in your town, FReepmail me and I will get the ball rolling. All the way from New Zealand.
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