Guardian Angels

The Guardian Angels are an anti-crime organization that operate in the United States, Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Japan. The organization was founded in New York City in 1979 by Curtis Sliwa, a McDonald's manager and community activist. It provides several community service programs, including safety and observation patrols, courses in self-defense, and urban beautification. Legal grounds for their actions and patrols are disputed, especially in Europe and Japan; however, no Guardian Angel has ever been convicted nor arrested for a crime in the aforementioned countries.

Safety patrols are the main focal point of the Guardian Angels. Its members, who can be identified by their red berets and jackets, perform numerous patrols within many major cities, to serve as a visual deterrent to crime and to assist the police in reporting suspicious activity. They are also trained in the use of a citizen's arrest. In 1995, the Guardian Angels expanded their role to the Internet through its CyberAngels organization, which provides education about online crime and child pornography.

Guardian Angels worldwide

The Angels have grown massively in the years since their founding as thirteen people in the slums of New York City; they are now a worldwide, multi-national group.

Japan

In Japan, support for the Angels has been growing since their founding in 1996 after a Kobe earthquake. They are the first group to have been recognised as a non-profit by the Japanese government. The chapter has over 250 members and is headed by Keiji Oda. Some citizens were reported to have been skittish of the Angels when they were first formed because of the fact that Japan had a rather low violent crime rate at the time and the negitive perception of "men in uniform" not associated with the government as having ties to organized crime, or the yakuza.

London

In London, the Guardian Angels are a much smaller group, but have been patrolling the tube system and streets since 1989. Members are vetted for criminal records and have to go through a challenging training programme which includes law, Emergency First Aid, verbal negotiation techniques and self defence. In Britain the law requires citizens acting in self-defence to use "reasonable force" which leads to Guardian Angel training to centre around the minimum use of possibile force necessary only to prevent a dangerous situation from escalating. All violent crimes are reported to the police, and intervention leading to citizens´ arrest (legal in Britain for certain crimes)) and or use of minimum force only employed in extreme cases.

Germany

In Germany, the use of force is reserved to official organs like the police. Individuals may resort to force only in case of self-defense. Actions of pre-emptive self-defence against possible crime are discouraged; also, civilians can not perform a citizen's arrest.

External links

• http://www.guardianangels.org – Guardian Angels official website
• http://www.cyberangels.org – CyberAngels official website
• http://www.guardianangels.or.jp – Guardian Angels Japanese chapters