After five Jewish congregants were wounded in a machete attack at a synagogue in Monsey, New York, on Saturday, the city's famed Guardian Angels group announced Sunday that it intended to start patrolling the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn to protect the residents, NBC News reports.
The Guardian Angels are a volunteer group founded in 1979, when violent street crime was rampant in the city. Recognizable by their red jackets and berets, they provide an unarmed protective presence that the group calls a "visual deterrence."
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Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said Saturday that "cops have not been proactive at all" in responding to the rising numbers of anti-Semitic attacks in the city.
Sliwa accused New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio of being "apathetic."
De Blasio's office responded to Sliwa's remarks in a statement that read, "We have no tolerance for anti-Semitism in New York City. The best police department in the world has increased deployment in Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Williamsburg," the statement continued.
