Hub leader rips return of Guardian Angels

Hub leader rips return of Guardian Angels

By Laura Crimaldi | Wednesday, October 13, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage

A Grove Hall community leader yesterday blasted an effort to revive the Hub chapter of the Guardian Angels as the crime-watch group vowed to stick around this time.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” said Jorge Martinez, executive director of ProjectRIGHT.

“You haven’t even spoken to us and you’re coming into our neighborhood to do what? To do what? To have a whole mess of other folks come in to show us how to do it better? No. No. No. We’re national models. We don’t need folks from the outside coming in,” Martinez said.

Since the Angels began quietly patrolling Boston neighborhoods a month ago, they have recruited 
12 Hub residents to undergo the volunteer force’s three-month training program, said James Cardella, chapter leader of the Brockton Guardian Angels.

“We’re here to stay this time,” he said.

The Guardian Angels faced frosty relations with Boston brass when they descended on the Hub in 2007. The group later vanished after one of its members was outed as a Level 2 sex offender.

Emmett Folgert, executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said the Angels have a “better chance” of succeeding by developing a chapter with community recruits.

“I think it’s critical that they proceed step-by-step with the police department and existing community groups,” Folgert said. “It’s hard, but it doesn’t work really well if you don’t.’’

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