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The red berets
Guardians watch over Mount Pleasant
(Published June 28, 2004)

By ROBERT ARKELL
Staff Writer

Red and blue flashers from two squad cars light up the end of the street where Kid and Black linger near the entrance to the large stone building at 1448 Park Road NW.

Both of them wear the trademark red berets, white T-shirts and black fatigues of the Guardian Angels, a citizen crime-fighting group that began in the Bronx in 1979 and now has locations in 20 different countries.

Black is small in height and stature, but makes up for it in the way he carries himself on the street. Kid looks like a linebacker, and reveals a full set of gold teeth whenever he grins. They just broke up a knife fight between two local gang members, and the bandages on their arms cover the places where they were stabbed.

Park Road lies a few streets beyond the Columbia Heights Metro stop. For a long time, the area has had a reputation as a haven for local gangs and crack addicts. On Saturday nights, families gather together on the steps leading up to their apartments and children play hopscotch on the sidewalk, while drug dealers look for a fast deal as they whisk across the street on bikes.

MS 13, a gang that originated in El Salvador, is believed to use the Metro stop as a place to recruit high school kids from surrounding neighborhoods. Six months ago, these dealers had all but taken over the crumbling homeless shelter located at 1448, where the Angels are now based.

The Guardian Angels chapter in Northwest Washington began last December when City Councilman Jim Graham asked the Angels to take back the shelter and set up a new headquarters. Local security was struggling to push back the rise of gang activity in the area, and D.C. police did not have the resources to concentrate on specific blocks.

When the Angels moved into 1448 in mid-December, they cleaned out the dealers, renovated the shelter and used the building for a new location in a matter of days.

Even though Kid and Black have been stabbed in the arms, they are still willing to go out on the Saturday night patrol. Both of them are from a Guardian Angels chapter based in Miami, and they’re taking part in a nationwide recruiting mission. They will fly to Ohio in a few days to help set up a new location, but they want to see as much action as they can while they are still in the nation’s capital.

John Ayala, the regional director for the Angels in the District, emerges from headquarters with two other Angels and a new recruit who calls himself Cap.

Ayala is a big man with wide shoulders. He began his career with the Angels when he was a 15-year-old living in a crime-ridden neighborhood on Staten Island. Ayala was responsible for starting the D.C. Guardian Angels program in 1988, and he has traveled across the country to help set up locations in other cities.

The Angels have recruited more than 100 members in the District, Ayala said, and their two major bases in the District are located in Anacostia and Mount Pleasant. Over the years on patrol, Ayala has been stabbed with an ice pick and cut with a switchblade.

For a reporter, it’s an unnerving experience to walk with the Angels on the streets around Mount Pleasant on a Saturday night. Ayala walks in front with Cap and teaches him the basics of being on patrol, while Kid and Black hover on either side of the new recruit. Dino and another Angel bring up the rear. Local dealers jump on their bikes and quietly ride off into alleys. Three gang members try to look tough as they strut behind the patrol. Ayala gives a signal, and the Angels split into two lines to allow the three punks to pass. The Angels stare them down as they walk through the column. These three kids, who looked and talked like they could have taken on the world just a minute ago, are shivering and keeping their heads down. Ayala gives another signal, and the patrol forms back into one line, with the three gang members making a quick break for the other side of the street.

The patrol approaches the Columbia Heights Metro stop, and Ayala starts talking about the odds that the Angels faced when they set up their new location. He remembers when the area was a major recruiting ground for MS 13, which he described as one of the largest and most well-coordinated gangs in the nation. Ayala says that MS 13 is rumored to have 5,000 members in the District alone and can be found in major metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles.

National conferences are held annually among gang leaders. Members have to pay dues, and if they fail to do so, they face getting beaten or shot. The Guardian Angels, who are licensed to carry nothing but a pair of handcuffs and make citizens’ arrests, have chosen to push MS 13 off the streets around Park Road and Mount Pleasant Street.

Winos and beggars continue to stare out into space from their makeshift homes on the sidewalks, regarding the Angels with the same look that they give to everyone else who passes them. A police officer who is striking up a conversation with one of the locals smiles and walks over to the patrol. He jokes with Kid and Black about their new scars and praises Dino for the reputation that he has earned for himself on the street.

Dino is one of the most experienced in the group, and he watches the back while Ayala marches in front.

"I like doing dangerous things like this, but I like doing them safely," Dino says.

The cop chats warmly with Ayala for a few minutes, and then waves them on so they can finish their sweep. According to Ayala, there was a high probability that the police would arrest the Angels when the organization started patrolling the District almost 20 years ago. Now, Ayala says that Metropolitan Police officials invite the Angels to sit in on a weekly crime briefing, which is a special privilege not granted to many who are outside of the police department.

Messages – some beautiful, some vulgar – are scrawled across the walls of deserted buildings. Ayala points to a white void on a wall where the Angels spray painted over an MS 13 gang symbol. One of the Angels gives a signal to the rest of the group and ducks into a back alley. The rest of the patrol watches his back as he checks out the dark stairwell where some local addicts like to smoke crack. But the one thing that sticks out during the patrol is how quiet the streets have become.

"Nothing happens 99 percent of the time that we’re out on patrol," Ayala says. "We consider a patrol to be a success when we don’t run into any trouble. But you have to keep preparing yourself for that 1 percent that’s bound to happen."