We have an update from an incident we posted in yesterday’s blog, “From the MarKODA Files,” that featured an interview Fox ‘News’ host Sean Hannity had with the founder of the Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa. While Sean interviewed Silwa, his ‘Goon Squad’ attacked a man in Times Square because they identified him as a migrant and at the time of the incident, “he was ‘speaking Spanish.’ Other Guardian Angels had encountered the victim with other Spanish speakers on previous patrols.” The ‘Angeles’ also thought the victim had just shoplifted something from some store; he did not.
“He was put down so he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else,” Sliwa said.
The facts (Something that Escapes the Below Average Fox ‘News’ Viewer):
- An influx of migrants into New York began in spring 2022 and has divided people in the city, prompting hateful talk online.
- This came about a week after surveillance footage captured a group of migrants brawling with police in Times Square.
- Hannity was interviewing Sliwa about New York’s pilot program to provide migrants with preloaded debit cards for food and baby supplies, which they both criticized.
- The situation took place at West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, in the heart of Times Square, at about 9:30 p.m.
- Sliwa said the crowd probably thought the man was a migrant because he was speaking Spanish. (The Guardian Angels’ website, incidentally, has a function to translate the site into Spanish.)
- The man the Angels roughed up is not a migrant and actually lives in the Bronx, according to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
- The Associated Press reported that the man was issued a disorderly conduct summons for allegedly acting in a loud and threatening manner on the sidewalk.
- The New York Police Department told The Post on Thursday that the situation remained under investigation but did not respond to a request for comment, including whether any of the Angels were charged with a crime for extrajudicially detaining another American.
On Thursday, Hannity briefly address the incident that occurred live on his bigly ‘payed jernalist’ talk show:
“Before we go tonight, I want to talk about Curtis Sliwa’s appearance on this show on Tuesday night, when members of the Guardian Angels stopped a man, and the police were called.” Hannity continued, “Now, Curtis said that the man was a migrant and that he was shoplifting. Fox News has since spoken to the NYPD. Apparently, the statements made by Curtis that the man is a migrant is not true. And the man was given a summons for disorderly conduct.” “Today, Curtis Sliwa acknowledged to The Washington Post that the man has not been charged with shoplifting,” Hannity added. “And Curtis said in part, ‘I shouldn’t have been listening to the crowd. That was my mistake. I should not have had that knee-jerk reaction.’” Hannity, who frequently amplifies former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods on his show, then claimed that, “We always want to set the record straight.”
Curtis Sliwa
Murad Awawdeh, the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said on Wednesday that the rhetoric being used by the mayor and others had emboldened a “vigilante” like Mr. Sliwa to take the law into his own hands in ways that threatened all New Yorkers.
“This is what happens when Eric Adams and the Republicans go to extreme lengths to scapegoat immigrants for every problem they have been unable to solve,” Mr. Awawdeh said.
“It needs to stop,” he added.
