Greenport Mayor David Nyce said a community meeting held last Tuesday with Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa to discuss gang issues after a brutal attack in Southold was “putting the cart before the horse.”
At Monday’s village board work session, the mayor explained his position. “I’m not going to make my personal feelings for Mr. Sliwa known, because they are neither here nor there. But I feel that the meeting was premature.”
Nyce said he reached out to Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley the day after the gang attack and was happy to hear that he was already in contact with Greenport and Southold School Superintendent David Gamberg, “where I think these discussions should, and did start.”
Several weeks later, he said, “obviously, the community is very much concerned. But my feeling about how this process worked — it’s fine for a consultant to come and have a meeting, but, ultimately, this process is best served if the community gathers to first determine what the problem is. First, the school, the police department, and municipal officials should meet,” he said.
Nyce said he organized a private meeting for Thursday — the meeting will be held at 4 p.m. — with Flatley, Gamberg, and Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell. Out of that, he said, could come a “large public meeting” to discuss what the police department and school officials see as the “way forward.” After that, Nyce said, “Should we need additional help, we’ll call a consultant.”
When asked what he thought of Nyce’s stance, Sliwa responded to Nyce’s comments Monday night: “The mayor should have, instead, earlier tonight praised the efforts of Sister Margret Smyth last Tuesday when she hosted an old-fashioned open community meeting at St. Agnes Church. It provided a great civics lesson for all as a diverse group of men and women came together to try and come up with solutions to what is obviously a growing gang problem. Nobody came with a political ax to grind and potential solutions were proposed. Some local officials chose to partake and others chose to sit it out. People were there who could trace their lineage to the arrival of the first Puritans, while others were new arrivals from Central America.”
He added, “Sister Margaret made sure that everyone knew this would not just end up a feel-good meeting. Followup work would have to take place. This was the basis to the birth of our nation over 300 years ago throughout these parts. People are criticized nowadays for not voting, being apathetic and expecting government to take care of all things from the cradle to the grave. Too many of us don’t believe in the value of self-help. So here residents of Greenport and surrounding communities decided to preemptively get involved — and the mayor calls it premature.”
At last week’s meeting, organized by Sister Margaret, Sliwa said there were questions and many concerns raised by those in attendance. “I understand that tonight’s meeting of village trustees did not permit questions or statements from the general public. The mayor then said there would be a closed door meeting this Thursday of officials and then, and only then, at some date in the future,” a community meeting, “where citizens could participate. Sister Margaret’s meeting was transparent. The officials meetings are clandestine.”
In addition, Sliwa added, ” The mayor says he won’t make his personal feelings about me known. Look, there is no doubt that I like the sound of my own voice. But I can assure the mayor that if he listens to me long enough, he just might learn something. And guess what, Mr. Mayor? This consultant does not leave a bill for services. The taxpayers need not be concerned.”
This week, Sliwa shared hand signals used by both the MS-13 and 18th street gangs and outlined next steps in Southold and Greenport after last week’s meeting.
Sliwa added that he would also then reach out to Southold police to try to organize a meeting and then, ask them to assign a police liaison that the Guardian Angels could communicate with. Next, Sliwa hopes to reach out to the local school boards and meet with local school officials, as well.
Meanwhile, Guardian Angels will commence patrols, focusing on Fridays and Saturdays, Sliwa said. “While patrolling we will recruit and train local residents with an emphasis on getting Latinos and Latinas trained and into the ranks of the Guardian Angels. I will also move to encourage citizens to put together a Guardian Angel support group, to continue to lobby those who continue to remain in denial or who silently work behind the scenes to slow or scuttle our effort.”
After hearing that Nyce thought a local community meeting should have preceded he meeting at St. Agnes, Sliwa said recently, “I would say he’s a dollar short and a day late.” Last week’s meeting, Sliwa said, was “no strings attached. No one is saying you’ve got to do this. It’s free. But to say he’s got to meet with the community first? What’s he been waiting for?”
Sliwa also feels he’s got the knowledge necessary to combat any stemming tide of gang activity. “You cut my veins, and arteries, and I know gangs. He doesn’t. “
Sliwa said he’d be happy to come out and give the mayor a seminar on how the tentacles of gang activity take root in small towns, not only on the North Fork, but across the heartland of the United States. “It’s not stigmatizing this community,” he said. “This is a national problem.”
He told SoutholdLOCAL this week that he believed Riverhead needed to be addressed, also, and is the “epicenter” from which all North Fork gang activity stems.
Two weeks ago, the Guardian Angels came to the North Fork to assess the situation. They canvassed Greeport, spoke to some young people about possible recruitment, and also patrolled South Harbor Road, where the alleged gang attack took place last month.
According to Sliwa, he would like to first approach the school districts, outlining a Guardian Angel anti-gang in-school program that can help educate both students and administrators on the inner workings of how deadly gangs are recruiting new members as young as first and second grade.
“We want to mentor the children and steer them away from the romanticized images of the MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs,” Sliwa said.
Sliwa first collaborated with former Greenport Village Mayor David Kapell in 2005, when he came to Greenport and organized a citizen-based group that helped patrol village streets. The Guardian Angels is a volunteer-based organization made up of citizen volunteers who help protect communities around the world.
On Monday, Nyce added, “The first meeting should have been the one we are anticipating setting up. I understand people want things to happen quickly, but these incidents don’t grow overnight. They grow slowly and we should address them the same way, from within, head-on, and in a slow, methodic way. The people most responsible for taking care of those individuals and kids involved should be the ones leading the charge. And that is already happening. I was very happy to hear that the police department and school were talking for well over a week.”
Nyce said a press release might be issued after Thursday’s meeting.
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said she was unable to make the meeting due to a scheduling conflict, and also, felt “uncomfortable” having all the trustees in the room. “I would like him to come here,” she said, of Sliwa. “If he wants the interest of the village it would have been nice of him to send us invitations. We could have gathered more interested people,” Phillips said.
Deputy Mayor George Hubbard, however, said he’d attended the Guardian Angels meeting, which was held on Veterans Day at St. Agnes in Greeport, and found it “very informative. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but it was interesting. We’ll see what happens.”
One critical point that was touched upon at the meeting, Hubbard said, was that a number of crimes were discussed that he’d had no prior knowledge of, including reports of two stolen cars that Sliwa and Kapell said might have been stolen as part of a gang initiation, since neither was damaged. Hubbard said he’d like to see the Southold police department sending the village board regular updates. Nyce said he’d email Flatley Tuesday and ask for updates.
Next, Trustee Julia Robins spoke, and said that she went and was impressed by what Sliwa said, and that the community was represented by a “diverse” group with concerns. “There’s definitely an interest and a need for members of the community to hear that we are taking this seriously, and that we’re on top of it,” Robins said. “I wanted to be there to get information, and to tell people that I do care about this and want it to be pursued.”
