NYC vigilante group the Guardian Angels tackled a man they claimed was a shoplifting ‘migrant’ live on Fox while Sean Hannity was interviewing their leader Curtis Sliwa. Turns out he was neither a migrant or a shoplifter.
Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night was interviewing the founder of a New York City-based vigilante group known for its targeting of migrants when a disturbance suddenly broke out behind the live shot.
As the camera panned around at Times Square, a group of men in red jackets were seen physically engaging with a person, eventually tackling the individual to the ground as he struggled and the group attempted to restrain him.
“Well, in fact our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner of 42nd and 7th while all this has taken place,” Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels group and a former GOP mayoral nominee, told Hannity. “They’ve taken over!”
As the disturbing altercation played out on national television, Hannity blasted Democrats “for the surge of Joe Biden’s unvetted illegals in New York. And that could be because the so-called border czar is a little distracted right now,” alluding to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Moments later, after the situation had calmed down, Hannity returned to the scene where the shocking altercation had taken place, asking Sliwa for more information on what had just happened.
“What was happening in front of you while you were on the air with us?” Hannity asked.
“He had been shoplifting first,” Sliwa replied. “The Guardian Angels spotted him, stopped him and he resisted. Let’s just say we gave him a little pain compliance. His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations. He is sucking concrete.”
Here's more on who the man actually was:
The man is not a “migrant” but rather a New Yorker from the Bronx, police said Wednesday afternoon. Though Sliwa claimed the man had been caught shoplifting, police provided no evidence to support the allegation. [...]
According to a New York police department spokesperson, officers arrived to find a man “detained by bystanders” after he allegedly tried to disrupt a live interview. Police said the man had been issued a disorderly conduct summons because he had been acting in a loud and threatening manner on a public sidewalk.
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether any members of the Guardian Angels were under investigation for their role in the altercation.
The incident came after a brawl in Times Square between police and a group of people generated waves of backlash against the city’s asylum seekers. Some advocates for immigrants have blamed local officials and the police department for stoking fears of a “migrant crime wave”, even as the city’s crime rate remains largely unchanged since the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Sliwa said he had believed the man was a migrant because he had been “speaking Spanish” and because other Guardian Angels had encountered him with other Spanish speakers on previous patrols.
“He was put down so he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else,” said Sliwa, who has admitted in the past that he has fabricated stories of criminal behavior to sensationalize the issue of immigration.
Rep. Dan Goldman reacted to the incident on Xitter:
