The red berets of the Guardian Angels will not be seen in Edgewood unless residents of the community support the organization opening a chapter in southern Harford County.
This was the message conveyed during a meeting Monday night in Edgewood between representatives of the Guardian Angels and residents of the community.
Harford County Council Member Dion Guthrie, D-District A, said if all went well in forming a chapter of the Guardian Angels in Edgewood, red berets could be walking the streets in six months.
“The community must get involved. We will not come into a community if we are not wanted,” said Marcus Dent, coordinator for the Baltimore City Chapter of the Guardian Angels. Dent, along with eight other members of the Guardian Angels, some of whom had came from as far as Washington, D.C., to talk with residents of Edgewood and Joppatowne, said the Guardian Angels do not come into an area, but rather members of a community will become Guardian Angels.
After the community rallies behind the Angels, Dent said the group would send out applications for recruitment and look for a place to stage from, such as a church or a community center. Once the Angels had some recruits from the Edgewood area, they would go through three months of martial arts self-defense and nonviolent resolution training, and then the recruits would participate in some supervised patrols in order to learn how to properly apply their training.
Three residents of the Edgewood area inquired about joining the Guardian Angels after Monday?s meeting, Dent said.
“When we patrol a community, the people start to come out,” Dent said of how the Angels foster neighborhood empowerment. “With more eyes out on the streets … sooner or later the bad guys will go away.”
But Bill Goforth of Hanson Road was not so easily convinced. A member of the Hanson Road Neighborhood Watch Program, Goforth questioned the need for the Guardian Angels.
“It?s up to the neighborhoods to take back their own communities. That?s empowerment. I haven?t heard anyone talk about taking care of their own neighborhoods. They want someone else to do it,” Goforth said.
When asked to address Goforth?s concerns, Guthrie said, “That?s great if it works, but whatever we are doing now, it?s not working.”
