The 22-year-old man, whose family took him to the United States from Mexico when he was a toddler, claims that a Guardian Angels figure tarnished his reputation by wrongfully accusing him of being a “migrant” and “shoplifter.”
A Bronx man who was physically assaulted by New York City’s “Guardian Angels” after being allegedly mischaracterized as a “migrant” and a “shoplifter” says that he is planning to file a lawsuit against the vigilante organization.
According to NBC News, the incident occurred this past Tuesday, as Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa was participating in a live television interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity—the focus of which was immigrant-related crime in the nation’s most-populous city.
As Sliwa continued to speak, several Guardian Angels members moved off-camera, whereafter they surrounded and restrained 22-year-old Marco Pina.
“In fact, our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here,” Sliwa told Hannity, pointing off-camera to Pina and the Guardian Angels. “On the corner of 42nd and 7th, while all this is taking place.”
“They’ve taken over,” Sliwa said. “They’ve taken over.”
Sliwa then claimed that the incident had started after Pina struck a female Guardian Angel.
“There’s like three guys rumbling with people in the crowd,” he said. “But when they come up to the location of the broadcast as the broadcast is going on […] and then one guy socks a female Guardian Angel.”
“Everyone who is behind me now goes rushing toward the location,” he said, “and they take down the person who hit the Guardian Angel.”
Sliwa said, on-air, that the man was a migrant who had been caught shoplifting, based on information “people in the crowd” had said.
“He had been shoplifting first, the Guardian Angels spotted him, stopped him, he resisted, and let’s just say we gave him a little pain compliance,” Sliwa told Hannity. “His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations.”
Sliwa provided no evidence that Pina was actually from Venezuela, yet went on to rant about the presence of “illegals” in New York City.
“We’ve got to take 42nd Street back, Sean,” he said. “These illegals think they own this street. They think they rule the night. This is our country.”
Although police said that the man detained by Guardian Angels was “disorderly” and had “repeatedly attempted to interfere with and disrupt a live television interview,” the department said nothing to suggest that Pina was, in fact, an undocumented immigrant.
Pina has since issued statements saying that he was born in Mexico, but moved to the United States when he was a toddler—and that he has “never lived anywhere else” outside of New York City.
“I work to support my child, and I’ve never broken the law,” he said. “Now I will tell my story to the D.A., and [I] will seek justice. I’m not afraid anymore.”
Pina’s comments indicate that his family did not have legal authorization to migrate to the United States, though his immigration status is now temporarily protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“It has taken me some time to come forward,” Pina said in a statement. “I’m a nobody in this city. Curtis Sliwa is famous. I was intimidated and scared since I’m only protected by DACA, a temporary permit for immigrants like myself that arrived here as babies.”
Patricia Lynch, a lawyer with Sacco & Fillas representing Pina, said that Sliwa’s alleged mischaracterization of her client has damaged Pina’s quality of life.
“The incident aired live on Sean Hannity, where millions of people watched Mr. Pina being thrown to the ground and put into an illegal chokehold, and for Mr. Pina to have his character and reputation assaulted after this horrific incident was tantamount to pouring salt in his wound,” Lynch said.
Sources
Man beaten by Guardian Angels in Times Square plans to sue vigilante group
New York Man Given ‘Pain Compliance’ By Guardian Angels On TV To Sue
Join the conversation!