By Anna Belle Peevey
The Contra Costa Times
OAKLAND - Dressed in trademark red berets and black cargo pants, eight men and women became the newest members of Oakland’s Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime-fighting force, at a Sunday graduation ceremony.
“I’m sick and tired of people taking advantage of the young men and women out there working and making an honest living,” said chapter leader Christina Fernandez to a crowded gym filled with Angels and their supporters. “Now, I don’t fear a thing on the streets.”
Flanked by U.S. and Mexican flags and an oil painting of martial artist Bruce Lee, Fernandez, 39, graduated alongside her 21-year-old son, T.J. Velasco, in Hayward’s U.S. Karate School of the Arts and Boxing Gym.
Fernandez previously worked as a pharmacy technician for almost 20 years before she became California’s only female chapter leader. Also known as “Ajax” on the streets, she joined the Angels early last year during their first visit to Oakland.
Fernandez and her fellow Angels -- with such code names as “Bladerunner” and “Red Robin” -- have been patrolling areas around Lake Merritt and the Grand Lakes neighborhood. After Sunday’s graduation, they will branch out to other areas of Oakland -- especially those that have seen a recent rise in shootings.
Before Guardian Angels become full-fledged crime fighters, according to Fernandez, they must go through a six-month training program. The training involves intensive self-defense workshops, communications training and time spent building partnerships with area law enforcement.
“It really comes down to talking to people,” said Fernandez, who recently patrolled the area from 86th Avenue in East Oakland to 35th Avenue in West Oakland, more than 40 blocks on foot, during late-night hours.
The Angels walk in groups through communities and neighborhoods unarmed, and carry handcuffs in case they decide to make a citizen’s arrest -- something they say anyone can do. “Basically, we are a visual to deter crime,” Fernandez said.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa made an appearance at the gym to present the graduation certificates.
“If people have to live with bars in their windows and locks on their doors, there’s something wrong,” Sliwa told the audience. “We don’t think the police alone should have the responsibility to keep the peace in neighborhoods.”
Sliwa founded the Angels in 1979 after a response to what he says was a rise in crime in New York’s Bronx neighborhoods. The Angels began by patrolling public transportation systems, and since then more than 100 chapters have formed across the U.S. and as far away as Capetown, South Africa, and Rio De Janerio, Brazil.
At times, the Angels have been criticized for being too militaristic and having a vigilante-type approach to community safety.
But Oakland police Capt. Jeffrey Loman doesn’t see it that way. He says he appreciates the Angels’ dedication to creating safe neighborhoods.
“We get the kind of community that we tolerate,” he said. “The Guardian Angels symbolize that it’s unacceptable to (be involved in crime) in our community.”
Henry Linzie, president of West Oakland’s Friends of DeFremery Center, agrees. He said he hires the Angels whenever he has a function at the recreation center that requires security.
“People have a lot of respect for them,” said Linzie, who attended the graduation. “They feel very comfortable and safe with them being there.”
The Oakland graduates were joined Sunday by members from chapters in San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles.
Graduate Gene Hacker, 43, of Oakland said he became an Angel once his daughter Sophia, now 2, was born.
“I wanted her to be able to go out and play and feel safe,” said Hacker, an office manager for an architectural firm. “How could I not do something? I want to be able to make a difference any way I can.”
Copyright 2008 Contra Costa Times