 “The Chieftain”
Every once in a while, the right Idea is in the right place at the right time. When this happens, the idea has a chance to become real. But only if somebody is willing to take the idea and run with it. And run really hard.
For Andy Cawston, that Idea happened in October 2004, when it became apparent to him that New Zealand was changing. Fast. And he didn’t like the changes he saw: crime appeared to be on the increase, the sorts of crimes that he had seen happening in North America, where he was born. Street crimes. Crimes of violence. Property crimes. And they were happening to people that he knew, too close to home.
New Zealand seemed to be Hell-bent on importing these bad ideas at an alarming rate, and for no good reason that Andy could see. Starting with small-time, punk stuff like tagging, then vandalism, then burglary, then robbery. Then street crime.... everything following a cycle that was all too predictable. Drug labs moving into nearby neighborhoods was the final straw. He was going to phone the mayor, but he made a profound discovery about himself instead: you see, Andy realized he was a part of the problem!
Crime was happening in his community because people like Andy allowed it to happen. The police were doing the best job they could to keep crime down. So was the mayor. So was the Prime Minister. And so were the social agencies in his community. The people who were letting the side down were average citizens. Ordinary people like Andy, expecting everyone else to fix all the problems for him.
Sometimes a North American problem requires a North American solution. And so it was that Andy phoned the legendary Guardian Angels of New York City instead.
This is a New Zealand success story. And like so many New Zealand success stories, this one starts off really small. With an idea.
“The Project”
Strangely, most of “the experts” insisted that crime was actually on the decrease in New Zealand, and that everyone had never been safer, for many decades.
But Andy knew better. Even if “the experts” were right – and Andy didn’t believe that for one moment – it just didn’t matter. If people don’t feel safe, then they aren’t really SAFE. Everybody has the right to feel safe. “The crime rate has been dropping for years? Yeah, right.
It is one thing to find the problem, and a whole ‘nuther ballgame to fix it. The Guardian Angels of New York City would be only too happy to help Andy – except there were no Guardian Angels anywhere near New Zealand to provide his training and to help him set up a Chapter in New Zealand. It had never been done here before.
And there as a training manual to learn – “The Manual” – all five-hundred-and-fifty pages of it. Off by heart. Everything about everything about setting up a Guardian Angels chapter was in the manual, and Andy needed to know all of it.
 And there was a community to convince, and to involve. They had every right to be skeptical: those he could persuade and co-opt would become valuable allies in a support network that he would need to build from-the-ground-up. The news media, too:: they could either help make the idea fly, or they could kill it stone dead. Their job was to tell the story: if it was going to be a good story, a lot of hard wor k would need to be done. Nothing could be left to chance. Everything needed to be planned and executed exactly like a large-scale sales campaign: the sort of thing that Andy, as a salesman, did every day for a living.
The Guardian Angels of New York City couldn’t help out in person, but Curtis Sliwa did the next best thing by assigning two of their most experienced Guardian Angels to help Andy get the job done. Ed “Shish-Kebob” Park of Reno NV and Michael “Kiwi” McDaniel of Portland OR invested hundreds of hours of their own personal time, each, on The Project – Andy’s Project – to help out strangers in a foreign country that they had never met to live in safer communities free from crime. By January 2006 it was all set to go.
 “The New Zealand Originals”
“Chieftain” launched the first Guardian Angels Chapter in New Zealand’s history, in Henderson, Auckland. Their first Patrol took place on 6 January 2006 and encompassed the business district surrounding Great North Road through to the West Wave Aquatic Center.
Three new recruits attended this first patrol with “Chieftain”: Simon “BatBob” Jones, Jonathan “Alex” Otia and Sei “Ace” Apia. They were joined by Councilor Assid Corban as a gesture of support from a local elected representative.
This group of four Guardian Angels – “Chieftain”, “BatBob”, “Alex” and “Ace” – became known as “The New Zealand Originals. And from that moment on, Andy’s Project ceased to be. The “I” and “me” became the “us” and “we”, and we became the New Zealand Guardian Angels – the first in our Nation’s history.
 Convincing people was never going to be easy: The Originals knew that. And there were plenty of detractors. Many of them had good reason to hope that the Guardian Angels failed. But some detractors really ought to have known better. But, while their opposition was disappointing The Originals didn’t let that get in the way. Stopping crime is always the right thing to do. So this makes the courage of those who supported The Originals – in the beginning – even more courageous. Standing beside The Originals in the photo is an elderly Counselor Assid Corban. Once the Mayor of Waitakere City, Councilor Corban’s distinguished service to the community has long been a matter of record. Having his photo taken with The Originals to commemorate their first Patrol took guts. Lending his support and credibility to our young organization wasn’t a politically safe thing to do, yet he chose to do so in a very public, generous way. But it isn’t at all surprising, for those who know Counselor Corban. That’s the kind of man he is.
”The Lads”
Growth, in any organization, is a key to survival: without it the organization will eventually stagnate, then shrink, and then disappear. So it was important for the world’s newest Guardian Angels organization to grow.
After a few false starts, a major milestone was reached when “Chieftain” received an inquiry from the Auckland-based European Martial Arts club, The Argent Lords. Trained in all aspects of defending against bladed weapons attack, the members of this club had expressed a wish to train to become a patrolling Guardian Angels Chapter, en masse.
The club’s leader, Anna Cruse, and members Eamonn Zink, Benjamin Burrowes, Nora Czaykowski, and Louise Kinnell, met with “Chieftain” and “BatBob” at the Britomart Starbucks in the Auckland CBD on 15 September 2006. For the next year The Originals trained this group of Volunteers in Guardian Angels fieldcraft.
 It had always been the intention for the New Zealand Guardian Angels to operate as an egalitarian organization, where every member is equal to all other members – irrespective of the role that they played in the organization. The inclusion of three female members into the group brought certain practical matters to a head: how do we, in word, thought, and practice, include everybody as equals? Nobody was at all keen to adopt Politically-Correct language because in many ways doing so would create and acknowledge differences that the group was keen to ignore.
Tokenism has no place or meaning in the mean streets: indulging in tokenism is a dangerous luxury that the team could illl afford. Equality means precisely that: everybody bleeds red – men, women, abled, disabled, gay, straight, Maori, Pakeha, young, old – everybody. All are equal and all must be treated equally in every practical way. Therefore, a decision was taken to refer to all members of the group – whether male or female – as “Lads.” Doing so reinforces the notion that all Guardian Angels are equal. In language and in deed, we shall not differentiate between any of our members in any way.
Anna joined our group with a serious back injury, and completed much of her training on crutches. She went on to become New Zealand’s first female Guardian Angels Chapter Leader – one of the very few in the world – and the entire group of European Martial Artists that began with her graduated together a year later with no “drop-outs” – an accomplishment that is almost unprecedented.
...To be continued
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