The Last Detail
April 04, 2025 at 03:14AMThe Guardian Angels may feel like a relic of a bygone New York City—the days when subway cars labored beneath multiple layers of both graffiti and muggers—but they’re alive and mostly well on the Gotham streets. For Harper‘s, Kent Russell brings his gimlet eye and barbed pen to the proceedings. Participatory journalism of the most entertaining kind.
Waiting for me outside the station were K.C., Jeff, and a fellow named Josh, the erstwhile leader of the Upper West Side patrol. Josh was about five foot seven and bore a striking resemblance to the man himself, Curtis Sliwa. The first thing I learned about Josh was that he’s a toucher. Every word he spoke came accompanied by a squeeze of the shoulder or a tap to the chest. The second thing I learned about Josh was that he had handed the reins of the patrol to Juli some months prior because, as he put it, he “had some personal issues going on.” I won’t speculate as to what those were, and I don’t intend to tell tales out of school, but on this patrol, Josh had a hint of the sour mash on his breath. I couldn’t fault the guy. I would have liked three fingers of Dutch courage myself.
K.C. gave me a beret to keep. The tag on the inside read berets.com, and it was at least two sizes too small for me. I was also given my own sateen jacket, as red and lustrous as a dog’s erection. It did well to insulate me against the evening chill.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/04/03/the-last-detail/
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