‘This Is Not the Wild West’: NY Gov. Condemns Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels After They Rough Up a Man on Fox News

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) appeared on CNN on Thursday to make the case for President Joe Biden and discuss the border crisis that is directly affecting her state. And when she was asked about the on-camera incident in which a Bronx native was roughed up by a group of vigilantes, she had a message: Leave law enforcement to the police.

CNN anchor Phil Mattingly asked Hochul about the Fox News segment from Tuesday in which members of the Guardian Angels, a New York-based vigilante group, were seen roughing up a Latino man on camera. Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa told Fox host Sean Hannity, “Our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner of 42nd and 7th while all this is taking place. They’ve taken over!” He also claimed the man was shoplifting.

But on Wednesday, the NYPD said there was no proof he shoplifted and that he was a Bronx native, not a migrant.

Kochul had a message for Sliwa and the Guardian Angels:

You cannot take the law into your own hands. NYPD, among the finest on this planet, they work hard every single day and we support them. It is their responsibility to take care of this, not individuals. And so I reject the premise that anyone can take the law into their own hands. Then we have chaos. This is not the Wild West. This is New York State.

She acknowledged that there was a “spike” in petty and property crimes, but actions were being taken to curb them:

But yes, there has been a spike in crimes, petty crimes. Now, really proud that homicides, the shootings, the murders are way down, down 28 to 30 percent, even here in New York City, to pre-pandemic numbers. That took a lot of effort. But now we have more property crimes. People are going into stores and sweeping the shelves.

That’s why my budget has over $700 million to fight crime in the state of New York, and we have $40 million being addressed to help our district attorneys and local law enforcement and help have security cameras, you know, tax break for businesses to protect themselves. So I’m not satisfied with where we are right now, but we’re taking this on and we’re going to make sure that we return our streets to New Yorkers and not to the criminals.

Watch the video above via CNN.