Curtis Sliwa, Guardian Angels Founder, Arrested Outside Gracie Mansion, Police Say

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa was arrested Tuesday morning while blocking Mayor Bill de Blasio's motorcade, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

Sliwa was placed in custody around 8:30 a.m. outside of the mayor's Upper East Side residence — located on East End Avenue near East 88th Street — for "disrupting vehicular flow" in the mansion's driveway, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

The Guardian Angels founder, who is 63 years old, was briefly detained at the 19th NYPD Precinct and issued a summons for disorderly conduct, police told Patch.

A video posted to Sliwa's YouTube channel depicts the Guardian Angels head being placed in handcuffs in the Gracie Mansion driveway.

The video shows a security guard asking Sliwa to leave the driveway by repeating the words "step away" several times. When Sliwa refuses to move, even after the guard begins to physically urge him to, a police officer approaches him and places him in handcuffs.

"See this is what you get," Sliwa says into the camera. "You try to serve papers to the mayor and they lock you up."

The mayor's office responded to Patch's request for comment by taking a dig at Sliwa and citing the city's improving crime numbers.

"Despite Mr. Sliwa’s criminal court summons, crime remains at an all-time low in New York City," City Hall spokesman Austin Finan told Patch.

Sliwa was attempting to serve De Blasio with a lawsuit that would remove the mayor from the Working Families Party line in his bid for reelection, the Daily News reported. Sliwa is currently the chairman of the Reform Party of New York.

Speaking with the Daily News after being released, Sliwa likened himself to protesters at Tienanmen Square who stood in front of tanks.

"I stood in front of the two SUVs — sort of like that picture from Tiananmen Square," Sliwa told the Daily News. "They got all bent out shape."

Photo courtesy Curtis Sliwa