By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer

Jason "Jae" Thomas, 25, of Westwood talks with residents of Timber View Apartments (from left) Kaitlin Sill, 9, Alashay Britten, 7, and Simmer Sill, 6, Thursday on McHenry Street in Westwood as Guardian Angels began walking patrols in the area. In the rear are Angels Frank "Gunny" Lee (left) and John "Unique" Ayala. Thomas is the group's first local recruit. The Enquirer/MICHAEL E. KEATING

WESTWOOD - The man stood in the stairwell of an apartment building Thursday morning, drinking beer out of a bottle. The Guardian Angels pointed out that kids in the neighborhood didn't need to see the bottle.

He poured it in a cup.

With that, the internationally known, citizen-volunteer, anti-crime group began its first day on the streets of Cincinnati. Veterans from Angels chapters in Washington, Miami and New York will stay for three months, recruiting locals to start a permanent group first in Westwood, then in Avondale.

The nonprofit Guardian Angels were invited by neighborhood group Westwood Concern, whose members found housing and office space for national members to stay while they look for local recruits. The Guardian Angels have chapters in 27 cities, but have not always been met with open arms. Some chapters have disbanded elsewhere.

Jason "Jae'' Thomas, 25, put on a red beret for the first time Wednesday after Angels recruited him off the streets of Westwood. He said he joined because he wants to be a better example for his 2-year-old daughter. He admitted to a juvenile criminal record and said he was still "contributing to the problem'' as an adult by doing what he called more minor offenses like drinking in public.

Curtis Sliwa, Angels founder, told Thomas he hoped to see him in three months when Sliwa comes back to graduate the volunteers into full-fledged Angels.

Sliwa left Cincinnati on Thursday after several days of doing what he's become very good at - public relations for the group he started 25 years ago when he was a McDonald's manager fed up with crime in the Bronx.

With his New York accent and street-lingo sound bites, he drew clapping and cheers from a group of about 50 at a Wednesday night meeting.

The gathering was held at Children's Hospital Medical Center.

The Angels aren't street commando vigilantes like Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver, he said, out to get "gangbangers'' who sit around on street corners "smokin' splits, slinging drugs and knockin' down 40s,'' he said referring to 40-ounce bottles of beer. But they might "rock and shock'' the good residents of Cincinnati who've become complacent about crime and want to leave instead of fight back to reclaim their streets.

"You've got 14-year-olds out there capping shots at people,'' he said, referring to the teen-ager who has been charged in two killings this year in Over-the-Rhine. "We might be able to snatch up that one young boy'' and help him turn his life around.

And the whole thing costs the city and taxpayers: "jack diddly squat. Zip,'' he said.

Mothers stood up to volunteer their children to become recruits. A social worker wanted to know if the Angels could start a group in Covington. An Over-the-Rhine property owner said he'd start looking for possible office space so the group might teach residents there crime-prevention methods after they recruit in Westwood and Avondale.

But the welcome hasn't been so overwhelming from city officials. Police Chief Tom Streicher said he wouldn't actively oppose the group, but he would prefer to see the community support the already-established Citizens on Patrol groups.

But Sliwa said he's used to not being welcome - since former New York City Mayor Ed Koch labeled him a vigilante more than 20 years ago.

Westwood Concern founder Mary Kuhl said she didn't want to be disrespectful, but she didn't much care what city officials thought. She doesn't have to - the group gets no city funding.

The Angels will walk around Westwood on regular patrols, starting first at the intersection of Harrison and McHenry avenues. If they see crime, they'll act by either calling police or holding suspects down until police arrive. But more often, they end up just talking to young men hanging out and deter crime by their presence. They don't carry weapons, but are trained in martial arts.

In part of New York City's Greenwich Village where drug dealing and shootings were increasing in 2001, the Bleecker Area Merchants' and Residents' Association secretly researched the Angels' work elsewhere. Members had heard of the group's reputation for vigilantism and wanted to act cautiously before asking for the group's help, which they eventually did.

There, Angels sidled up to suspected drug dealers, squelching their activity by standing there, said association co-chairman Charles Wolf.

The Angels got bored and left the neighborhood early last year after the drug-dealing stopped, Wolf said.

But in Rochester, N.Y., a dispute over the racial makeup of the chapter led to the group disbanding in nine months. Sliwa thought the chapter should not be all-white.

In Cincinnati, the Angels went Thursday to Children's to talk with Lakisha Jones, the mother of the 8-year-old boy critically hurt in a fight Sunday outside an Avondale recreation center. Treshawn Jones' condition is improving daily, the mother told the Angels. He's trying to play PlayStation, she said, but he's still a little weak.

They made the visit to show Angels support the families of violence victims, said John "Unique'' Ayala, who joined the group at age 15 and now leads the Washington chapter.

Besides walking the streets, the group's next step will be to start checking out the backgrounds of the more than 30 people who have expressed interest in joining. Sliwa said they group will take some members with criminal records, but none who have a history of sexual assault or weapons violations.

"I think it's wonderful that they're here,'' said Andrea Macke, a 37-year-old mother of five from Elmwood Place who introduced herself to Lee at a McDonald's in Corryville. "They know how to relate to people.''

Email jprendergast@enquirer.com