I really enjoyed your thorough story, thank you. To add just a bit of information about the Guardian Angels, I personally observed how New Yorkers appreciated them when I moved to Manhattan in 1990. Their presence on subways was always reassuring, especially late at night.

However, as a gay man who frequented Greenwich Village most nights, I soon learned of a somewhat different perspective. For some reason, a series of gay bashings and other attacks surged in the Village in 1990 and '91. My partner and I were attacked ourselves one night toward the end of Christopher Street by the pier.

Two organizations formed in response to the surge of violence: Queer Nation and the Pink Panthers. Queer Nation concentrated primarily on street protests and other political action to encourage the NYPD to do a better job in gay neighborhoods. Mayor Dinkins was supportive.

The Pink Panthers formed as an alternative to the Guardian Angels, doing similar street patrols and showing a presence in Village subway stations late at night. I don't know how true this is, but it was "common knowledge" that members of the Guardian Angels were not interested in protecting gay people from violence, and it was rumored that they sometimes dished out homophobic violence themselves.

Eventually, the spike in gay bashings in the Village died down, and the Pink Panthers disbanded. Some people claim they stopped operating because a movie studio sued them over their name, but friends of mine continued to patrol with them for a while under different names.

When I left New York City in the year 2000 tensions between the gay community and the Guardian Angels seemed to have mostly dissipated.