‘The worst crime in history is knowing something is wrong and not doing anything about it.’

With their red berets, red-and-white T-shirts and paramilitary demeanor, the New York City-spawned Guardian Angels arrived in Los Angeles nearly seven years ago amid a cascade of publicity.

The band of mostly young male volunteers, the self-described “extra eyes and ears” for the police, has patrolled crime-ridden streets, on the lookout for criminal activity. They rode violence-plagued RTD buses, announced high-visibility activities in dangerous neighborhoods and invited all who were interested in restoring law and order to join them.

While a reassuring presence for frustrated city dwellers grown weary of their own fears, the Guardian Angels drew critics who viewed them as reckless vigilantes. And police officials tried to discourage them from injecting themselves into potentially explosive situations. The Inglewood police chief, during the 1984 Olympics, said flatly they were unwelcome in his town.

Undaunted, Angels’ leaders said they have always had better rapport with cops on the street than with police brass and have claimed that street cops often alerted them to particularly dangerous situations.

Except for an occasional burst of publicity, such as when five members of the group got arrested a few weeks ago in Century City while protesting the gangs film “Colors,” the Angels do not make headlines much anymore.

Membership is down to fewer than 100, and chapters in Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley are defunct, said Paul Barrera, 28, the Angels’ Southern California coordinator.

But Barrera denied that there has been any significant loss of active members, saying many of the 250 names on the membership roles before a purge last year had long been inactive anyway. The group has consistently had a core of about 100 active

volunteers since the Southern California chapters were founded, he said. There are 60 members in the Los Angeles chapter, 15 in East Los Angeles and 18 in the San Gabriel Valley, he added.

Nor has gang violence or the shooting and serious wounding of two volunteers last July put a damper on the Angels’ campaign.

“Recruits coming in say they aren’t concerned about drive-by shootings,” said Barrera, a Pasadena real estate salesman.

Two of the group’s “major campaigns” last year involved circulating petitions advocating stiff prison terms for anyone convicted of shooting on a freeway and organizing meetings between Silver Lake youths who had been attacking gays and leaders of the AIDS Project Los Angeles.

“After the Angels met with kids who had been bashing gays,” Barrera said, “those kids soon began helping by driving people around and delivering food (to AIDS patients).”

Andrew Weisser, a spokesman for the AIDS Project, said the campaign “worked out beautifully.”

Barrera said his “No. 1 goal is to get a chapter in South-Central Los Angeles made up of people from the area.”

Meanwhile, the Angels continue patrolling, as often as five nights a week, in Hollywood, Venice, Inglewood, downtown and South-Central Los Angeles. They go out in groups ranging from two members to 20, keeping watch for any suspicious activity. Patrolling, Barrera said, is all part of “making a difference.”

“I’m a firm believer that we don’t have to be victims for the rest of our lives,” he said. “The worst crime in history is knowing something is wrong and not doing anything about it.”