Andrea Stewart-Cousins / File photo/The Journal News
YONKERS — State lawmakers are seeking more money for a successful anti-gun program credited with curbing violence in the city’s most crime-plagued areas.
State Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, will host a news conference Friday to call for new state funding for Operation SNUG, which could run out of money later this year. The event will be held at Elm and Oak streets, a crime hotspot targeted by SNUG because of its high concentration of shootings in recent years.
Modeled after the Ceasefire Chicago program launched in 2000, SNUG — or “guns” spelled backward — pays ex-gang members to mentor young people who are considered most at risk of being involved in gun violence.
SNUG workers also are on call to defuse conflicts before they turn deadly. For example, after a city man was fatally shot in a southwest Yonkers park Aug. 31, workers rushed to the scene to calm people and prevent any retaliation.
“People know they can step in and be the voice of reason,” said Councilman Christopher Johnson, whose nearby 1st Council District is patrolled by SNUG.
The number of shootings citywide dropped significantly last year, from 21 in 2011 to eight in 2012. There were four homicides in 2012, the fewest in years.
SNUG started out in November 2010 with $250,000 in state funding that ran out a year later. Since then, the program has limped by on periodic infusions of state and city cash.
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