Crime Watch

Governor seeking $11.5M for gang prevention

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that he was seeking $11.5 million for more after-school and vocational training programs for young people in “high-risk” communities, to prevent them from joining the notorious El Salvadoran gang MS-13.

The gang is likely responsible for a recent killing spree, with victims murdered in Suffolk and Nassau counties and their bodies buried in wooded areas in the Roosevelt-Baldwin and Freeport-Merrick areas, according to FBI agents, state troopers and Nassau County police.

The Herald has reported extensively on those killings, and in its Nov. 9-15 editorial, “It will take all of us working together to defeat MS-13,” it called on state and local officials to provide more after-school programs to keep young children away from MS-13 and other gangs.


“The trouble is,” the editorial read in part, “at least some school districts, particularly in high-risk areas, are cutting the after-school programs that young people so desperately need. Now, more than ever, kids need art, music and sports so they stay busy and off the streets. Members of MS-13 don’t start out as drug dealers and killers. They begin by committing petty crimes in their local neighborhoods at early ages.”

“MS-13 and the senseless violence it trades in have made New York communities fearful, and [the gang has] recruited too many youth to a dead-end path of violence and crime, and we refuse to let this continue,” Cuomo said. “The key to our comprehensive plan to change that is to target gang activity by attacking the root cause — youth recruitment — through programs and outreach to protect vulnerable students from being preyed on, and stop the scourge of MS-13 once and for all.”

MS-13 is an international criminal gang that emerged in the U.S. in the 1980s, Cuomo said. According to the National Institute of Justice, the vast majority of gang members join between ages 11 and 15.

A study in Fairfax, Va., showed that when the state implemented a strategy focusing on after-school prevention, serious gang activity decreased by 39 percent. Additionally, the governor noted, a study of after-school programs in 12 high-risk California communities found that, among participating youth, vandalism and stealing dropped by two-thirds; violent acts and carrying a concealed weapon fell by more than half; and arrests were cut in half. School discipline, detention, suspensions and expulsions also dropped by a third.

Cuomo is proposing:

•To expand after-school programs in at-risk Long Island communities by investing $2 million to extend the Empire State After School Program to schools and nonprofit organizations, which will be identified by the State Office of Children and Family Services, the Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Division of State Police, county executives and local law enforcement officials.

•To increase job and vocational training opportunities for at-risk young people by creating a special $5 million program within the state’s New York Youth Jobs voucher program to provide individualized job training to young people who are most at risk of being recruited by gangs.

•To provide gang-prevention education programming to at-risk students with a $1.5 million investment over three years in locally run programs targeted at middle and high school students, focusing on early intervention and violence prevention.

•To expand comprehensive support services for at-risk young people, especially immigrant children, because, Cuomo said, MS-13 “is infamous for its efforts targeting vulnerable young people, especially immigrant youth without strong family ties and social support.” The governor proposes investing $3 million over three years to support comprehensive case management for at-risk young people.

•To deploy a Community Assistance Team comprising six state troopers, three investigators, one senior investigator and one supervisor. The team will partner with local law enforcement and use intelligence derived from the Computer Aided Dispatching Program, the New York State Intelligence Center and Regional Crime Analysis Centers to identify and engage gang activity hot spots or respond to departmental and community requests for increased service.

Cuomo also recently announced the deployment of a new Gang Violence Prevention Unit, consisting of 10 state troopers. The unit will work to identify signs of gang activity and coordinate closely with the Suffolk County Police Department on an “Educate the Educators” program to help teachers and faculty members recognize signs of gang involvement and recruitment and provide training to students on the dangers of street gangs.