War On MS-13: Cuomo Announces $7.5M To Fight Back On Long Island

LONG ISLAND, NY — New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is standing strong in his effort to stem the deadly tide of MS-13 gang violence on Long Island.

On Monday, Cuomo announced $7.5 million in new initiatives to help communities combat and counteract MS-13.

The funding, he said in a release, will support a comprehensive, multi-agency campaign to reduce gang violence, divert at-risk youth away from gang life, and support community organizations that work directly with local populations.

"With these investments, New York is sending a message loud and clear that gang activity has no place in our communities," Cuomo said."By taking a holistic approach to the task of combatting gangs on Long Island, we can help protect our neighborhoods and provide opportunities to at-risk youth that will break the cycle of gang violence once and for all."

Including in the funding will be $3 million to bolster youth job training and divert at-risk youth; the New York State Department of Labor is issuing a $3 million request for proposals to help connect young men and women on Long Island to job training and career opportunities. The funding will be available to local organizations that focus on work readiness training and employment for those at risk of falling into the trap of joining gangs like MS-13.

In addition, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services is making $2.25 million available over five years for non-profit agencies on Long Island to implement the Community Credible Messengers Initiative. Through the initiative, the Office of Community Partnerships and its regional voluntary agency partners will build collaborative, community-based networks to support youth returning to their communities following a juvenile justice placement, Cuomo said.

The goal is to prevent young people from returning to activities that caused them to be arrested, including involvement with gangs, and reduce recidivism.

Funding will be dedicated to vocational and employment opportunities for the youth.

Through the Empire State After-School Program, $2 million will be utilized specifically for not-for-profit, community-based organizations, as well as select Long Island school districts that serve high-need or at-risk youth, or have high rates of homelessness; the funds are expected to create 1,250 new after-school program slots for children in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Cuomo said.

An additional $250,000 in funding will be made available through the state's Summer Youth Employment Program to support Long Island communities in creating summer jobs for youth from low-income families.

Finally, Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre has been selected as the awardee of a $3 million investment previously announced by Cuomo to develop comprehensive support services for youth at risk of falling prey to MS-13 gang recruitment. The case management service will target vulnerable young people — particularly new immigrant children — by providing medical and mental health support, addiction treatment, trauma and family counseling, language training, and other community support services, Cuomo said.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone applauded the efforts: "Our collaborative efforts with our state partners will help ensure that we have a multi-pronged approach to combat MS-13 and deter their ability to recruit."

In April, Cuomo took great strides to stem insidious gang activity, announcing $18.5 million in the 2019 budget to thwart MS-13 recruitment and support comprehensive youth programs to offer young people alternatives.

"New York will not tolerate the monstrous acts and fear that MS-13 has brought to our communities, and by focusing on educating and protecting our young residents, we are furthering our efforts to drive out these violent criminals," Cuomo said.

Gang recruitment is an escalating concern on Long Island: Also in April, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini announced the trial conviction of an MS-13 gang member who used the threat of brutal violence to attempt to recruit new members for the gang.

Of the funding, $16 million is aimed at supporting the expansion of after-school programs, case management services and job opportunities for vulnerable youth, as well as community and local law enforcement initiatives to prevent gang involvement, Cuomo said.

In addition, $2.5 million will also support the Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative and SNUG street outreach on Long Island, which provide law enforcement agencies and community-based organizations with resources to help combat gun and gang violence using proven, evidence-based strategies, he said.

"The launch of this comprehensive plan invests in critical programming to help stomp out gang recruitment, engage young men and women during and after school, and help protect New Yorkers from being victimized, as we work to eliminate MS-13's presence in this state for good," Cuomo said.

In his remarks, Cuomo added, "A full solution says, 'Let's stop the young people from getting caught in the gang pipeline to begin with, rather than just treating them as criminals once the gang takes over.'"

He referenced the 120,000 children, unaccompanied minors, who came to the United States seeking asylum. "They fled from Central America, 8,600 came to Long Island, many of them unaccompanied, no support services, no language, no help and they were easy prey for the gangs. You have no family, you have no job, you have no alternative, and now the gang spots them at a very young age and literally attacks them and recruits them. We have to attack that end of the problem also. We have to stop the recruitment pipeline."

Cuomo added: "Many of these children are prey. Stop the wolves from attacking the prey. Protect the prey. . . Understand that these are young, vulnerable people and they need help. Let's get them the help and support they need so they don't fall victim to the gangs in the first place."

The 2019 state budget includes $2 million to expand the Empire State After School Program schools and nonprofit organizations located in at-risk areas on Long Island, with an eye toward offering kids alternatives including sports, music, art, and other educational programming during after school hours and help deter potential gang activity or involvement.

In addition, Cuomo said, the New York Youth Jobs program will dedicate up to $5 million to provide job and training opportunities to young people who are most at-risk of being potentially recruited into gangs. The program, Cuomo said, will help provide employment and vocational training positions and provide tax incentives to companies that hire unemployed, out-of-school youth between the ages of 16 and 24.

"This engagement will help provide a pathway for young people who may be pressured into crime because of their financial disadvantage," Cuomo said.

And, over the next three years, $2 million will be invested to support local education programs focused on early intervention and violence prevention that target middle and high school students, to provide counseling, group programming, and other social services to help them avoid gang recruitment, peer pressure, violence, and delinquent behavior.

Law enforcement agencies working with schools and community-based organizations on gang prevention education to help both in-school and out-of-school youth will be able to share $500,000 of the investment, Cuomo said.

The budget also allows for the deployment of a State Police Community Assistance Team to Long Island, which will identify and respond to gang activity in "hot spots."

The 11-person team will include six troopers, three investigators, one senior investigator, and one supervisor designated to partner with local law enforcement and community-based agencies to support their efforts to curtail gang-related crime, Cuomo said.

The budget will also support the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' Gun Involved Violence Elimination Initiative, which is a nationally-recognized approach to reduce violence using evidence-based strategies — and DCJS SNUG programs on Long Island. The programs, located in Hempstead and Wyandanch, provide community-based organizations, in partnership with local law enforcement, resources to conduct street outreach and steer young people away from violence.

Cuomo's efforts to eradicate gang violence on Long Island have been extensive: In April, 2017, he directed state police to deploy resources on Long Island to help combat MS-13, including 25 troopers to conduct high visibility patrols in Brentwood and Central Islip, as well as undercover operations specifically targeting and saturating neighborhoods known to have high levels of gang activity. State police also provided six new investigators to the FBI-led Long Island Gang Task Force.

Most recently, Cuomo announced the deployment of a new gang violence prevention unit, consisting of 10 state troopers.

"As crime in Suffolk County continues to decline and remains at historic lows, we are committed to eradicating MS-13 through a comprehensive approach by focusing not just on law enforcement but also stopping the recruitment pipeline," Bellone said.

Related MS-13 coverage on Patch

• MS-13: An Inside Look At The Brutal Gang And Its Insidious Spread On Long Island
• Crackdown Nets 39 MS-13 Arrests In 30 Days
• AG Jeff Sessions Warns Deadly MS-13: 'We Are Targeting You'
• 3 MS-13 Gang Members Reportedly Charged In Brutal Quadruple Homicide In Central Islip
• Feds ID Alleged MS-13 Gang Members Charged In Dozen Long Island Murders
• Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa Offers Plan To Rein In MS-13
• War Against MS-13 Rages On, Police Chief Discusses Concerns
• Watch Live: Suffolk Police Commissioner Tim Sini Testifying Before Congress On Deadly MS-13 Gang
• 'We Are At War:' Dozens Of MS-13 Gang Members Arrested, Indicted

Patch file photo.