Skartados advances proposal for Poughkeepsie anti-gun violence program

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POUGHKEEPSIE – State Assemblyman Frank Skartados (D, Milton) hopes to have $300,000 in the war against gun violence in Poughkeepsie placed in the Assembly Democrats’ budget proposal.
S.N.U.G., which is the word “GUNS” spelled backwards, is a community initiative aimed at stopping shootings in neighborhoods that disproportionately experience gun violence.
As a retired police officer, Mayor Robert Rolison wholeheartedly supports the program.
“What S.N.U.G. does is put specially trained individuals into the neighborhoods where these shootings have occurred,” Rolison said.  “We call them violence interrupters or violence interveners to try to stop the retaliation shootings which are far too common. We have been seeing that in the city with recent shootings.”
With the same program, Albany shootings decreased by 29 percent over an eight-month period. In Yonkers, shootings dropped by 39 percent overall and by 80 percent in areas targeted by the program. A similar program recently began in the City of Newburgh. 




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