SNUG worker says he was forced to resign under duress

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Yahya Archer (center) with members of SNUG at a 2020 shooting response.

POUGHKEEPSIE – Eric “Yahya” Archer, the senior outreach worker for SNUG in Poughkeepsie, claims he was forced to resign earlier this week.  If he failed to resign, he was going to be terminated by Family Services Inc, the organization that operates SNUG in Poughkeepsie, Archer maintained.

On Thursday, Family Services CEO Brian Doyle told Mid-Hudson News that he could not comment on a personnel matter.

A recorded conversation between Doyle and Archer was obtained by Mid-Hudson News.  In it Archer said “I don’t really feel too comfortable resigning, Brian, I have to be honest with you.”  Doyle responded by asking, “Would you rather we just send you a letter of termination?”  Doyle told Archer that his resignation was being demanded, “Because of the inability, your inability to do the job at this point, because of the problems in terms of trust with the participants, and problems with trust with the police department.”

SNUG (guns spelled backward) works to curtail gun violence by interacting with kids between the ages of 16 and 25 because they are considered the ones most at risk.  SNUG does not work directly with any police departments.

Archer claims that after a recent homicide in the city, members of the Poughkeepsie Police Department questioned him in an effort to identify a vehicle involved in the shooting.  Archer said the police told him he had been seen in a similar car earlier in the night and they wanted to know who was driving the car.  Archer said he told the police that he didn’t know if the vehicle he had been in was the same one involved in the Mill Street shooting.  “I can’t give them information about something I don’t know.  I told them I didn’t know who was involved in the shooting.”

Archer says that SNUG does not exist to be an arm of law enforcement but they work to reduce gun violence by using counselors to build relationships with the at-risk youth.  “We build trust with the participants by showing that we don’t interact with the police.  Trust has never been a problem between me and my participants because I don’t work for or with the police.”




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