Once wrongly imprisoned for notorious rape, member of ‘Central Park Five’ is running for office

NEW YORK — Outside a Harlem subway station, Yusef Salaam, a candidate for New York City Council, hurriedly greeted citizens streaming out alongside Malcolm X Boulevard. For some, no introductions have been essential. They knew his face, his identify and his lifestyles tale.

But to the unfamiliar, Salaam wanted handiest to introduce himself as one of the Central Park Five — one of the Black or Brown youngsters, ages 14 to 16, wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape and beating of a white girl jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989.

Now 49, Salaam is hoping to enroll in the facility construction of a town that after labored to position him at the back of bars.

“I’ve often said that those who have been close to the pain should have a seat at the table,” Salaam stated all the way through an interview at his marketing campaign office.

Salaam is one of 3 applicants in a aggressive June 27 Democratic number one virtually sure to make a decision who will constitute a Harlem district not going to elect a Republican in November’s common election. With early vote casting already begun, he faces two seasoned political veterans: New York Assembly participants Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, who in the past represented Harlem at the City Council.

The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the race in May following a rocky first time period.

Now identified to a couple because the “Exonerated Five,” Salaam and the 4 others — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — served between 5 and 12 years in jail for the 1989 rape sooner than a reexamination of the case resulted in their convictions being vacated in 2002.

DNA proof related any other guy, a serial rapist, to the assault. The town in the end agreed in a felony agreement to pay the exonerated males $41 million.

Salaam, who was once arrested at age 15, served just about seven years at the back of bars.

“When people look at me and they they know my story, they resonate with it,” stated Salaam, the daddy of 10 kids. “But now here we are 34 years later, and I’m able to use that platform that I have and repurpose the pain, help people as we as we climb out of despair.”

Those ache issues are many in a district that has some of town’s maximum entrenched poverty and best possible hire burdens.

Poverty in Central Harlem is about 10 issues upper than the citywide price of 18%, in keeping with information compiled by means of New York University’s Furman Center. More than a fourth of Harlem’s citizens pay greater than part of their source of revenue on hire. And the district has some of town’s best possible charges of homelessness for kids.

Salaam stated he is keen to handle the ones crises and extra. His fighters say he doesn’t know sufficient about how native executive works to take action.

“No one should go through what my opponent went through, especially as a child. Years later, after he returns to New York, Harlem is in crisis. We don’t have time for a freshman to learn the job, learn the issues and re-learn the community he left behind for Stockbridge, Georgia,” Dickens stated, relating to Salaam’s choice to depart town after his liberate from jail. He returned to New York in December.

Taylor is aware of that Salaam’s superstar is a bonus within the race.

“I think that folks will identify with him and the horrendous scenario that he and his colleagues underwent for a number of years in a prison system that treated him unfairly and unjustly,” Taylor stated.

“But his is one of a thousand in this city that we are aware of,” Taylor added. “It’s the Black reality.”

Harlem voter Raynard Gadson, 40, is cognizant of that factor.

“As a Black man myself, I know exactly what’s at stake,” Gadson said. “I don’t think there’s anybody more passionate about challenging systemic issues on the local level in the name of justice because of what he went through,” he said of Salaam.

During a recent debate televised by Spectrum News, Salaam repeatedly mentioned his arrest, prompting Taylor to exclaim that he, too, had been arrested: At age 16, he was caught carrying a machete — a charge later dismissed by a judge willing to give him a second chance.

“We all want affordable housing, we all want safe streets, we all want smarter policing, we all want jobs, we all need education,” Salaam said of the candidates’ common goals. What he offers, he said, is a new voice that can speak about his community’s struggles.

“I have no track record in politics,” he conceded. “I have a great track record in the 34 years of the Central Park jogger case in fighting for freedom, justice and equality.”

All three have received key endorsements. Black activist Cornell West has backed Salaam. Dickens has the backing of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former New York U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel. Taylor is supported by the Carpenter’s Union.

At a marketing campaign rally for Dickens, Rangel recounted that Salaam had referred to as to mention he was once getting into the race. Rangel then quipped that Salaam had a “foreign name.” Salaam responded pointedly on social media.

“I am a son of Harlem named Yusef Salaam. I went to prison because my name is Yusef Salaam,” he tweeted. “I am proud to be named Yusef Salaam. I am born here, raised here & of here — but even if I wasn’t, we all belong in New York City.”

Rangel and Salaam later talked and resolved the topic, in keeping with a spokesperson for the Dickens marketing campaign.

Unlikely is an apology from Donald Trump, who in 1989 positioned newspaper advertisements sooner than the crowd went on trial with the blaring headline, “Bring back the death penalty.” The advertisements didn’t particularly point out any of the 5, however Salaam stated the context made it transparent.

When requested by means of a reporter in 2019 if he would ever express regret, Trump stated there have been “people on both sides” of the topic.

“They admitted their guilt,” Trump had stated, of the Central Park Five, relating to confessions that the 5 later stated have been coerced. “Some of the prosecutors,” Trump added “think the city should never have settled that case. So, we’ll leave it at that.”

When Trump was once indicted in New York in April on fees of falsifying trade information, Salaam mocked him along with his personal advert on social media that visually mimicked Trump’s from way back.

“Over 30 years ago, Donald Trump took out full page ads calling for my execution,” Salaam tweeted above the advert, headlined: “Bring Back Justice & Fairness.”