Exonerated “Central Park Five” member Yusef Salaam won a seat Tuesday on the New York City Council, marking a stunning reversal of fortune for a political...
Exonerated “Central Park Five” member Yusef Salaam won a seat Tuesday on the New York City Council, marking a stunning reversal of fortune for a political newcomer who was wrongly imprisoned as a teenager in the infamous rape case.
“For me, this means that we can really become our ancestors’ wildest dreams,” Salaam said in an interview before the election. Races for Suffolk County executive and North Hempstead supervisor have been the most prominent, though the races are expected to have low turnout because they are happening in a year without federal or statewide candidates on the ballot.
In the city meanwhile, Salaam’s candidacy is a reminder of what the war on crime can look like when it goes too far. The teens convicted in the attack served between five and 12 years in prison before the case was reexamined. “I am really the ambassador for everyone’s pain,” he said. “In many ways, I went through that for our people so I can now lead them.”
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