'A long time coming': Central Park Five's Yusef Salaam runs for office
Dr Yusef Salaam was in his family home in Harlem, gearing up for the next fight of his life: a daring run for political office.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Salaam, whose story of false accusations and wrongful imprisonment as one of the Central Park Five has become a watchword for everything wrong with America’s justice system.
Salaam has a complicated relationship with New York. It’s where he was falsely accused at age 15 of a brutal gang rape in 1989, and then incarcerated for seven years. After being found innocent in 2002, he spent the next 12 years suing the city for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination and emotional distress.
Salaam moved from New York to Georgia, in part to escape the painful memories and media frenzy.
The Central Park Five are widely remembered as a definitive moment in America’s fractured race relations. But now Salaam is back in New York and running for city council and criminal justice reform is central to his campaign.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/07/yusef-salaam-central-park-five-city-council
Congratulations and good luck, Dr. Salaam!