Central Park Five’s Yusef Salaam Declares Victory in City Council Primary | New York

Youssef Salaam, who as a child was part of a group of teens wrongfully accused, convicted, and imprisoned of raping a woman while jogging in New York’s Central Park, is now running for the Democratic primary. declared victory. Aiming for City Council seats In New York, he had a very good chance of representing the Harlem district as an elected representative.

Salaam confronted two veteran politicians. new york State legislators Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, are vying for seats representing parts of Manhattan’s predominantly black Yamate district. Incumbent Democratic Socialist Christine Richard Jordan withdrew from the race in May but remained on the ballot.

The contest marks more than 20 years since Salaam and four other men (then known as the Central Park Five and now often called the Not Guilty Five) were acquitted using DNA evidence. It was held since

The case was one of the city’s most notorious and racially charged crimes and was best known at the time as the city’s flamboyant real estate mogul and future U.S. president, Donald Trump. It caught fire when I took it out. Ads calling for the death penalty for five people.

The Associated Press has not announced the winner of the primary, and the outcome of the election could be uncertain for several days due to New York State’s ranked voting rules. The system works when no candidate claims more than 50% of his total votes.

As of Wednesday, it was unclear whether Salaam would stay above that benchmark. Salaam won just under 51% of the vote when about 95% of the votes were counted, leaving Dickens behind by a wide margin.

still salaam declared victory He said in a speech to supporters late Tuesday.

Thirty-four years after Donald Trump led a lynching mob to execute him and four other wrongfully accused black and brown youths, five innocent Yusef Salaam will represent Harlem in the New York City Council elections. declared victory. pic.twitter.com/pJmTTt84NB

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 28, 2023

“What happened with this campaign gave me the confidence that I was born for this,” he said.

Salaam likened his early imprisonment to “kidnapping,” but also called his almost seven years of imprisonment the gift of seeing the racially unjust criminal justice system “from the belly of the beast.” .

“Haarlem, I am here because you believed in me,” he said.

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Dickens conceded late Tuesday, but promised to “continue to fight for what the community needs.”

A victory for Mr. Salaam would effectively ensure victory in the general election in districts where Republicans are unlikely to be elected. It’s his first time in public office.

Salaam was 15 when he was arrested in 1989, along with four other black and dark-skinned teenagers: Antron McCrae, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Corey Wise, in Central Park. He was accused of assaulting and raping a white woman, Trisha Male.

Members of the group have served sentences of five to 12 years until prosecutors agree to reinvestigate the case. DNA evidence and confessions eventually linked a serial rapist and murderer to the case. central park attack. The convictions were reversed in 2002, and the city eventually agreed to a legal settlement that paid $41 million to the acquitted men.