In 1989, Donald Trump took out a full page ad in the
New York Times calling for the Central Park Five to be put to death. It would later turn out that those 14- and 15-year-old boys he wanted to kill were entirely innocent and that someone else had committed the crime — which is why they are now known as the Exonerated Five instead. To this day, Trump has refused to apologize and has, in fact, continued to insist that they are guilty — despite the fact that we now know the assailant was Matias Reyes, a serial rapist who confessed and whose DNA was a match.
Now, one of those boys, Yusef Salaam, is on the New York City Council and Donald Trump has been found guilty on 34 felony charges. Oh, how the tables have turned!
You’d think Mr. Salaam would be gloating, but he’s not.
In a statement,
Salaam said:
Even though Donald Trump wanted us executed even when it was proven that we were innocent, I do not take pleasure at today's verdict.
We should be proud that today the system worked. But we should be somber that we Americans have an ex-President who has been found guilty on 34 separate felony charges. And while today might not be as shocking as January 6th, it is equally profound.
On January 7th, a large majority of Americans agreed that Trump should never again lead this country.
Let us hope we wake up tomorrow with the same conviction.
We have to do better than this. Because we are better than this.