News about Yusef Salaam

The men wrongly convicted as the 'Central Park Five' have filed a lawsuit that turns up the heat once again on a tense campaign, just two weeks before election day. 'Defendant Trump falsely stated [at the debate] that Plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime ,' says the civil lawsuit. 'These statements are demonstrably false.'

Big Apple politicians including Councilmembers Chi Osse and Shahana Hanif reportedly sought protection after receiving 'especially concerning' death threats in recent weeks, leading them to change their tune about the need for police. Their past stances included Halif calling to 'reduce our police force to zero', and Osse declaring that he 'doesn't speak pig.' Following their calls for NYPD cover, one Brooklyn cop declared: 'I wouldn't expect anything less from a couple of hypocritical politicians... why don't they go out and hire private security?'

Salaam was arrested by officers on Friday night in Harlem and was allowed to go less than a minute after identifying himself as a council member. In a video taken by the NYPD, the police officer can be seen asking Salaam to remove his back window of his sedan. Salaam then informs the officer that he is a council member and asks if all is okay before the officer dismisses without further explanation.

Salaam defeated many candidates in the city council's 9th District Democratic Primary in June, including the incumbent and a candidate who had been endorsed by Mayor Eric Adams. He ran uncontested to win the seat, which is located in central Harlem, on Tuesday night. Salaam thanked his fellow citizens of the now "Exonerated Five" and sent out what he felt was a sign of hope for his district in a tweet.

Former President Donald Trump once called for the execution of an exonerated Central Park Five man in an infamous newspaper ad has unquestionably gained a seat on the New York City Council. Yusef Salaam defeated multiple candidates, including the incumbent and a candidate that had been endorsed by Mayor Eric Adams, to receive over 56% of the vote in the city council's 9th District Democratic Primary on Tuesday. Salaam's campaign has earned a lot of attention for issuing several statements condemning Trump's 1989 ad urging the state to reintroduce the death penalty in connection with the former president's indictments.

Yusef Salaam, inset, one of the Central Park Five's founders, slammed Donald Trump's'disastrous presidency' as he resembled his full-page ads thirty years after the scandal unfolded. Salaam was one of five black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly accused and convicted of sexually assaulting a white woman in Central Park in 1989. In reaction to the assault, Trump, then a wealthy New York real estate mogul, bought out full page advertisements in several newspapers urging the state to reintroduce the death penalty as a result of the lawsuit. Trump has never regretted, but Salaam ran a parody of his 1989 ads in reaction to his deposition, calling it "karma."