Exonerated Five Member Yusef Salaam Is Being Real Classy About The Trump Verdict
Damn, some people are so impressive.
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.
Salaam spent 1990 to 1997 in prison for a crime he did not commit. That he can think that after what he’s been through is … incredibly impressive. Clearly, the man is a hell of a lot classier than Donald Trump ever dreamed of being.
He’s not the only one to draw a parallel between the two situations.
“This is the same building that Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise all passed into, day after day, as they endured a show trial for a crime they did not commit,” Reverend Al Sharpton said in a statement.
“These children had to hear vitriol from people whose anger was incited by a man who spent a small fortune on full-page ads calling for their execution. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Donald Trump is the criminal, and those five men are exonerated. I’m reminded of Dr. King’s proverb that the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Again, that is some pretty impressive optimism and grace.
It’s still up in the air if Trump is actually going to be incarcerated or not, and a lot less up in the air if those who were already planning to vote for him will be put off by this conviction. But hopefully Salaam will be right and a majority of the American people will decide that they do not want to elect a man who was just correctly convicted of so many crimes.
I think we’d all like to believe that we’re better than that (even if other people make it real hard sometimes).
PREVIOUSLY:
I don’t know about you but I’m frightened by all the violent MAGA demonstrations in the wake of the verdict. No injuries reported yet but with cars being overturned and set on fire it’s only a matter of…
Oh, wait. None of that is happening. They’re just watching Fox and stewing in their own bile.
Never mind.
When right wingers think of "tough," they think of a big muscly bro armed to the teeth, ready to wade in and start shooting like Rambo at the first sign of adversity. When they think of "classy" they think of donald trump's idea of decorating.
When I think of tough and classy I think of a brave, powerful person like this, who can endure nearly a decade of unjust imprisonment and still come out serving his country as a representative. I think of being able to NOT gloat, as ironically deserved as it is, and think of what's best for his country.
We need thousands more Yusef Salaams in this country. We need far less donald trumps.