By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
NEW YORK (AP) — Exterior a Harlem subway station, Yusef Salaam, a candidate for New York Metropolis Council, hurriedly greeted voters streaming out alongside Malcolm X Boulevard. For some, no introductions had been needed. They knew his face, his identify and his life story.
However to the unfamiliar, Salaam wanted solely to introduce himself as one of many Central Park 5 — one of many Black or Brown youngsters, ages 14 to 16, wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape and beating of a white girl jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989.
Now 49, Salaam is hoping to hitch the ability construction of a metropolis that after labored to place him behind bars.
“I’ve usually mentioned that those that have been near the ache ought to have a seat on the desk,” Salaam mentioned throughout an interview at his marketing campaign workplace.
Salaam is one among three candidates in a aggressive June 27 Democratic major nearly sure to resolve who will characterize a Harlem district unlikely to elect a Republican in November’s common election. With early voting already begun, he faces two seasoned political veterans: New York Meeting members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, who beforehand represented Harlem on the Metropolis Council.
