The Root; Published By: Jessica Washington
There’s not much one can say when the man who called for your death as a teenager is indicted. But upon hearing the news of former President Donald Trump’s indictment, Dr. Yusef Salaam had this to say; “Karma.”
For those who don’t know, Salaam is one of the Central Park Five (now the Exonerated 5), a group of Black and Latino teenage boys who were wrongfully convicted of rape in Central Park in 1989. The boys were later exonerated after the actual rapist, Matias Reyes came forward and DNA evidence proving he was guilty. The case was dramatized in Ava Duvernay’s film, When They See Us, which depicted the various ways law enforcement coerced false statements from the boys and pushed the case forward with little to no concrete evidence.
Perhaps what is most disturbing about the events surrounding the Central Park Five is the adults, like Trump, who called for the teenagers to face the death penalty. Before any conviction, Trump took out full-page advertisements in four New York City newspapers calling for the five teens to be executed. Read more
