The unity of purpose was exciting; Kamala was powerful.
But I want to highlight something that probably very few people saw live since it was on air so early in the evening. Yesterday Yusef Salaam, Harlem councilman, one of the wrongfully convicted "Central Park Five," got to take it to the men's tormentor, Donald Trump.
When Yusef Salaam was elected to the New York City Council in 2023, it was a thrilling public vindication for a member of the so-called “Central Park Five,” a group of young Black men who were wrongly convicted of the rape and assault of a young jogger in 1989.
But for Salaam, true personal satisfaction came on Thursday night at the Democratic convention, when he got to stand on the stage before a huge national audience and denounce the man who has continued to vilify him and the other four since their arrest and wrongful conviction some 35 years ago, Donald Trump.
“That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict,” Salaam said, to furious cheers from the delegates. “He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong. He has never changed and he never will. That man thinks that hate is the animating force in America. It is not.”
In 1989, in fact, Trump was explicit about his eternal hate.
“Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts,” Trump wrote in a full-page advertisement he paid for in The Times and three other newspapers. “I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.” He added, for emphasis, “I want to hate these murderers and I always will.” ...
... Even after the five men were exonerated, Trump refused to admit he was wrong, and suggested there was a case to be made that they were guilty.
Nobody has a clearer view of Donald Trump than Black New Yorkers from the '80s.
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