As reported by Chanelle Chandler writing for Yahoo News, Yusef Salaam, 49, who is now running to represent Central Harlem on New York’s City Council, chose the same format and forum Trump opportunistically used to wrongfully paint Salaam and his co-defendants as murderous thugs and rapists. Trump’s ad forcefully urged New York state to reinstate the death penalty in order to use it against the teens.
On April 30, 1989, Trump, then a brash and influential real estate mogul, took out a reported $85,000 worth of ads in four New York newspapers with the headline: "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY, BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” regarding the case of the "Central Park Five" – Kevin Richardson, 14, Raymond Santana, 14, Antron McCray, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15, and Korey Wise, 16, who had been wrongfully accused of raping and assaulting a white female jogger in Central Park in New York City.
"I want to hate these murderers and I always will. I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them," Trump wrote in the ad.
Trump’s 1989 ad:
More than a decade after the attack and following the confession of a serial rapist named Matias Reyes—a confession that was supported by DNA evidence that confirmed Reyes’ involvement—Salaam and the four other young men who had been wrongfully accused and convicted of the rape and assault were exonerated, and their convictions were vacated. After spending their young adult years in prison for their wrongful convictions (which they contend were based on coerced confessions), the quintet successfully sued the City of New York and received a $40 million settlement.
Nevertheless, Trump continued to double down on his original vitriol, contending that all the men had still committed criminal acts and calling the settlement they’d reached with the city a “disgrace.”
RELATED STORY: Trump is still refusing to apologize to the Central Park Five
On the evening of Donald Trump’s arraignment, less than four weeks ahead of the 34th anniversary of Trump’s original ad’s publication, Salaam took a decidedly different approach. The pointed mimicry of his chosen message format was impossible to miss.
In the ad—sent both as a tweet and a fundraising email for his city council campaign—Salaam explains how both the years taken away from him and his unnecessary ordeal at the hands of the U.S. criminal justice system had affected his life.
Being wrongfully convicted as a teenager was an experience that changed my life drastically. Yet I am honored when people express how deeply they connect with my story.
It matters because, while my experience may have been extreme, I have lived through a form of trauma that many of us experience in some way every day throughout our country. My past is an example of systemic oppression imposed by the injustice system.
But the problems our community faced when my name was splashed across the newspapers a generation ago — inadequate housing, underfunded schools, public safety concerns, and a lack of good jobs — became worse during Donald Trump's time in office.
...
Here is my message to you, Mr. Trump: In response to the multiple federal and state criminal investigations that you are facing, you responded by warning of "potential death and destruction," and by posting a photograph of yourself with a baseball bat, next to a photo of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. These actions, just like your actions leading up to the January 6 insurrection at the U .S. Capitol, are an attack on our safety.
Thirty-four years ago, your full-page ad stated, in all caps: "CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS."
You were wrong then, and you are wrong now. The civil liberties of all Americans are grounded in the U.S. Constitution, and many of us fight every day to uphold those rights, even in the face of those like you who seek to obliterate them.
Salaam says in his statement that unlike Trump, he will not “resort to hatred, bias, or racism,” but will instead place his faith in the judicial system to find the truth.
And if the charges are proven and you are found guilty, I hope that you endure whatever penalties are imposed with the same strength and dignity that the Exonerated Five showed as we served our punishment for a crime we did not commit.
Notably absent from Salaam’s statement is any hint of anger, preemptive judgment, or vindictiveness—sentiments that could easily be justified under the circumstances. Perhaps that’s because the activist’s position was most aptly put in the one-word response Salaam issued on March 30, the same day it was revealed that Donald Trump had been indicted.
“Karma,” it read.
RELATED STORY: Trump indictment provides damning 'statement of facts' that lays out scheme to sway 2016 election
Our planned Ukraine episode will have to wait, as Donald Trump is being arraigned in New York City for his role in falsifying records to hide hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. This is the first of a potential slew of indictments coming Trump’s way, and we are here for a celebration of karmic justice—and to talk about what happens to the Republican Party after this.