Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park 5 who spent 13 years in prison for a crime for which they were eventually exonerated, began his op-ed in The Washington Post by stating, "For 27 Years, I've Been in Donald Trump's Crosshairs."
Salaam was one of five black and Latino teens accused, coerced and imprisoned for a brutal sexual assault of a jogger in New York City's Central Park in 1989.
Trump was a loud and prominent voice back then calling for the death penalty for the five. Trump remains a loud and prominent voice now, still maintaining their guilt despite the judicial system - and a $41 million settlement - saying otherwise.
"It's further proof of his bias, racism and inability to admit that he's wrong," Salaam wrote for the Post. "When I heard Trump's latest proclamation, it was like the worst feeling in the world. I felt as if I couldn't breathe. … Being in the spotlight makes me wary and self-conscious again. I am overwhelmed with a nagging fear that an overzealous Trump supporter might take matters into his or her hands."
Salaam went on to criticize Trump's call to bring back stop and frisk, ridiculing Trump's platform to be a "law and order president."
"Black people across America know that because of the color of our skin, we are guilty before proven innocent," Salaam wrote. "As a result, sometimes we lose the best years of our lives. Sometimes we lose our actual lives. We must not let this man ascend to the highest office in the land when he has always proven that he lets neither facts nor humanity lead his steps."
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