Lessons from the Exonerated Five: A Conversation with Dr. Yusef Salaam — Transcript

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1. 0:00those of us who were picked up in a park
2. 0:02or picked up because they said they were
3. 0:05in the park after dark past the time
4. 0:08that he was supposed to be so it will
5. 0:10ever get
6. 0:11that's the parents tickets the parents
7. 0:13are gonna come get them and they
8. 0:15essentially was going to be going home
9. 0:18and then they found the child they
10. 0:25wanted to solve this case so fast to
11. 0:30appease the fears of
12. 0:33[Music]
13. 0:38I remember I came home from school April
14. 0:4228 and it was like a ghost town so
15. 0:47hopeless unmarked cars I was wondering
16. 0:49what happened and that I heard that they
17. 0:51were looking for me which I could figure
18. 0:53out what was looking for me because I
19. 0:56knew I didn't do anything wrong I said
20. 0:58we know what I'm gonna go to the cops
21. 1:01and tell them what I saw now be home
22. 1:06before my mom is back
23. 1:10I came home seven years later so we sent
24. 1:13to the the accusation
25. 1:15[Music]
26. 1:22down at all so that a full-page ad in
27. 1:26all of New York City's major newspapers
28. 1:29calling for the death penalty
29. 1:31specifically for kids he's saying bring
30. 1:35back the death penalty they backed off
31. 1:38police
32. 1:39this was the climate this was what was
33. 1:41going on back in 1989
34. 1:43one of the craziest things is that that
35. 1:46man who with the Central Park jogger
36. 1:48because they failed to catch him he was
37. 1:51committing more Clark College - I don't
38. 1:59say that to impress me I say that to
39. 2:02impress upon us that if I was there in a
40. 2:05place that is the worst place in the
41. 2:07world please we call the belly of the
42. 2:08beast and I was able to get a college
43. 2:11degree I was able to make something of
44. 2:13myself
45. 2:14which is when you fall in life is not a
46. 2:17matter of if but when you fall in life
47. 2:19trying to land on your back if you fall
48. 2:23on their face turnover because when we
49. 2:26couldn't look up you did you know
50. 2:29it's about combat
51. 2:36you