Yusef Salaam Of Exonerated Central Park Five Shares His Story — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00on the morning of april 20th 1989 new
2. 0:03york city awakened to the horrifying
3. 0:05news
4. 0:05a wall street investment bank left for
5. 0:07death after a brutal attack while she
6. 0:09was jogging in central park
7. 0:10a female jogger was clinging to life
8. 0:13after being
9. 0:13beaten and sexually assaulted in central
10. 0:15park the city was
11. 0:16outraged the police quickly arrested a
12. 0:19group of teenagers among them
13. 0:20yusuf salaam their trial gripped the
14. 0:23city
15. 0:24their conviction seen by many of the
16. 0:25time as justice served arrested at 15
17. 0:31you spend seven years in
18. 0:34prison for a crime you did not commit
19. 0:37vilified in the public for years
20. 0:41but the title of the book is better not
21. 0:44bitter
22. 0:45not even just a smidge of bitterness i
23. 0:48got to tell you
24. 0:49i found out that a thing like
25. 0:52forgiveness as
26. 0:53as an example of where we can go with
27. 0:56being able to get out of being bitter
28. 0:59forgiveness is for you it's for you to
29. 1:02be able to surgically
30. 1:04cut yourself from the ball and chain
31. 1:06that is holding you back
32. 1:08at the beginning of the book you you
33. 1:09talk about seeing the hand of god
34. 1:12in everything yes that happened to you
35. 1:14absolutely
36. 1:15what do you mean by that there's
37. 1:17absolutely no way to
38. 1:18get through any trial
39. 1:22unless you can see the positive outlook
40. 1:24on things i want people to understand
41. 1:26that
42. 1:27it is through these kinds of trials that
43. 1:31when you're tested then you can testify
44. 1:34you have a testimony because you were
45. 1:37able to grow through something as
46. 1:38opposed to just go through something
47. 1:40you think part of your purpose in life
48. 1:42was was going to prison for
49. 1:44a crime you didn't commit absolutely you
50. 1:46know
51. 1:47it's one of those questions where you
52. 1:48say to yourself if i had an opportunity
53. 1:51to change anything would i
54. 1:53but if you change anything in your past
55. 1:55you change everything in your future so
56. 1:56you do it again
57. 1:57you you take the fall for a crime you
58. 1:59didn't commit and i wouldn't necessarily
59. 2:01say that
60. 2:01okay okay salam served nearly seven
61. 2:05years in prison
62. 2:06in 2002 the convictions of the central
63. 2:08park five were vacated after a serial
64. 2:11rapist
65. 2:12confessed to the crime
66. 2:13[Music]
67. 2:15after you were exonerated did you still
68. 2:18feel
69. 2:18vilified or did you feel still
70. 2:21absolutely i came out of prison in
71. 2:25psalm 6'3 and i'm
72. 2:28still walking around with my head down
73. 2:30inside
74. 2:31because it's still not popular to say
75. 2:35yes i'm one of the central park five
76. 2:37why are we here things started changing
77. 2:41in 2012
78. 2:42when a documentary about the central
79. 2:44park five came out
80. 2:46followed by the netflix mini series when
81. 2:48they see us in 2019.
82. 2:50i don't think we should admit to
83. 2:51something that we didn't do
84. 2:53it really wasn't popular in a grand
85. 2:56scale until the central park five
86. 3:00documentary came out where we got our
87. 3:02voices back and then
88. 3:04when they see us liberated us we had no
89. 3:07idea that we would be
90. 3:08rebranded correctly as the exonerated
91. 3:12fire
92. 3:13the fact that his book is coming out
93. 3:15during a time of upheaval across the
94. 3:17country on the top of criminal justice
95. 3:19is not lost on salon young people when
96. 3:22george floyd was murdered
97. 3:24they said the system is not broken
98. 3:27it's operating exactly as it was
99. 3:29designed when you were
100. 3:31sitting in that prison cell knowing
101. 3:34you had not committed this this heinous
102. 3:36crime is this where you thought
103. 3:39you would be honestly i i don't think i
104. 3:42thought i would be here
105. 3:43i thought i would i thought i would
106. 3:45somehow
107. 3:47get free and piece my life back together
108. 3:52i didn't know that when god restores
109. 3:54what was taken from you
110. 3:57100 times more than what was taken is
111. 4:00what's given
112. 4:03and the other members of the central
113. 4:04park five did receive a multi-million
114. 4:06dollar settlement from the city of new
115. 4:07york salaam
116. 4:08now an author a public speaker even
117. 4:11designs his own jewelry
118. 4:13the book better not bitter is out today
119. 4:15uh and let me tell you
120. 4:17that was one of those conversations
121. 4:18where you leave
122. 4:20inspire like yeah you just you it's he
123. 4:23put a lot of things in perspective
124. 4:25uh for me and i think a lot of folks as
125. 4:27well it's not just talk either he
126. 4:28exudes a lot of grace he lives it it's
127. 4:31like
128. 4:31in every cell is he married does he have
129. 4:34a yes
130. 4:34he's he's married he's he's got kids
131. 4:36lives down in georgia
132. 4:38uh you know somewhat happily ever after
133. 4:41certainly yeah i guess you could say but
134. 4:42uh
135. 4:42but yeah the the book is solid if you
136. 4:44can pick it up i'd encourage you guys
137. 4:46yeah
138. 4:46it's found a real purpose really hard
139. 4:48earned happily ever after
140. 4:51hey thanks for watching our youtube
141. 4:53channel find your favorite recipes
142. 4:55celebrity interviews uplifting stories
143. 4:58shop our favorite deals and so much more
144. 5:00with the today app download it now