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By MAL’AKIY 17 ALLAH Special to the AmNews

This past Monday afternoon, a re-naming ceremony was conducted at an entrance gate on Central Park’s 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard, commemorating a racial injustice committed over three decades ago. “Gate of the Exonerated,” inscribed on a stone wall, was unveiled on the 20th anniversary of when the convictions of five Harlemites were overturned in the infamous 1989 “Central Park Five/Jogger” case. Since being legally cleared they’ve been known as “The Exonerated Five.” The city settled a lawsuit in 2014 for the wrongful assault and rape convictions in the 1989 case. Several hundred withstood the cold while converging at Central Park’s Dana Discovery Center that morning for the ceremony. Three of the five wrongfully convicted— Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Yusuf Salaam—spoke, while Korey Wise and Antron McCray didn’t attend. They spoke about injustices and “breaking generational curses.”

“This is a moment. This is legacy time,” expressed Yusef, who was only 16 when the case started. “We’re here because we persevered, because what was written for us was hidden from the enemies that looked at the color of our skin and not the content of our character. They didn’t know who they had. The system is alive and sick, and we are to ensure that the future is alive and well.”

It was Santana’s first time in Central Park since 1989. He stated, “We know now that the system is flawed and it needs to be fixed.”

He added, “Now that my daughter is an adult, it’s time for us to go to Central Park, see the Gate of the Exonerated, and once again be a part of the park community.”

Richardson recalled the media labeling them as “a wolfpack,” “urban terrorists” and “wildin’” and convicting the Black and Hispanic teens before they had their say in a court of law.

“There were ads that said four of us should be horsewhipped, while the elder, Korey Wise, should be hung from a tree,” he stated. “That’s slave talk right there. It needs to be known what we went through. We went to hell and back. We have these scars that nobody sees. This is an important time right here—the Gate of the Exonerated, this is for everybody that’s been wronged by cops.”

Salaam said, “This is about giving recognition to something that should have never happened. The gate is just one example of healing, and how our path to healing is continuous.”

Mayor Eric Adams presented them with Keys to the City before saying, “To these soldiers here, you personify the Black male experience. The ‘Exonerated Five’ is the American Black boy, man, story. They stood firm, they stood tall. This naming is sending a strong message. History has an opportunity to rewrite the lines,” he said.

Adams continued, “We knew what had happened to them was wrong and we refuse to remain silent. I think all of our young men and boys, the Board of Education, Chancellor Banks, we should be having school trips to talk about this story because as time moves forward, we believe that there were not real struggles to get us where we are right now and we lose the historical moments that took place. That’s why this is so significant.”

He added that the gate is a “lasting reminder of the grave miscarriage of justice that took place.” An unveiling ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 19. Several current and former elected officials attended, including current leader of the New York County Democrats Keith Wright, Sen. Cordell Cleare and Bill Perkins.

(Bill Moore photo)

The Rev. Al Sharpton noted that, “There's more people here today than at any of the court dates [during the trial]…Let us not act like this is something that is not also continuing to happen today,” he said. “Because the ‘Exonerated Five’ is symbolic that [there are] many that still need to be exonerated.”

Another event followed at Harlem’s Schomburg Center that evening.

Cannabis is all about location, location, location

By ARIAMA C. LONG

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

The first legal retail licenses for the state’s booming cannabis industry are being distributed this month to nonprofits and “justice involved” persons. It seems the main concern among shop owners is where to place their business in the city to best serve the community.

Erica Ford, the anti-violence activist and founder of Life Camp, is among the eight nonprofits to receive a first wave dispensary license from the state. Rodney “Bucks” Charlemagne is a chief marketing officer and co-founder of Kush & Kemet, one of Life Camp’s partnerships for the dispensary.

“There are families with shattered hearts and broken souls because their family members were taken away from them, both by an inequitable justice system and by the hands of others. And we can’t forget those people, along with the children who grew up without parents and in foster care because of this broken system,” said Ford in a statement. “With the resources from the cannabis economy, we can invest and build real equity within our communities that have been destroyed.”

Ford said that she is happily a voice for equity and reinvestment into the nonprofit and her community, which is in alignment with the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) mission to prioritize and right wrongs made against primarily Black and brown neighborhoods in the city.

Charlemagne, 35, is what the state refers to as a “legacy” or justice involved person who was arrested for using and dealing marijuana when he was in his early 20s. He is excited about the way the state incorporated economic and social justice into the cannabis industry launch.

“It’s a transitional phase for me. I’m very excited about the opportunity,” said Charlemagne. “And having the chance to make the money and have it go back into our initiative LIFE Camp, where we don’t have to depend on no one else to do the things we want to do for our community.”

Kush & Kemet will be supplied with state cultivated farms upstate, he said.

Ford hasn’t officially announced the location for the LIFE Camp dispensary just yet, but it will likely be in Manhattan or Queens in high traffic areas, said Charlemagne. He also said that they have worked with a realtor who has been scouting appropriate locations for dispensaries for the past two years.

Location for a dispensary is pretty critical. For instance, registered medical-marijuana businesses can’t be near or on the same street as a school, church, synagogue or other place of worship. And as illicit shops have opened, there have been numerous instances of pushback from community residents and surrounding businesses.

The West 125th Street Business Improvement District (BID) in Harlem is currently circulating a petition, opposing the state’s approval of the first legal cannabis dispensary to be located across from the famed Apollo Theater.

OCM Director of Communications Freeman Klopott confirmed that a tenant/owner for the West 125th location hasn’t been chosen yet. The selection process will go through the New York State Dormitory Authority, which holds the lease and funds the site. Once a tenant is selected, the lease is turned over to that person and they will receive funds from the New York Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund.

President and CEO of the BID Barbara Askins, who wrote the petition, said that Harlem’s business leaders were given “no notice” about the dispensary opening. She claims that a dispensary in this location could increase loitering, drug activity, litter, theft of goods and gang rivalries, based on experiences with another smoke shop. Askins said she and the BID aren’t against marijuana dispensaries in Harlem or shop owners at all.

“The Office of Cannabis Management deeply appreciates feedback from community members and looks forward to continuing discussions with local stakeholders,” said OCM’s Aaron Ghitelman in response to an inquiry. “Once open, these legal, regulated businesses will begin operations and make meaningful impacts in their communities.”

The Apollo Theater did not provide a response by post time.

Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams has his hands full trying to wrangle in the illicit weed market that’s run wild in the last few years since the law to legalize weed was passed.

There’s been more bipartisan crackdown and enforcement against unlicensed shops selling cannabis, edibles, vapes and illegal cigarettes. This has resulted in the seizure of more than $4 million worth of illegal products and 566 civil and criminal summonses. There have only been two felony arrests and one arrest on an outstanding warrant so far.

“Thanks to this joint interagency task force pilot, the city and the state collaborated to crack down on bad actors who are putting New Yorkers’—particularly young people’s —health and safety at risk, and who sought to cut the line and undermine the legal market,” said Adams in a statement. “It’s high time that unlicensed stores stopped selling illegal products and comply with the law.”

Charlemagne added that “black market” shops don’t necessarily have a security plan or regulated products. A legalized industry will go a long way to safely distributing cannabis for consumption, he said.

“The establishment of a legalized cannabis industry in New York City has created opportunities, which I would like to see materialize in my district. The unlicensed cannabis dispensaries undermine the legal opportunities that exist,” said Assemblymember Nikki Lucas in a statement. “While we definitely need to crack down on illegal dispensaries, I believe the community needs to be educated on how they can operate legal dispensaries. We do not want to go backwards to the days when members of our community were disproportionately criminalized for marijuana charges.”

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/amnews1