Exonerated Five member Raymond Santana announces run for NYC Council. Here's why he's doing it.
Another member of the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five, has thrown his hat into the ring to run for City Council in East Harlem and the Bronx.
Raymond Santana says he's doing it because his neighborhood has deteriorated and he wants to rejuvenate it.
He wants to "organize, unify and uplift"
A statue of an angel stands guard outside a park on East 117th Street, dedicated to the Exonerated Five. It's across the street from where Santana grew up. And as he sat on a bench in the park with CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer on Tuesday, he explained why he now wants to be a part of city government.
"Because my community needs resources and if I can help organize, unify and uplift them, then I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing," Santana said.
He said he has come a long way from the scared 14-year-old who in 1989 was one of five Black and Latino teenagers wrongfully blamed for the rape of a white female jogger in Central Park. He was barely a teenager when he was sent to Rikers Island to fight his case.
"Must have been a scary thing. You were so young," Kramer said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Santana responded.
"You must have incredible internal strength," Kramer said.
"And faith in God," Santana said.
"Is that what got you through all this?" Kramer asked.
"Yeah, that really plays a big part in how I move now," Santana said.
Santana is ready for a tough race in the 8th District
If he wins, Santana would be the second member of the Exonerated Five to be in the City Council. Yusef Salaam won a seat nearly two years ago.
Santana said he's driven to run due to the deterioration of his neighborhood, which is filled, he says, with homeless, drugs and trash. He calls it "zombie land." He said he'll run against the actions of the present council member, Diana Ayala.
"I don't know what's she's done good. I can just tell you she hasn't done anything because zombie land still looks the way that it looks," Santana said.
Santana said his platform is still evolving, but he knows he will focus on public safety and improving relations between people in the neighborhood and the NYPD.
Santana freely admits that it's going to be a tough race. Ayala has endorsed her chief of staff to fill the post, but Santana said he's falling back on the advice Salaam gave him in prison.
"You just got to keep walking. You gotta keep moving forward. Don't know where you're going, but you know you just can't allow yourself to fall. You gotta keep walking," Santana said.
Santana said he's going to keep walking, hoping his steps take him right up into city hall as tee representative of the 8th District.
