State budget completed, what was cut?

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Governor David Patterson, and he reports to us every Sunday and tells us what the heck is going on in the Democratic Party, what’s going on in New York the country. Good morning, Governor Patterson, and happy fourth of July weekend.

0:18 Speaker 2 Well, happy fourth of July weekend to you two John. Last week we had the primaries and most of the favorite one but there was one major upset and it was in the ninth Councilman district in Harlem, where is Dickens, the current assembly woman, was trying to go back to the city council and was beaten two to one by

0:43 Yusef Salaam, who was one of the convicted five boys in the Central Park jogger case. And as Dickon is a very good friend of mine, I endorsed her.

0:55 Speaker 1 She’s a friend of mine.

0:57 Speaker 2 Yeah, and she I had a service and she’s still going to give us our standing service because she’s still in the Assembly. But there was some trepidation about mister Salaam that I would like to clear up this morning, because mister Salam, of course, was fifteen years old at the time of that particular incident. While he was being

1:21 detained by the police. He had a big brother from the Big Brother program and John you might even know his name. His name is David Nessenti. He was counseled to Governor Elliott’s vittorney was counseled to me. So youse have.

1:35 Salam’s mother who was in Keith Wright’s political club, asked David Assenti to please go and get her son out of cussy, you know, to get him out of jail. So he goes down there. They will not let him see him. Now, if a person that’s arrested and they don’t ask for a lawyer, there’s no mandate on the

1:55 police they have to get a lawyer for them. But if a person gets arrested who a minor and a lawyer comes, they’re supposed to act. And they didn’t. And that was the beginning of a lot of mistakes they made, and a lot of decisions that they reached without you know, proper you know investigation, And those kids went away for

2:17 a long time. Thirteen years later, a man by the name of Mattis Reus, who was already imprisoned on another brutal crime, confest to the fact that he was the rapist in Central Park. His was the only DNA that matched the victim. Wow, was really innocent, Yeah, he was, and his DNA. None of the five boys DNA was

2:46 on the victim. There there was one DNA that was a significant other, so we understand that, but then there was always one DNA that was not accounted for. Once he did that, it set in motion action by the New York County District Attorney’s office, the late Robert Morgenthaw, where they set aside the verdict and they released the

3:10 young men. Now, this gentleman went to Georgia where he got his ged, he got his college education. He now has his masters, and he came to see me while he was running for this seat. I didn’t think he had a chance, but I, you know, gave him the meeting and I learned that he is not in favor

3:31 of defunding the police. He is not he himself, he said, obviously had anger towards the police when he was incarcerated, but he’s kind of turned to religions and he got out and he said he doesn’t feel that way, and he likes these situations where the police interact with the community, like the pal.

3:51 Speaker 1 So governor, you know, I believe in common sense. Who has more common sense on a scale of to Tenez Dinkins or New City councilman.

4:08 Speaker 2 I would say that Inez Dickens has been an outstanding elected official and a great human being. I think this young man has something in him. Even when I was meeting with him, I got the steeler. I was meeting with a person that has great ability, and since he was victimized once, I want to make sure he’s not

4:31 victimized again and that everybody gives him a fair shape when he starts his role as a city councilman.

4:38 Speaker 1 Okay, I mean the only thing I want is law and order and making sure we get New York back to there being a great city like it always was.

4:48 Speaker 2 Well, believe me, I think that’s You know, if he had said anything that was in any way particularly radical, or started talking about Black Lives matter or anything like that, I think you would have read about it. But that wasn’t the case. That’s not who he is. The person who selected him to run is Keith Wright, the Assemblyman.

5:13 He’s a common sense Democrat. He works with Sid david Off, and his mother was in a Keith Wright’s political club, and he used to go to the meetings as a little kid. So there’s all the reason to give him the benefit of any doubt and get behind him as he begins his public service.

5:33 Speaker 1 I just did, uh so that I mean, I think you gave it a lot of great revelations to everybody since the other guy’s DNA matched. I mean, as a kid is definitely innocent. Yeah, was he was he on the scene?

5:49 Speaker 2 No, none of them were. In fact, one of the five that was convicted wasn’t even in Central Park at the time. He went down with his friend who was being questioned by police. They started questioning about the park and he didn’t understand what they were saying, and they asked him, were you in the park and he said yes,

6:10 but he actually wasn’t in the park. There were all kinds of mistakes made in the you know what was.

6:19 Speaker 1 What a tragedy, What a tragedy. Get these kids.

6:23 Speaker 2 And by the way, John the Center Park jogger and her name is now known Trisha Miley. She and I served together on the board of Achilles, that’s the running club to the disabled. And she was interviewed in a special they did on her on NBC about ten years ago and she said, there were two crimes committed in

6:45 this situation. One was what happened to me, and one was what happened to the people who didn’t attack me. So she understands that. You know, in some of the other documentaries they take shots at her, which I thought was totally out of line.

6:57 Speaker 1 But Governor, I insist maybe you even get her to come on on one of our shows in the future, because this story is such a tragic story. It has to be told over and over because innocent people should not go to jail.

7:12 Speaker 2 Yeah, she’s a wonderful woman. She lives in Florida. She’s still part of our organization, and I’ll talk to her about that. I’m sure she’ll do it well.

7:20 Speaker 1 Thank you and Governor have a great Fourth of July weekend, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

7:26 Speaker 2 So far, so good, John, Thank you. Take care.