New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam is facing calls to resign as head of the council’s influential public safety committee after a controversial traffic stop revealed he was driving with out-of-state license plates and allegedly illegal tinted windows.
Salaam, one of the exonerated “Central Park Five,” has also been accused of embellishing his Friday night encounter with an NYPD cop in Harlem, during which the officer pulled him over for the tinted windows but cut him a break when Salaam identified himself.
City Councilman Robert Holden said on social media that Salaam should resign from his position as Public Safety chairman, stating that an elected official using illegal tints and out-of-state plates and using his official title to evade the law is “damning.”.
Holden also noted that Salaam lied about the exchange until the NYPD set the record straight.
Councilman Joe Borelli also joined the fray online, noting that the entire episode was caught on police bodycam.
“What is sad is taking an incident where someone cuts you a break, does right by you, and then misrepresenting the truth to get them in trouble,” Borelli said in another social media post.
According to board of election records, Salaam registered to vote in New York on July 27, 2022, and had 30 days since then to transfer his Georgia vehicle registration to New York under the law. Despite this, Salaam had Georgia license plates on his car until just this week.
