Six years ago, Mr. Salaam moved to Georgia; Harlem had become so expensive. He sees the lack of affordable housing as the area’s chief concern, and he is committed to working with developers to create more. Mr. Salaam’s ascent suggests the political appeal of lived experience over the attraction of outlier ideologies that have been cultivated at a privileged distance. Despite what he suffered at the hands of a warped system, Mr. Salaam maintains a position on policing that is comparatively moderate, calling for better and more sensitive policing, not a world without it. One of his political supporters is a former corrections officer who first encountered Mr. Salaam in a Lower Manhattan courthouse in the early stages of his long ordeal.

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Persons: Salaam, Ms, Jordan, Harlemites, Brown, George Floyd, “, ”, Derrick Taitt, “ It’s, I’ll, Taitt Organizations: Calhoun School, Mr, Community Association of, East Harlem Locations: Georgia, Harlem, Lower Manhattan