It’s Friday. We’ll follow through on the decision to exonerate two men convicted of Malcolm X’s assassination. We’ll also see how Mayor Bill de Blasio hopes to ban horse-drawn carriages again.

“I don’t need this court, these prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me that I am innocent,” Muhammad Aziz said Thursday.

The guilty verdict against him in the 1965 murder of civil rights leader Malcolm X was about to be overturned. But first, he addressed the court in a solemn voice that did not waver: “I am an 83 year old man who has been victimized by the criminal justice system.

Aziz and his co-accused Khalil Islam, who died in 2009, were cleared Thursday, their convictions overturned by Justice Ellen Biben of the Manhattan State Supreme Court. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. had submitted a 43-page written petition with the two men’s attorneys asking him to overturn the convictions. When she did, the courtroom erupted into applause.

The extraordinary moment came after a 22-month review of the case initiated by Vance’s office and conducted jointly with the men’s attorneys. She concluded that they had not received a fair trial. He came to the same conclusions that historians and scholars had reached years earlier: the case against the two men was questionable. No physical evidence linked Aziz and Islam to the murder. Both had alibis.

[Read the motion to vacate convictions in the murder of Malcolm X.]

Vance apologized on behalf of all law enforcement. Aziz and two of the sons of Islam made it clear that they did not consider this a day of celebration.

“I hope the same system that was responsible for this travesty of justice will also take responsibility for the immeasurable harm it has caused me,” Aziz said, adding that his conviction was part of a process of corruption “which is all too familiar to black people, even in 2021.

A third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, was also convicted in the 1966 trial. He confessed to the murder but insisted that Aziz and Islam were innocent. His conviction stands; he was granted work release in 1988 and parole in 2010.

The investigation that led to the exemption did not provide an alternative explanation for the shooting, which took place in front of an audience of hundreds as Malcolm X began a speech. He also did not identify other people involved in the assassination.

Time

If you missed that partial lunar eclipse overnight, here’s what to expect today: mid-40s sun and temperatures instead. The evening without an eclipse will generally be clear with temperatures in the mid-1930s.

parking on the alternative side

Valid until November 25 (Thanksgiving day).

A transport ban? De Blasio tries again.

Six weeks into his term, Mayor Bill de Blasio resurrects an old campaign pledge to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City.

Blasio’s administration is preparing legislation that would phase out cars in Central Park and elsewhere, replacing them with “show cars”, according to internal e-mails from the town hall marked “confidential”. The emails didn’t explain what “show cars” are, but in the past, proponents of a ban have pushed for horse-drawn vehicles to be replaced with electric vehicles that look like old-fashioned cars.

My colleague Dana Rubinstein writes that city council should approve a transportation ban, and in emails city officials have indicated they want a bill ready by December 16, the last council meeting. municipal council planned before de Blasio left office.

Danielle Filson, spokesperson for the mayor, said de Blasio had always wanted a ban on horse-drawn carriages and he hoped city council would consider one again.

In recent months, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets – the main advocate for the ban – has paid a lobbying firm $ 7,000 a month to lobby for a plan like the equipment plan. electric, indicate the archives of the city. In October, after a horse-car collision, the group spent around $ 200,000 on TV and digital ads calling for the industry to be eliminated.

Supporters of a ban have long argued that horses are abused, a claim that horse-drawn carriage drivers like Christina Hansen deny.

“We’re here, in the middle of New York’s great recovery from the pandemic, international tourists are coming back, Broadway reopens and they’re coming back and taking carriage rides,” she said. “The Christmas carriage ride is a tradition in New York. And here you have Bill de Blasio playing the Grinch.

The latest news from New York

“Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference,” said MP Linda Rosenthal, “but for a lot of people on the West Side, it wasn’t a small thing.”

Rosenthal, a Democrat who represents the Upper West Side of Manhattan, spoke of a freeway adoption sign on the south side of the West Side Highway, near the West 79th Street exit. In the middle, in big letters, was the name of Donald J. Trump.

It was retired about 10 days ago. Alana Morales, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Transportation, said the agreement between the Trump Organization and the maintenance contractor for this section of the West Side Highway expired on November 7. “Therefore,” she said via email, “the sign has been removed.”

Morales said the new highway adoption sponsor for that stretch of road is Glenwood Management, a politically influential real estate developer of high-rise apartment buildings.

It was not immediately clear how much it had cost to sponsor the approximately four miles in question. The sponsors pay one of the three private maintenance providers directly. An email to Adopt a Highway Maintenance Corporation, the company responsible for this section of the West Side Highway, was not immediately answered. The Trump Organization also did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The road sign bore Trump’s name for years. In the distance – about half a mile south of the sign – was an apartment complex that was once called Trump Place. But large gold letters spelling Trump’s name on three buildings there were removed after Trump won the presidency in 2016. He had previously been involved in the project, but by the time he announced his candidacy, the Chicago-based Equity Residential company owned the three buildings for 10 years.

Richard Robbins, who runs a company that places college students and graduates on internships in the life sciences, circulated a petition demanding the sign be removed after reading Department of Transportation rules on the adoption program of a road, which he said prohibited office candidates from participating. More than 1,600 people signed the petition

“I think the petition struck a chord because people were offended that Trump was associated with ‘beautification,'” a term that Robbins said was at odds with what “for many of us, its name alone means “.

Rosenthal said she contacted Henry Gutman, the transport commissioner, and other officials in her department. “I was pushing them gently, sometimes more urgently, to get rid of this sign,” she said. “It got so many people agitated.”

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METROPOLITAN Agenda

The good stuff

Dear Diary:

My husband and I were leaving our community garden on West 48th Street. Wanting some coffee, we walked west towards the Hudson.

On our way, we stopped to chat with a parks worker who was holding a spray can while trying to remove graffiti from the sign with the maple leaf logo hanging outside the park at 48th Street and at tenth avenue.

We admired his work and discussed the quality of the graffiti.

“What are you using to suppress this?” My husband asked.

The man glanced at the label on the box, then looked up.

“Graffiti remover,” he said.

– Laralu Smith

Illustrated by Agnès Lee. Send your submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we can meet here. Until tomorrow. – JB

PS Here is today’s one Mini crossword and Spelling. You can find all our puzzles here.

Melissa Guerrero, Jeffrey Furticella, Rick Martinez and Olivia Parker contributed to New York Today. You can join the team at [email protected].

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