‘Sexy Single’ identified as police officer in video of woman being struck during Puerto Rican Day festivities [Update]

    The officer seen striking a woman during last weekend’s festivites for Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia had nominated himself to be one of the Philadelphia Daily News’ 2006 Sexy Singles, reports Philly Confidential. 

    According to the blog, the highway patrol officer seen hitting the woman on the video is Jonathan Josey II. He described himself as having “charm and a magnetic personality.”

    The YouTube video shows a woman being struck by a Philadelphia police officer after she approached another group of officers who appeared to being making an arrest.

    In the video, the woman is then handcuffed and taken away, her face bleeding. She appears to be carrying only a water bottle. A Puerto Rican flag hangs from her pocket.

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    Philly Confidential says that the Philadelphia Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit is investigating the incident.

    UPDATE: City Councilwoman Maria Quiniones Sanchez posted a response to the video via Facebook. It reads:

    “In response to the incident that occurred yesterday during the 50th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade, I strongly believe that was unacceptable police behavior.

    “The Police Commissioner put him on desk duty, and there is an Inernal Affairs Division investigation. Nothing justifies his actions, nothing.

    “That said, as leaders in our community, we also need to have a discussion about the rowdy behavior that continues after the parade.

    “This is a hard day to police. We will seek justice for the victim Ms. Aida Guzman, and use this as a teaching moment to be more pro-active next year.”

    Joanna Otero-Cruz, executive director of the parades organizer, Concilio, issued a statement calling for an investigation of the incident. Her statement follows:

    While thousands of people celebrated at Concilio’s Puerto Rican Day Parade on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, an unexplainable incident was taking place at a community-run activity in North Philadelphia.

    While we have no knowledge of what led to the incident, it is clear from the video that a police officer unnecessarily and brutally struck a woman in the face.

    One of the reasons for Concilio’s founding 50 years ago was to combat police brutality such as the assault shown in this video. Even as we celebrate the tremendous advancements of Philadelphia’s Hispanic community over the decades, we cannot overlook this episode. We call on the Philadelphia Police Department to fully investigate and take appropriate action.

    We thank the thousands of citizens who came out and celebrated Puerto Rican heritage at our very special event on the Parkway, but we cannot fully celebrate until incidents such as this assault in North Philadelphia never happen again.

     

     

    Editor’s Note: An early version of this post incorrectly stated the location of the incident.

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