Controversy
On June 11, 2000, there were a number of arrests that were result of the assault of many women in Central Park, mainly by African-American and Dominican men after the parade. The attacks, which were videotaped by onlookers, led to the arrest and prosecution of many of those involved. Manuel Vargas, a Dominican American who was the suspected ringleader, was quoted by the press as saying he "was just having fun".
In 2007, the presence of gangs such as the Latin Kings and the Bloods and have been recorded at the event.
In June 2010, controversy arose after organizers selected telenovela actor Osvaldo Ríos, who served three months in a Puerto Rican prison in 2004 for assaulting his former girlfriend after a domestic violence incident as the parade's "International Godfather." Many confirmed participants such as U.S. Representative Luis Guiterrez and corporate sponsors such as Verizon withdrew their participation and endorsements due to his controversial past. After mounting pressure from both the media, politicians, public officials, and domestic violence organizations, Rios decided to not attend the parade after discussing the matter with his children and U.S. Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez. He was replaced at the last minute by singer Marc Anthony, who was accompanied by his wife Jennifer Lopez.
In past interviews, actor and comedian John Leguizamo had always claimed Puerto Rican ancestry via his father's side, which was one of the reasons that he was selected as the 2011 "Puerto Rican Day Parade Global Ambassador of the Arts". On June 10, 2011, Leguizamo's father, Albert, declared in an interview published in El Diario La Prensa, a Spanish-language newspaper published in New York, that he was not Puerto Rican, but of Colombian ancestry, contradicting his son's past claims of his Puerto Rican ancestry. In response to his father's allegations, Leguizamo stated in an interview, that his grandfather was of Puerto Rican descent. A spokesman for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade stated that Leguizamo would not be stripped of his ambassadorship, allowing him to participate in the June 2011 parade.
Read more about this topic: Puerto Rican Day Parade
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“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
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