Amy Cooper: New York Woman Calls Police on Black Man Who Asked Her to Leash Dog

[dalton99a]

https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/amy-cooper-video-new-york/

Amy Cooper: New York Woman Calls Police on Black Man Who Asked Her to Leash Dog

Amy Cooper is a white New York woman recorded in a viral video calling police on a black man who asked her to leash her dog in the Ramble section of Central Park on Memorial Day. The incident on Monday, May 25, quickly spread on social media after the video was posted by the man she called 911 on, Christian Cooper, and Cooper’s sister, Melody Cooper. The video has been viewed more than 5 million times as of Monday night.

The video shows Amy Cooper telling Christian Cooper she would be calling the police on him and saying that she would tell dispatchers he was threatening her and her dog. The video does not show Christian Cooper making any threats, but does show him standing away from Cooper and encouraging her to call the police, while also asking her to stay away from him. Christian Cooper said he started recording the incident when she refused to put a leash on her dog, and when she moved toward him.

The video also shows Amy Cooper’s dog appearing to choke and struggle against his leash while Cooper tried to make a 911 call. No one was arrested and it is not clear if police are planning to investigate the incident further.

Christian Cooper, 57, is a former Marvel Comics editor and writer who now works as the senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications. Christian Cooper is a birder and says he often watches birds in Central Park. The video’s spread was helped by a tweet by his sister, a science fiction and horror writer who has worked at CW and HBO. Amy Cooper, who did not respond to a request for comment from Heavy, works at Franklin Templeton Investments.


Amy Cooper


Christian Cooper

[still_one]

1. I hope they charge her with filing a false police report

[dalton99a]

5. +1

[Hortensis]

34. It translates to "I'm going to get you arrested for being black."

Note that she was wrong. Video helps a lot.

[likesmountains 52]

2. And that poor dog...she's kind of hanging him.

[Demovictory9]

24. dog surrendered

[mcar]

3. Man is Harvard grad and science editor

Link to tweet

?s=20

Christian Cooper, whom Amy Cooper tried to get killed by the police, is a Harvard graduate, a former Marvel Comics editor and now the senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications

I need the “progressive” left to stop pretending income equality will solve racism.

[dalton99a]

6. +1

[betsuni]

10. +1

[Cirque du So-What]

13. And while we're at it...

Stop feigning shock that incidents like this can happen in (gasp!) New York City instead of some red state peckerwood paradise. It's so widespread that no place is immune.

[dalton99a]

14. And the women caught on video calling cops on minorities didn't work at Waffle House

Most were educated professionals

[Cirque du So-What]

16. Exactly

It never ceases to amaze how close to the surface this behavior lies. With some people, the least little thing can unleash a torrent of attempted retribution based on race. They most assuredly wish serious harm or death upon the target of their rage.

[mcar]

32. Yep. It's everywhere.

[Hortensis]

35. Let's not pretend it isn't the SINGLE BIGGEST thing we can do

to "solve" racism. (How about lessen?) All humans of all races are wired to widely varying degrees from mild suspicion ranging to intense hostility toward what is different, but money is power and having it changes societal attitudes on a large scale.

Everything that should be done that hasn't already been will be by empowered people. Minorities with money expect a lot more and get downright demanding about it, and most who link money with worth (almost everyone to some degree) agree those who have it are entitled.

Right now we're in the middle of a huge cultural backlash by the losers against way too much change too fast -- gender, sexual roles, race -- and specifically against the democracy and electoral majorities that created it. If it seems like the losers are willing to drag us all over a cliff out of spite, it's because they, and their current leaders, are.

What we're currently living through is not a failure of the equalizing power of democracy, legal advances, and good incomes, but a willingness to burn the nation down to destroy all the hated majorities have accomplished.

[mcar]

4. The Animal Rescue has taken possession of Amy Cooper's dog.

Link to tweet

?s=20

The Animal Rescue has taken possession of Amy Cooper’s dog.

[MustLoveBeagles]

8. Good

[radius777]

7. Just proves how much racial justice matters

and isn't all about 'class' issues (although class obviously is important).

Because as Malcolm X noted, even a 'black man from Harvard' is still 'just a nigger' in the eyes of many/most whites.

This black man is/was accomplished upper class professional - yet was treated as 'just a scary nigger in the park threatening the safety of a (mediocre) white woman'.

[dalton99a]

21. We still live in a culture that trusts the word of a white person over that of any person of color

Exhibit A: Donald Trump

[Renew Deal]

9. That video is crazy.

She clearly has issues. I can't imagine what that is about.

[Suburban Warrior]

11. Franklin Templeton...

just suspended her

Link to tweet

?s=20

[smirkymonkey]

30. Good! She was clearly out of her mind and blatantly racist.

That man wasn't being the slightest bit threatening and she knew it, but she took the opportunity to try to get him arrested anyway. Not only that, but she was abusing that poor dog. I am glad she is going to pay for her racist, insane behavior.

[Cha]

12. Yeah, and tells Christian Cooper she's going to say "he's threatening her life".

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[dalton99a]

15. +1. Sounded like she had experience doing it

[Iggo]

18. Sounds like she was threatening him with Death By Cop.

[Cha]

19. Good point!

[Iggo]

17. Ouch. Name and employer.

Too bad she never heard of the internet.

[roamer65]

20. Wow...just a simple "I'm sorry, I'll put him on a leash right now." would have solved the problem.

The woman has serious mental issues.

[UTUSN]

22. Clearly, she's not open to people or thoughts that are not like hers.

[Demovictory9]

23. she wasn't shy about the racism "I'm going tell the cops there is an afri am man threatening"

wow. then the hysterics in her voice while talking to the cops

[dalton99a]

26. She was well aware of the implications

[Demovictory9]

29. yep. she was counting on the cops arresting, beating or doing worse to Mr Birder

[Demovictory9]

25. dailymail picked up the story.. now she's a worldwide poster child of racism

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8355729/White-woman-walking-dog-leash-calls-COPS-black-man-asked-on.html

[dalton99a]

28. "People are sitting on Rikers Island on the basis of nothing more than an accusation"

'This is serious. Happened today in Manhattan. As a public defender for over a decade, I have tried cases where the Manhattan DA uses a "hysterical 911 call" as categorical evidence of guilt. Usually there's no video like this to refute it,' Eliza Orlins explained.

'What happens: White lady calls the cops on Black man. Cops believe her. He gets arrested and then arraigned. Outrageous bail gets set. His family cannot afford to buy his freedom. He gets sent to Rikers Island, where he sits for any number of days, months, or years.

'Eventually the case resolves in some way--gets dismissed or he takes a plea to the charge or a lesser offense to get out because he's threatened with doing serious time. Meanwhile, he's potentially lost his job, his home, his children. Right now, it is even worse.

[Hortensis]

36. Yes. Dreadful before, and now with the cultural backlash

to great advances in equality even worse. Hard to believe the extent of these depraved behaviors isn't the "worse before it gets better," though.

For all the worse, we are still a nation where most of these people are both despised by society at large and fired for cause if their employers find out. And they're also hemorrhaging critical numbers of traditional allies among the electorate.

Link to tweet

Next release will be that she is no longer with them.

[Demovictory9]

27. Amy Cooper has been put on admin leave from her job

[Luz]

31. What eventually happened? Did the cops show up? Did he

hang around to find out. Did he show them the video? I wish he would have recorded more.

[Boomer]

39. As noted in other articles about the incident...

By the time the police showed up, both people had gone on their way and no report was filed.

But now, knowing the background of her call and her identity, they should cite her for bogus use of 911 and making a false police report.

[Hortensis]

33. She needs to be more careful in choosing her victims. nt

[democrattotheend]

37. I'm assuming they are not related

Even though the have the same last name. Weird coincidence though. IDK what made this woman so scared, but the way she went out of her way to say "African American man" was inexcusable. I can understand if she didn't want to be filmed but there was no reason to bring race into it.

[Boomer]

38. She wasn't scared, she was vindictive

The man video-taping her clearly asked her to step AWAY from him, so she is very obviously not being attacked. The only "threat" he made was to call her dog over with a treat, and as he predicted, that made her livid. Apparently (according to another article I read today), he often used that tactic to pressure dog owners to leash their dogs. That's a very clever, non-aggressive way to prod them into compliance with the leash laws.

She was pissed off that her freedom to ignore the law was being called out. And she immediately recognized that she could take control of the situation by trading on white privilege. She invoked the oldest, most vicious racist trope in the book: A black man is attacking a white woman.

What she did was a crime -- false report, frivolous use of 911 -- and immoral as hell.