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Washington Post, May 26, 2020 at 7:36 a.m. EDT
A black birdwatcher asked a white woman to leash her dog in Central
Park. She called the police instead.
By Teo Armus
Christian Cooper was birdwatching deep in the woods of Manhattan’s
Central Park when he noticed a rogue cocker spaniel digging up the
shrubbery around him.
Many of the birds he spots come for the dense plants, so he approached
the dog’s owner early on Monday with a request: Could she leash up the
canine, as the park rules required?
Amy Cooper said she would be calling the police instead.
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my
life,” the white woman told him, pulling out her iPhone and dialing 911.
Less than 24 hours later after a video of their exchange went online,
she has lost her dog, her anonymity, and temporarily, her job — the
latest incident in a long, too-familiar pattern of white people calling
the police on black people for any number of everyday activities:
Barbecuing. Playing golf. Swimming at a pool.
Time to add a new outdoor pastime to that list: Birdwatching.
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“I don’t think there’s an African American person in America who hasn’t
experienced something like this at some point,” Christian Cooper, a
57-year-old science editor, told The Washington Post in an interview. “I
don’t shy away from confronting the scofflaw when I see it. Otherwise,
the park would be unusable — not just to us birders but to anybody who
enjoys the beauty."
Amid the pandemic, people are paying more attention to tweets. And not
the Twitter kind.
Christian Cooper — who is not related to Amy — had gotten up early on
Memorial Day to head to the Ramble, a heavily wooded section of Central
Park designed to resemble a wild garden. With its rocky outcrops and
thick canopy, the area makes for an especially inviting stopover for
birds on their northward migration, he said.
An avid birder since childhood, Cooper had been making daily trips in
recent weeks to peek at the wildfowl stopping by for some refuge from
the urban sprawl. In recent weeks, scarlet tanagers, ovenbirds, and the
especially elusive mourning warblers had all sought out the avian oasis.
The novel coronavirus shut down the city this spring along with its busy
dog runs. Authorities wanted to ensure that pets’ humans were staying
six feet apart, and the Ramble — already an occasional target for loose
puppies — became a canine playground.
On a nearly daily basis, he had seen unleashed pooches digging up the
soil, ruining the delicate habitat and disturbing the birds. He had
often asked unaware owners to restrain their pets, sometimes on camera,
he said, and he carried around some dog treats for this very purpose.
Monday morning was no different.
Around 7:30 a.m., he spotted rowdy, 2-year-old Henry grazing through the
brush, as his human, an investment banker in yoga pants and a face mask,
was standing right by a sign saying all dogs must be leashed.
When Christian Cooper asked her to follow the rules, she refused. He
keeps dog treats on hand for noncompliant pet owners, he said, and tried
to toss one to the dog.
As he started recording, she threatened to call the police.
At that point, he told The Post, he had only one option. “I can be
racially intimidated and kowtow to her,” he said, but “I’m not going to
participate in my own dehumanization."
Central Park this morning: This woman's dog is tearing through the
plantings in the Ramble. ME: Ma'am, dogs in the...
Posted by Christian Cooper on Monday, May 25, 2020
“Please call the cops,” he said on video. “Please tell them whatever
you’d like.”
She did, assuming an increasingly loud voice over the phone that to some
on social media made her sound as if she was being physically attacked.
In the meantime, she wrapped a blue leash around Henry, seemingly
choking the yelping dog before clipping it on.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department told The Post that
officers responded to a report of an assault in the Ramble at 8:10 a.m.
Monday. When they arrived on the scene, they found only a woman and
issued no summonses and made no arrests.
Amy Cooper did not immediately respond to a call and email requesting
comment from The Post. But speaking to WNBC, she offered an apology to
Christian Cooper and his family.
“It was unacceptable and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone who’s
seen that video, everyone that’s been offended,” she told the TV station
Monday evening. “Everyone who thinks of me in a lower light — I
understand why they do.”
By then, however, it appeared to be too late.
As of early Tuesday, the video had been viewed nearly 20 million times.
Her employer, the investment firm Franklin Templeton, said it had placed
her on administrative leave. The animal rescue where she adopted Henry
had taken him back. As some on social media called for an investigation
into her past work with black colleagues, #FireAmyCooper was trending on
Twitter.
Franklin Leonard
✔
@franklinleonard
· 10h
Replying to @franklinleonard
How many times has Amy Cooper said behind closed doors that a black
co-worker “wasn’t a team player,” “isn’t one of us,” “made her
uncomfortable.”
How many times has she just not been able to put her finger on it, but
just doesn’t think they’re the right candidate for the job?
Franklin Leonard
✔
@franklinleonard
At @FTI_US, At @Citi before that.
How many times has she already done this when it wasn’t on video?
How many Amy Cooper’s do you have working at your company? In your
community? How much damage have they done?
Are you an Amy Cooper? How much damage have you done?
4,096
10:06 PM - May 25, 2020
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691 people are talking about this
❄Mikki Kendall❄
✔
@Karnythia
Amy Cooper made a choice. Not a mistake. Not an error in judgment. A
choice. She chose racism, fully and deliberately chose to attempt to put
a Black man in harm's way for the "offense" of asking her to obey leash
laws. She was going to try to ruin his life, if not take it.
7,175
2:30 AM - May 26, 2020
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1,853 people are talking about this
They mentioned the case of Emmett Till, and “To Kill a Mockingbird,”
both examples of false accusations lodged by white women at black men.
Many, including Christian Cooper himself, pointed to the case of Ahmaud
Arbery, a black jogger who was shot down and killed in Georgia by a
group of white men earlier this year, 74 days before anyone was arrested.
But Christian Cooper also said things have already gone too far. During
a pandemic, we all needed to be kinder to each other — and respect the
rules.
“I’m not interested in repercussions,” he said. “It’s unfortunate what
happened. There was definitely a lapse in judgment. But she put the dog
on the leash, and I don’t need to see anything else happen to her.”
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