Woman Who Called The Cops On Black Man Birdwatching In New York Sues The Company Who Fired Her For ‘Discrimination’
Amy Cooper, the white woman who was filmed threatening to call the police on a Black man in Central Park last year might have got off scot-free on charges of discrimination but she’s using the same approach to make a case for herself. A year after George Floyd’s murder and an interaction that put her in headlines, Cooper is suing her employer for “false dismissal.”
A complaint filed by Cooper on Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court Cooper claims she was fired by her former employer without proper investigation.
In her complaint, Cooper accused Franklin Templeton (a financial advisory firm) of terminating her without a proper investigation and “falsely portraying her as racist.”
“In the complaint, Cooper said the company’s actions’ ’caused her such severe emotional distress that she was suicidal,'” according to The Guardian. “She is seeking unspecified damages for race and gender discrimination, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.”
The case against Amy Cooper was dropped earlier this year.
Cooper became social media famous in May 2020 after she accused Christian Cooper of threatening her during an encounter in Central Park. Cooper was facing a misdemeanor charge of false reporting because of the encounter.
A prosecutor asked for Cooper’s case to be dismissed because she learned things in her therapeutic program about her racial bias. According to prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, Cooper’s therapist claimed that the sessions she participated in where a moving experience where she learned a lot.
“I am far more outraged by the U.S. Congress, which continues to deny the mostly Black and brown people of the District of Columbia statehood, and the representation every American deserves, than by anything Amy Cooper did,” Christian Cooper told The New York Times about the case being dropped. “That gross racial injustice could be fixed by Congress now, today, and that is what people should be focused on, not last year’s events in Central Park.”
Updated: October 14, 2020.
Amy Cooper, the white woman who called police on a Black man who had been birdwatching in Central Park this past May, is now being charged for making a second 911 call about the encounter.
In May, the Manhattan district attorney announced that Cooper, the white woman who called the police on a Black man who was birdwatching in Central Park, would face prosecution.
On May 25 of this year, Cooper was involved in an incident now referred to as “the Central Park birdwatching incident. At the time, Cooper had been walking with her dog through Central Park when she was confronted by a Black man named Christian Cooper who asked her to put her dog on a leash. Cooper and her dog were in an area of the park where her dog was supposed to be on a leash in a wooded area of Central Park called the Ramble. Their confrontation escalated when Amy Cooper refused Christian Cooper’s request. Cooper became upset and claimed that she was going to call the police, Christian Cooper turned on his phone and began to record.
According to the criminal complaint and a statement made in court, Amy Cooper actually made a second call to police that was previously unreported. The complaint claims that Cooper repeated the accusation, and added that Christian Cooper “tried to assault her.”
“When responding officers arrived, Ms. Cooper admitted that the male had not ‘tried to assault’ or come into contact with her,” a statement from the District Attorney’s office asserted.
In a statement, released by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. Amy Cooper’s conduct is being described as racist and her actions as part of “hoax.”
“Our Office is committed to safety, justice, and anti-racism, and we will hold people who make false and racist 911 calls accountable,” Vance stated. “As alleged in the complaint, Amy Cooper engaged in racist criminal conduct when she falsely accused a Black man of trying to assault her in a previously unreported second call with a 911 dispatcher. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed in the police response to Ms. Cooper’s hoax. “Our Office will pursue a resolution of this case which holds Ms. Cooper accountable while healing our community, restoring justice, and deterring others from perpetuating this racist practice.”
In the video, Christian Cooper remains calm and relatively quiet while Amy Cooper frantically tells police he had threatened her and her dog.
The video begins with Amy Cooper pulling her dog by the collar and asking Christian Cooper to “Please don’t come close to me.” At one point she moves closer to Christian Cooper saying “Sir, I’m asking you to stop recording me,” In response, Cooper asks the woman to keep her distance. (It’s important to note that it’s unsure as to whether he was doing this for safety measures because of Coronavirus or something else.)
Amy Cooper then tells Christian Cooper in the video that she plans on calling the police saying “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life. Soon she gets on the phone saying “He is recording me and threatening me and my dog.” During the call, Amy Cooper appears to struggle to restrain his dog while she puts him on a leash. At one point, the dog even appears to be choking. “I’m being threatened by a man in the Ramble,” Amy says in the phone, growing increasingly distraught. “Please send the cops immediately!”
The video ends with Christian Cooper telling the woman “Thank You.” Soon after taking the recording, Christian Cooper posted it on Facebook.
In an interview with CNN, Amy Cooper apologized. “I’m not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way.”
The New York Police Department also told CNN that when officers finally responded to the scene, neither Christian Cooper nor Amy Cooper was present. “I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things,” Christian Cooper told CNN. “Unfortunately we live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are seen as targets. This woman thought she could exploit that to her advantage, and I wasn’t having it.”
According to CNN, Christian Cooper stressed the importance of keeping dogs on leash saying.
Central Park attracts over 230 bird species. Christian Cooper explained “That’s important to us birders because we know that dogs won’t be off-leash at all and we can go there to see the ground-dwelling birds…People spend a lot of money and time planting in those areas as well. Nothing grows in a dog run for a reason.”
Speaking to CNN, Amy Cooper said that her “entire life is being destroyed right now” explaining further that she was “was just scared.” Amy Cooper has since been placed on administrative leave by her employer and her dog has been surrendered to the shelter he was adopted from years ago until the dispute is resolved.
In a Facebook post related to the incident, Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue Inc. confirmed that the dog had been voluntarily surrendered.
“Thank you to the concerned public for reaching out to us about a video involving a dog that was adopted from our rescue a few years ago,” they assured. “The owner has voluntarily surrendered the dog in question to our rescue while this matter is being addressed. Our mission remains the health and safety of our rescued dogs. The dog is now in our rescue’s care and he is safe and in good health. We will not be responding to any further inquiries about the situation, either publicly or privately. Thank you for your understanding.”
Recently, Christian Cooper spoke out in defense of the woman who used police to threaten him.
Speaking to NPR in an interview, Cooper urged people reaching out to Amy Cooper to remain civil. “Now, should she be defined by that, you know, couple-of-seconds moment? I can’t answer that. I think that’s really up to her and what she does going forward,” Christian Cooper said in the interview. “I am told there has been death threats and that is wholly inappropriate and abhorrent and should stop immediately… I find it strange that people who were upset that … that she tried to bring death by cop down on my head, would then turn around and try to put death threats on her head. Where is the logic in that? Where does that make any kind of sense?”
Now Cooper is facing a charge of falsely reporting an incident in the third degree.
According to District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Manhattan police are committing themselves to holding perpetrators of false reporting responsible. “At this time I would like to encourage anyone who has been the target of false reporting to contact our office. We are strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable,” the said in a statement.
As of Monday, Cooper has been issued a desk appearance ticket and is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 14. According to The New York Times, if she is convicted she “could face a conditional discharge or be sentenced to community service or counseling rather than jail time.”