Back in May, a video of Amy Cooper went viral and captured her calling the police on a Black man, when he asked her to put her dog on a leash. She will now face charges. According to @nytimes, Cooper will be charged with making a false police report–a misdemeanor punishable up to one year in jail.
“Today our office initiated a prosecution of Amy Cooper for falsely reporting an incident in the third degree,” Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the district attorney, said. “We are strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable.”
On Monday, Cooper was issued a desk appearance ticket on Monday, and she is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 14. Even if Cooper is convicted,” she could receive a conditional discharge or be sentenced to community service or counseling rather than jail time,” also according to The New York Times.
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If you recall,
Amy Cooper called the police on Christian Cooper (no relation) back in May.
Christian was in the park bird watching, when he noticed Cooper’s dog running free. He simply asked the woman to place her dog on the leash, as the rules regulated. She refused and that’s when the theatrics began.
In the video, Amy told Christian, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.” She proceeded to do so, and the video clearly showed that she had not been threatened by Christian.
Cooper then called the police and said, “I’m in the Ramble, there is a man, African-American, he has a bicycle helmet and he is recording me and threatening me and my dog,” Ms. Cooper, gripping her dog’s collar tightly, says in a hysterical tone to the 911 operator. Before hanging up, she stated,“I am being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately!”
Cooper issued a public apology, once the video went viral.
“I reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions when, in fact, I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash,” Ms. Cooper said in the statement.
She added that when Mr. Cooper remarked that she would not like what he was “going to do next” and then offered her dog treats, she assumed he was threatening her. Mr. Cooper said the remark was merely meant to signal that he planned to offer the treats.
“I assumed we were being threatened when all he had intended to do was record our encounter on his phone,” Ms. Cooper said.
Because of her actions, she was fired from her job at Franklin Templeton, as we reported.
“Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately,” the company tweeted. “We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.”
She also lost her dog but they’ve since been reunited, according to The New York Times.
In an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, Christian stated he felt her apology was sincere and that act
was indeed racist.
“I think her apology is sincere. I’m not sure that in that apology she recognizes that while she may not be or consider herself a racist, that particular act was definitely racist. And the fact that that was her recourse at that moment — granted, it was a stressful situation, a sudden situation — you know, maybe a moment of spectacularly poor judgment. But she went there and had this racist act that she did.”
Christian continued, adding:
“Is she a racist? I can’t answer that. Only she can answer that. And I would submit probably the only way she’s going to answer that is going forward. How she conducts herself and, you know, how she chooses to reflect on this situation and examine it.”
Welp!
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