New York prosecutors have charged a white woman who called the police on a black man in Central Park this summer, revealing that she made a second “racist” 911 call. The news unleashed another avalanche of fury at the woman.
A day before the US was consumed with Black Lives Matter protests and riots in late May, Amy Cooper became the poster child for white privilege when she called the police on a black man, the unrelated Christian Cooper, in Central Park, claiming he was “threatening” her life as he asked her to put her dog on a leash.
Also on rt.com ‘Ultimate Karen’ calls cops on ‘dangerous’ black man who asked her to leash dog, gets put on leave after massive backlash (VIDEO)A video of the incident, filmed by the black man, went viral. Cooper was ridiculed online, dubbed ‘Central Park Karen’, had her dog temporarily confiscated and was even fired from her job.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor charge against Cooper on Wednesday, for “falsely reporting an incident in the third degree.” Prosecutors claimed her call amounted to “racist criminal conduct.”
Aside from the call caught on camera, prosecutors revealed that Cooper made a second 911 call, in which she claimed the man had “tried to assault her.”
The charges resurrected a story that’s been buried by the events of the summer. Commenters and pundits savaged Cooper online, with CNN commentator Keith Boykin comparing her call to the false report that led to the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955.
While a massive number of commentators have been accusing the woman of “white privilege” and “racism,” some have defended Cooper. “He threatened her and her dog,” journalist Cassandra Fairbanks tweeted when the story first broke, referring to Christian Cooper’s vague warning to Amy that she was “not going to like” what he would do next, before trying to lure her dog away with food.
Following the encounter, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that penalized calling the police on a black person or member of another “protected class,” if the caller had no reason to believe a crime was being committed. The bill inspired lawmakers in San Francisco, who introduced the Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies (CAREN) Act in July.
Also on rt.com ‘Put your f**king mask on!’: Drive-by mask shaming of Jewish man highlights rising tensions in Covid-19-era NYCThink your friends would be interested? Share this story!