Woman apologizes after calling cops on man who asked her to leash dog in Central Park
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Throughout the entire video, Amy Cooper is seen pulling on the struggling dog’s collar instead of leashing the dog and controlling the dog via the leash.
Monday, May 25, 2020. Facebook Video Post by Christian Cooper of an interaction with Amy Cooper in Central Park between 7:30 a.m and 8:00 a.m. Amy Cooper placed an Emergency call to report that Christian Cooper (an African American man) was filming and threatening her and her dog.
NEW YORK — The video of a white woman placing an emergency call for police assistance on a black man who asked her to leash her dog in New York City’s Central Park has gone viral; causing outrage on social media.
“I’m going to tell them that there is an African-American man threatening my life,” the woman identified as Amy Cooper says in the video just before calling for police intervention.
CNN and NBC New York reported Amy Cooper was walking her dog Monday morning while Christian Cooper (an African American man) was bird watching in a wooded area of Central Park called the Ramble. A confrontation ensued when Christian asked Amy to leash her dog in the area of the park where leashes are required. (According to the park’s website dogs are supposed to be leashed at all times in the Ramble.)
Christian Cooper recorded video of part of their encounter and posted it on Facebook, where it has since been shared more than 5,000 times with over 3,000 comments. NBC New York reported Christian indicated that he recorded the incident because he wasn’t going to be intimidated. “I’m not going to participate in my own dehumanization. I’m not going to feed into this,” he told NBC New York. “We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and I’m just not going to participate in that.”
Asked if he’d accept Amy Cooper’s apology, Christian told CNN he would “if it’s genuine and if she plans on keeping her dog on a leash in the Ramble going forward, then we have no issues with each other.”
Amy Cooper told CNN that since the video was posted, her “entire life is being destroyed right now.”
In response to an incident involving an employee on May 25th, Franklin Templeton issued the following statement. pic.twitter.com/8f2lMwK0r5
— Franklin Templeton (@FTI_US) May 26, 2020
In addition to being accused of racism, Amy Cooper is being accused of animal cruelty as she appeared to be choking the dog throughout the video by handling the animal by the collar. The dog can be seen struggling throughout the video.
Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue in a statement, via its Facebook account, indicated that the Cocker Spaniel was adopted several years ago and that Amy Cooper had surrendered the dog back to its rescue. “As of this evening, 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,” the statement read.
