 The Ramble where the encounter between Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper occurred. | |
| Date | May 25, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Location | Central Park, New York City |
| Filmed by | Christian Cooper |
| Participants | Amy Cooper Christian Cooper |
| Charges | Amy Cooper: filing a false police report (dismissed Feb 2021) |
On May 25, 2020, a confrontation occurred between Christian Cooper, a Black birdwatcher, and Amy Cooper (unrelated), a White dogwalker from Canada, in a section of New York City's Central Park known as the Ramble.
Amy's dog was unleashed in the Ramble, an area where leashing is required for the safety of the wildlife; she allegedly declined Christian's request that she leash her dog. Christian Cooper then told Amy Cooper if she was going to do what she likes, he would do what he likes and she would not like it. He then called the dog. When Amy Cooper said the dog would not come to him, he beckoned the dog toward him with a dog treat, Amy yelled "Don't you touch my dog!". Christian then recorded Amy, who called 9-1-1 and said, "There is an African American man—I am in Central Park—he is recording me and threatening myself and my dog. Please, send the cops immediately!" By the time New York City Police Department officers responded, both parties had left.
The incident happened the same day as the arrest and murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Both incidents gained nearly instant media coverage due to video recordings being shared across social media.[1] The month after, the New York state legislature passed a law classifying false police reports against protected groups of people—including race, gender, and religion—as a hate crime.
Shortly after the incident Amy's employer, investment firm Franklin Templeton, fired her and said in a statement that they "do not tolerate racism of any kind". Her suit against them for wrongful termination, in which she claimed they “caused her such severe emotional distress that she was suicidal,”[2] was quickly dismissed.[3] On July 6, 2020, the Manhattan District Attorney announced that Amy Cooper had been charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to one year in jail. The charges against her were dropped in February 2021 after she completed an educational course on racial identity. Amy left the United States and returned to her native Canada, citing doxing and death threats as among the reasons for doing so.
Christian cautioned against focusing on one individual and emphasized the wider problem of institutional racism in the United States. He wrote about the incident, his experiences birding, and the activity in general in his book Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. In an effort to make the birdwatching community more inclusive, he also hosted a National Geographic TV show Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2024.
- ^ Wong, Julia Carrie (December 27, 2020). "The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
The video footage of the two incidents loomed over the strange, violent summer of coronavirus and civil unrest as a kind of digital diptych representing the state of racism – and whiteness – in America in 2020.
- ^ "Woman sues employer who fired her for calling police on Black birdwatcher | New York | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
- ^ "Amy Cooper, "Central Park Karen," loses lawsuit claiming she was unfairly fired - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. September 23, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2024.