UPDATED: 7/8, 10:20 p.m. ET: Christian Cooper told the New York Times that he doesn't want Amy Cooper to be charged, and that he won't cooperate with the Manhattan DA.
“On the one hand, she’s already paid a steep price,” Cooper said. “That’s not enough of a deterrent to others? Bringing her more misery just seems like piling on.”
Cooper added that the DA can pursue charges "without me."
See original story below.
Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the police after a black man asked her to keep her dog on a leash, has been charged for filing a false report.
The New York Times reports that Cooper, who was filmed by Christian Cooper in the Ramble at Central Park, where it is against the rules to have dogs off a leash, will face misdemeanor charges. Christian Cooper was in the area bird watching, and when he approached her requesting she put her dog on its leash, she threatened to call the police. In the video, she told the police via phone that she was being threatened by "an African-American man."
"Today our office initiated a prosecution of Amy Cooper for falsely reporting an incident in the third degree," said Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance. "We are strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable."
The incident inspired New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to authorize a bill that would make it a hate crime to call 911 and cite a false accusation due to race, gender, or relgion.
Shortly after the video went viral, Amy Cooper was fired from her job and surrendered ownership of her dog. At one point in the video, Christian Cooper accused her dog of "tearing through the plantings," and when he approached her with dog treats she screamed at him and told him not to come close to her dog. The clip was recorded on Memorial Day, the same week George Floyd's death at the hands of police provoked protests across the country.
