When Amy Cooper, a woman from New York who is white, phoned 911 from Central Park's isolated patch on Memorial Day, she reported an "African-American" man was giving her life threats, emphasizing the race in the phone call. She was with her dog unleashed.
The story came out on the New York Times and featured the viral video of the phone conversation when she labeled these people with racial tones.
Moments prior to the call, the man named Christian Cooper had requested for her to leash her dog, which she refused to do. Cooper is an avid bird-watcher.
On Monday, Amy was charged out of the false report and misdemeanor that may sentence her to up to a year in jail. According to the New York Times, this is "the latest fallout from an encounter that resonated across the country and provoked intense discussions about how Black people are harmed when sham reports to the police are made about them by white people."
The viral video has been watched more than 40 million times, and is regarded as an example of racial treatment in the city, in the midst of its "progressive ideals."
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This pending charge against Amy seems to be one of the first that a white person in the country has faced for wrongfully phoning police authorities to complain about a Black individual.
Manhattan's district attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. said, "We are strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable," said Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney.
On Monday, Amy was requested to appear with the police authorities and is scheduled to be arraigned this October 14. If she is convicted, she might either face sentence via community service, counseling, or conditional discharge, instead of serving the required number of months in prison.
As of press time, she has not issued comments about the incident, but her lawyer, Robert Barnes has reiterated that she is not guilty of the race-related crime. The lawyer also criticized what he named as a "cancel culture epidemic" of the times, the report added.
"She lost her job, her home, and her public life," Barnes noted. "Now some demand her freedom? How many lives are we going to destroy over misunderstood 60-second videos on social media?"
The man whom she referred to also defended himself, saying he "had zero involvement" in the case against Amy.
"I have no reaction," Cooper said.
People are not usually charged out of a false police report according to legal specialists, however, Amy's case is different. The evidence against her was strong enough to produce a case, especially that she made a false report targeted against Black citizens.
"To the extent that this woman was arguably deploying racial stereotypes and weaponizing them, it will make people think twice. It is a big deal," Harvard Law School professor Nancy Gertner commented.
