Amy Cooper calling cops ‘pulled the pin on the race grenade’: Christian Cooper
Central Park “Karen” “pulled the pin on the race grenade” when she called the cops on black birdwatcher Christian Cooper, he said in a new interview.
“She was going to tap into a deep, deep, dark vein of racism — of racial bias — that runs through this country and has done for centuries,” Harvard-educated scientist Christian told Gayle King in a “Justice for All” special on CBS News.
“She basically pulled the pin on the race grenade and tried to lob it at me,” he added.
The white dog-walker, whose name is Amy Cooper, went viral after she was filmed calling the cops, telling the birdwatcher she was going to “tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
Their confrontation on May 25 sparked mass outrage over racism — just a day before video emerged of the police-custody death of George Floyd that finally sparked anti-racism protests around the world.
“I don’t know whether she’s a racist or not,” Christian said of Amy, who is no relation. “I don’t know her life. I don’t know how she lives it. That act was unmistakably racist even if she didn’t realize it in the moment.”
“I’m not sure someone’s life should be defined by 60 seconds of poor judgment,” he continued.
Christian said “a little bit of the irony” is that their confrontation initially “had nothing to do with race” as he just wanted her to leash her dog in the park’s Ramble.
“It was just a conflict between a dog-walker and a birder,” he said.
Video of the exchange led to Amy getting called a “Karen,” social media shorthand for overreacting white women. Mayor Bill de Blasio called it “racism, plain and simple.”
Amy — who later apologized for the incident — was fired from her job at the investment firm Franklin Templeton, while the Central Park Civic Association called for her to be banned from the park.