White Woman Fired From Job After Calling Cops On Black Man In Central Park
Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the cops on a Black man in Central Park over the weekend as seen in a now-viral video, was fired on Tuesday.
Cooper’s employer, Franklin Templeton, announced on Twitter that it made the decision to terminate her after conducting an internal review of the incident in the park, adding, “We do not tolerate racismof any kind.”
The asset management firm had placed Cooper on administrative leave late Monday during its investigation.
Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.
— Franklin Templeton (@FTI_US) May 26, 2020
Earlier on Monday, Christian Cooper (no relation to Amy) posted a video on Facebookof Amy Cooper calling the police on him after he reportedly asked her to place her dog on its leash. They were in an area called the Ramble, where off-leash dogs are not permitted.
In the video, Amy Cooper threatens to call the cops, saying, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.” She then places the call, repeatedly identifying Christian Cooper, who is Black, as an “African American man” and saying he was recording and “threatening” her.
Cooper, who is a board member of the conservation group the Audubon Society and was birding in the park at the time, said in his Facebook post that Amy Cooper’s “inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn.”
As HuffPost’s Zeba Blay wrote, when Amy Cooper called the police, she “knew exactly what she was doing” by wielding the power of law enforcement, which has a long racist history in the United States of unjust killings of Black people.
Oh, when Karens take a walk with their dogs off leash in the famous Bramble in NY’s Central Park, where it is clearly posted on signs that dogs MUST be leashed at all times, and someone like my brother (an avid birder) politely asks her to put her dog on the leash. pic.twitter.com/3YnzuATsDm
— Melody Cooper (@melodyMcooper) May 25, 2020
Amy Cooper apologized on Monday, telling NBC News that her behavior was “unacceptable.”
In turn, Christian Cooper told CNN on Tuesday that if her apology was “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.”
The Audubon Society said in a statement Tuesday that the outdoors “should be safeand welcoming for all people.”
“Black Americans often face terrible daily dangers in outdoor spaces, where they are subjected to unwarranted suspicion, confrontation, and violence,” Rebeccah Sanders, senior vice president of Audubon, said. “We unequivocally condemn racist sentiments, behavior, and systems that undermine the humanity, rights, and freedom of Black people. We are grateful Christian Cooper is safe. He takes great delight in sharing New York City’s birds with others.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
