Amy Cooper, the white woman who became infamous as the “Central Park Karen” for calling police on a Black bird watcher and falsely claiming he threatened her, will face a criminal charge of filing a false police report, according to a New York Times story.
Cooper was asked by Christian Cooper (no relation), a Black man who was out photographing birds in Central Park, to put her dog on a leash, per city law.
While Mr. Cooper recorded the interaction, Amy Cooper repeatedly told the man that he was harassing her and that she was going to call the police on him, which Mr. Cooper encouraged.
Holding her dog by his collar, Amy Cooper pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911, telling the operator, “I’m in the Ramble [a section of Central Park], there is a man, African-American, he has a bicycle helmet and he is recording me and threatening me and my dog.”
She made this claim as Mr. Cooper, a 57-year-old Harvard graduate who sits on the board of the New York Audubon Society, continued to record the event, which showed he made no threat or harassing action toward the woman.
Amy Cooper has subsequently been fired from her job as a portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton. She has since offered a public apology to Mr. Cooper.