Amy Cooper, a white woman who was publicly shamed and fired by her employer after calling the police on African American birdwatcher Christian Cooper who asked her to leash her dog in Central Park, said her “entire life is being destroyed right now.” After the immense backlash against Amy, Christian is now saying he is uncomfortable with the response, according to the New York Times.
“It’s a little bit of a frenzy, and I am uncomfortable with that,” he said.
A video with over 41.8 million views posted on Twitter by Christian’s sister on Memorial Day shows Amy, who was on a walk, calling the police claiming that Christian was “threatening” her and her dog. When the police showed up, however, no arrests were made.
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
After facing harsh backlash over social media for her reaction, Amy returned her dog to the shelter she adopted it from and made a public apology stating that she “reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions.”
“I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred with Chris,” she said.
It was soon after this that Amy’s employer, Franklin Templeton publicly announced her termination.
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
Christian said he was taken aback by the words and actions of those on social media and Amy’s employer and thinks that it completely misses the point.
“If our goal is to change the underlying factors, I am not sure that this young woman having her life completely torn apart serves that goal,” said Christian.
