If Jussie Smollett was charged not once but twice for disorderly conduct, there’s no reason the lady in Central Park who falsely claimed to have had her life threatened (in racial terms, no less) shouldn’t face similar charges.
New York resident Amy Cooper, known on the internet as “Central Park Karen,” found herself all over the news this week after she was seen on an amateur video, recorded Tuesday by a bird watcher in Central Park, calling the police and claiming that the bird watcher was threatening to kill both her and her dog.
After telling the man, identified as Christian Cooper (no relation), to stop filming her, she says to him, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
At no point does Amy Cooper appear threatened, and it is actually she who approached Christian Cooper, who has since said the confrontation began after Amy Cooper entered a popular bird-watching area with her unleashed dog. Dogs are required to be leashed in the area.
Christian Cooper has said he asked Amy Cooper to leash her dog, but she refused, and so he went to feed the dog a treat in order to get Amy Cooper to leash it.
Amy Cooper is then seen on the phone with police, telling them in a panicked voice, “There is a man, African American — he is recording me, threatening me and my dog.” She says, “There is an African American man. I am in Central Park. He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog.” Then, in complete hysteria, she says, “I am being threatened by a man in the ramble, please send the cops immediately!”
Had the police shown up for what was portrayed to be a life-threatening situation between a man and a defenseless woman, it very well might have ended in a shooting, especially given Amy Cooper’s erratic behavior.
Police reportedly arrived on the scene and found neither of the Coopers still on-site.
Smollett, the Chicago-based actor who stands accused of lying to police about a racially motivated, violent hate crime, did much less than what Amy Cooper did. He at least never asked that police come rescue him from an aggressor.
Smollett denies the charges.
Amy Cooper has since apologized for her reaction, but that shouldn’t excuse her behavior. Police have already said they don’t plan on prosecuting her, and that’s a shame. She should be charged with disorderly conduct for the same reason Smollett was.
