In the midst of last year’s COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide shutdowns, Amy Cooper made headlines when she called police on a Black birdwatcher in New York’s Central Park and told him, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
Christian Cooper recorded the video, which quickly went viral. Shortly after, Amy’s employer Franklin Templeton temporarily suspended her before informing her that she was fired, according to the New York Times.
A year after the May 2020 incident, she’s opened a lawsuit against the investment firm, claiming that her side of the story wasn’t properly investigated due to her race and gender, the New York Times reported. The suit was filed in a Manhattan federal court, and asserts that Amy wasn’t racially motivated during the Central Park incident.
Amy Cooper, a white woman who called 911 on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park last year, is suing her former employer for firing her, arguing that she is a victim of racial discrimination. https://t.co/cWGxoj1LYl
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 27, 2021
According to the New York Times, the suit claims she “did not shout at Christian Cooper or call the police from Central Park on May 25, 2020, because she was a racist — she did these things because she was alone in the park and frightened to death.”
Continuing to play the victim, the lawsuit also refers to Christian as “overzealous” and claims he saw Ms. Cooper as a “target,” the New York Times reported.
On May 25, 2020, Christian approached Amy, who was walking her dog without a leash, and informed her that Central Park rules required all dogs to have one. She then called the police and made the false accusation on camera that he was “threatening her life.”
Related Post: ‘New Central Park Karen’ Recorded In YouTube Vlog Making False Accusations Against Black Women
After Christian’s sister shared the recorded video on Twitter, it was watched over 30 million times and shared on other social media. Amy was infamously dubbed “Central Park Karen” following the blowup.
Not too shaken about the suit, a spokesperson for Franklin Templeton said in a statement, “We believe the circumstances of the situation speak for themselves and that the company responded appropriately. We will defend against these baseless claims.”
A judge will decide if Ms. Cooper has a case here, but from the looks of it, she might need to just pack it up.
