Prosecutors say Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the police on a black birdwatcher in Central Park this past May, made a second 911 call and it was so much worse than the first.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office say Cooper, in her second call to police falsely accused black birdwatcher Christian Cooper (no relation) of assaulting her. “When responding officers arrived Ms. Cooper admitted that the male had not ‘tried to assault’ or come into contact with her,” the DA’s office said in a statement. Ms. Cooper “engaged in racist criminal conduct when she falsely accused a black man of trying to assault her. Fortunately no one was injured or killed in the police response to Ms. Cooper’s hoax,” the statement reads.
Amy Cooper was charged with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree. The charge is punishable by up to a year in jail.
The charge stems from a May 25 incident in an area of Central Park known as The Ramble when Ms. Cooper was asked to leash her dog as park rules stipulates.
In the video that went viral on social media, Cooper was seen calling 911 and frantically telling them that “there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
Christian Cooper, the black man in the incident said he will not cooperate with prosecutors because it “lets white people off the hook” and “their own prejudices unexamined.”
Nevertheless, DA Cyrus Vance says his office will hold people who make racist 911 calls accountable. “Our office will pursue a resolution of this case which holds Ms. Cooper accountable while healing our community, restoring Justice, and deterring others from perpetuating this racist practice,” Vance said.
