As in I did an amycooper/I amycoopered, when we perform such extensive wrongness in the course of one brief continuous action that we actually manage to ruin our lives. This New York City business executive decided she was entitled to be (in the precisely correct word of her victim) an obnoxious “scofflaw.” Why should she leash her dog in a part of Central Park where leashing is the law? Let lesser people obey rules. And here comes this nobody to ask her to leash her dog. Begone, nowhere man!
This man, in fact a rather famous birder, wanted to bird-watch unimpeded by a loose animal, and he did not back down.
Mr. Cooper, 57, [no relation to Amy Cooper,] a Harvard graduate who works in communications, has long been a prominent birder in the city, and is on the board of the New York City Audubon Society.
Words were exchanged, and rather than demonstrating the simple civic understanding that would entail her apologizing and leashing her dog, Cooper became hysterical, called the police, and said a black man was threatening her. Although she is intelligent enough to have graduated from the University of Chicago, she behaved in this way knowing full well that her adversary was filming her.
“I am pretty adamant about not being a participant in my own dehumanization,” [he later explained in an interview].
His film attracted more than 40 million views in fewer than 48 hours.
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There’s an interesting footnote. Christian Cooper, clearly a deeply decent person, is unhappy that the woman’s life has been destroyed.
“It’s a little bit of a frenzy, and I am uncomfortable with that,” he said. “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.”
He is absolutely right; and though it’s hokey as hell, one way out of her total destruction would be for the two of them to meet again and shake hands. For him to accept her personal apology.
May 27th, 2020 at 3:59PM
Well, I promise not to do this to you again, but . . . thank God neither this nor the Minnesota murder took place here in Texas.
May 27th, 2020 at 6:54PM
Well, they can’t all happen in Texas, JND.
May 30th, 2020 at 5:54AM
He should not meet with her. She is scum.
May 30th, 2020 at 8:27AM
Earl: I dunno. I suspect he would be willing to meet with her, if only to stem the scary communal rage she is experiencing at the moment.
May 30th, 2020 at 11:40AM
What is he, the magical spirit guide sent to help her on her journey? He owes her nothing.
May 30th, 2020 at 9:43PM
Ravi: Absolutely he owes her nothing, and would be well within his rights to revile her forever. But there is also always the option to pity and assist.