By Ayanna Gandhi
NEW YORK – Writer and editor Christian Cooper is distancing himself from Amy Cooper (no relation), the now infamous woman who called the police because bird-watching Christian Cooper “threatened” her.
In a story in the Washington Post, Christian wrote:
“On May 25, 2020, I was birding in the Ramble section of New York’s Central Park. I asked a woman whose dog was off his leash to please put him back on, as the area’s rules require. She refused — and, as shown in a video that went viral, she was soon calling the police and telling them an ‘African American man’ was ‘threatening’ her.”
This woman, named Amy Cooper, was an employee of Franklin Templeton Investments and has since been fired. She was then charged by the Manhattan district attorney with filing a false police report.
However, on July 14, 2020, Christian Cooper announced that he would be distancing himself from the Amy Cooper investigation, for reasons noted below, where he said:
“I’m ambivalent about the prosecution and have chosen not to aid the investigation. It’s important to remember that this case is for the DA to make, regardless of my involvement; it is not a situation where I have to press charges or else the case goes away.”
He explains this decision saying, “I’ve said all along that I think it’s a mistake to focus on this one individual. The important thing the incident highlights is the long-standing, deep-seated racial bias against us Black and Brown folk that permeates the United States — bias that can bring horrific consequences, as with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis later the same day I 
encountered Amy Cooper, or just small daily cuts.”
Cooper also uses his piece to comment on systemic racism.
“Why did [Amy] Cooper so easily tap into that toxic racial bias in the heat of the moment when she was looking for a leg up in our confrontation? Why is it surprising to no one that the police might come charging to her aid with special vengeance on hearing that an African American was involved? And most important of all, how do we fix policing so that scenarios such as this are replaced by a criminal justice system that is truly just and equitable to Black people?? he asks.
Elaborating, he suggests that, “Focusing on charging Amy Cooper lets white people off the hook from all that. They can scream for her head while leaving their own prejudices unexamined. They can push for her prosecution and pat themselves on the back for having done something about racism, when they’ve actually done nothing, and their own Amy Cooper remains only one purse-clutch in the presence of a black man away.
“Those concerns must be weighed against what prosecuting the case means for us Black people. I appreciate that it is important to uphold the principle of law, and that those who try to turn racism to their advantage by filing false claims against a person of color should be held accountable. But note that laws against filing a false police report are already on the books and will remain enforceable, whether applied in this case or not,” he said.
Christian Cooper believes that prosecuting Amy Cooper further is actually a waste of time.
He explains, “[C]onsidering Amy Cooper has already lost her job and her reputation, it’s hard to see what is to be gained by a criminal charge, aside from the upholding of principle. If her current setbacks aren’t deterrent enough to others seeking to weaponize race, it’s unlikely the threat of legal action would change that. Meanwhile, for offenders who don’t suffer consequences like Cooper’s, the law is still there to exact a price.”
He then comments on the unfairness of the system, noting that moving forward with the case will not do much in a broken system.
“Would I consider it fair and just if Cooper were found guilty and sentenced to anti-bias training and some form of community service? Yes. But Black people know all too well that the criminal justice system often doesn’t work that way — that an ambitious DA with an election next year, in the current social climate, might seek and achieve a sentence of a year behind bars. All for an offense from which I suffered no harm, physical or mental.
“That wouldn’t be a commensurate punishment. Raising the specter of what harm might have come to me as a result of Cooper’s false report carries no weight with me; I don’t find speculation useful in this situation, because it’s equally possible that, had the police arrived on the scene while I was still there, they would have done their jobs professionally. And if the fear is that the police would have done me harm as a result of Cooper’s call, then the solution is to fix policing,” he said.
Christian Cooper said he understood the “principle at stake” but added, “I must err on the side of compassion and choose not to be involved in this prosecution. Let the DA do his job. He has already decided to pursue charges; if he feels my involvement is essential to the case, he can subpoena me. If subpoenaed, I will testify, truthfully and accurately.
“Otherwise, the case is the DA’s, not mine. I know that some people may disagree with my reasoning, and that this decision comes as a disappointment to many who share in the struggle for social justice, and I’m sorry for that. But under the circumstances, it’s the only course I can pursue in good conscience,” he said.
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