Amy Cooper Wiki – Biography
Amy Cooper is a white New York woman who was recorded in a viral video calling the police on a black man who asked her to leash her dog in the Ramble section of Central Park on Memorial Day. The incident on Monday, May 25, quickly spread on social media. The video was posted by the man she called 911 on, Christian Cooper, and Cooper’s sister, Melody Cooper. The video has been viewed more than 5 million times as of Monday night.
The video shows Amy Cooper, telling Christian Cooper she would be calling the police on him and saying she would tell dispatchers he was threatening her and her dog. The video does not show Christian Cooper making any threats but does show him standing away from Amy Cooper and encouraging her to call the police, while also asking her to stay away from him. Christian Cooper said he started recording the incident when she refused to put a leash on her dog and when she moved toward him.
The video also shows Amy Cooper’s dog appearing to choke and struggle against his collar while Cooper made a 911 call. No one was arrested, and it is not clear if police are planning to investigate the incident further. Amy Cooper apologized in a statement to NBC New York, saying she overreacted but felt threatened. She told CNN, “I’m not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way.” She told CNN her “entire life is being destroyed right now.”
Amy Cooper works as a vice president and head of investment solutions at Franklin Templeton Investments in New York City, according to her now-deleted LinkedIn profile. She has worked there since 2015 and has also been a fixed income portfolio manager.
According to her profile, “Amy M. Cooper leads the insurance portfolio management and strategy business at Franklin Templeton. She has dedicated her career to delivering and executing investment solutions for insurance and pension companies globally. … She is a recognized industry leader in insurance accounting and regulatory issues, asset-liability management, and strategic asset allocation. She has worked in a variety of insurance-focused roles.”
Amy Marie Cooper, a native of Canada, according to her Instagram profile, studied at the University of Waterloo in Ontario from 1998 to 2003, graduating with a degree in actuarial science. She also completed her master’s in business administration in analytical finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009. Before working at Franklin Templeton, Amy Cooper worked at AIG, Citi, Lehman Brothers, and Willis Towers Watson.
Amy Cooper was first identified by two people who walked her dog on the Upper West Side of New York City. Kyle Stover tweeted Monday evening, “So imagine my surprise when I open an article about a woman being racist in Central Park while walking her dog off-leash and I realize I used to walk her dog regularly. Oh boy.”
Amy Cooper Age
Amy Cooper is 41 years old.
Charged
Under New York law, “a person is guilty of Falsely Reporting an Incident in the Third Degree when, knowing the information reported, conveyed or circulated to be false or baseless, he or she initiates or circulates a false report or warning of an alleged occurrence or impending occurrence of a crime, catastrophe or emergency under circumstances in which it is not unlikely that public alarm or inconvenience will result.”
Amy Cooper is scheduled for an arraignment on October 14, 2020. If convicted of the Class A misdemeanor, she could be sentenced to up to one year in jail, three years probation and a fine of up to $1,000.
“If the cops showed up, they wouldn’t have seen his resume or known his job,” Melody Cooper told the View. “This kind of racism can kill people. It could’ve killed my brother.”
Christian Cooper told the View the situation isn’t just about one incident, but centuries of “racism and racial perceptions.”
“It’s not really about her and her poor judgment in a snap second,” he said. “It’s about the underlying current of racism and racial perceptions that’s been going on for centuries and that permeates this city and this country that she tapped into.”
Lost Her Job & Her Dog Over the Incident & Issued a Public Apology
“This kind of racism can kill people; It could have killed my brother.”
Melody Cooper posted the video of a white woman calling 911 on her brother in Central Park so “no other black person would have to go through that kind of weaponization of racism.” https://t.co/6kPvPIdBL9 pic.twitter.com/k2ZtpZ1iNU
— The View (@TheView) May 28, 2020
The fallout from the viral video led to Amy Cooper losing her job and her dog, according to a conversation on The View when the hosts interviewed Christian Cooper and his sister.
Amy Cooper apologized for her behavior saying she “reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions.”
The day after the confrontation at Central Park — and after the video went virtual, Amy Cooper issued an apology. It said:
“I want to apologize to Chris Cooper for my actions when I encountered him in Central Park yesterday. I reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions when, in fact, I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash. When Chris began offering treats to my dog and confronted me in an area where there was no one else nearby and said, “You’re not going to like what I’m going to do next,” I assumed we were being threatened when all he had intended to do was record our encounter on his phone. He had every right to request that I leash my dog in an area where it was required. I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred with Chris. I hope that a few mortifying seconds in a lifetime of forty years will not define me in his eyes and that he will accept my sincere apology.”
Christian Cooper, who is a Harvard graduate and a biomedical editor for Health Science Communications was at the park that day birdwatching. He told the View that he accepted her apology.
He said, “I do accept her apology. I think it’s a first step. I think she’s gotta do some reflection on what happened because up until the moment when she made that statement — it was just a conflict between a birder and a dog walker, and then she took it to a very dark place. I think she’s gotta sort of examine why and how that happened.”
Amy Cooper & Christian Cooper
On Facebook, Christian Cooper wrote, “Central Park this morning: This woman’s dog is tearing through the plantings in the Ramble.” He described the conversation he says occurred before he began recording with his cell phone:
ME: Ma’am, dogs in the Ramble have to be on the leash at all times. The sign is right there.
HER: The dog runs are closed. He needs his exercise.
ME: All you have to do is take him to the other side of the drive, outside the Ramble, and you can let him run off-leash all you want.
HER: It’s too dangerous.
ME: Look, if you’re going to do what you want, I’m going to do what I want, but you’re not going to like it.
HER: What’s that?
ME (to the dog): Come here, puppy!
HER: He won’t come to you.
ME: We’ll see about that…
Christian Cooper said he was planning to offer the dog treats. He told NBC New York, “If the habitat is destroyed we won’t be able to go there to see the birds, to enjoy the plantings. The only way they can keep the dog from eating the treat is to put it on a leash. At some point, she decided I’m gonna play the race card, I guess.”
Christian Cooper wrote, “I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence. I didn’t even get a chance to toss any treats to the pooch before Karen scrambled to grab the dog.” He said she then yelled at him, “don’t you touch my dog.” Christian Cooper said, “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn…”
In the video, the bird watcher, Cooper, can be seen standing away from Amy Cooper as he tells her to put her leash on the dog. She then picks up her dog by the collar and begins walking toward him, so he tells her, “please don’t come close to me,” as she tells him to stop recording. “Sir, I’m asking you to stop recording me,” Amy Cooper says, before extending her arm and dragging her dog along as she moves closer to Cooper. “Please take your phone off,” the woman says, as Christian Cooper again tells her not to come closer.
https://twitter.com/melodyMcooper/status/1264965252866641920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1264965252866641920%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fheavy.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F05%2Famy-cooper-video-new-york%2F
Who is Christian Cooper
Christian Cooper, 57, is a former Marvel Comics editor and writer who now works as the senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications. Christian Cooper is a birder and says he often watches birds in Central Park, which is what he said he was doing before the Memorial Day encounter with the other Cooper. The video’s spread was helped by a tweet by his sister, Melody, a science fiction and horror writer who has worked at CW and HBO.
Amy Cooper, who was initially identified by her dog walkers and did not respond to a request for comment from Heavy, works at Franklin Templeton Investments, a multi-billion-dollar asset management firm. The company issued a statement Monday night saying, “We take these matters very seriously and we do not condone racism of any kind. While we are in the process of investigating the situation, the employee involved has been put on administrative leave.”
The dog in the video, a cocker spaniel named Henry, has been surrendered to the dog rescue group where Amy Cooper adopted him from two years ago. Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue Inc. wrote on Facebook Monday night:
Thank you to the concerned public for reaching out to us about a video involving a dog that was adopted from our rescue a few years ago. As of this evening, the owner has voluntarily surrendered the dog in question to our rescue while this matter is being addressed. Our mission remains the health and safety of our rescued dogs. The dog is now in our rescue’s care and he is safe and in good health. We will not be responding to any further inquiries about the situation, either publicly or privately. Thank you for your understanding.
Investigation Report
Amy Cooper has been dubbed “Central Park Karen” by some on social media. Police sources told TMZ the incident occurred about 8 a.m. Monday. But both Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper were gone when officers arrived at Central Park. The police sources told TMZ the officers were dispatched to a “possible assault.” No one was arrested and no tickets or warnings were issued because no one was there, TMZ reports.
ABC 7 New York’s Morena Basteiro tweeted a statement from the NYPD, “Call came in for a dispute, inside of the Central Park’s Ramble, around 8 a.m. this morning. Officers arrived and neither party was on the scene. Thus, no report was filed and no arrests were made. No one has come forward to police since.”
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New York City Councilman Mark Levine tweeted, “Filling a false police report is a crime. Being racist is reprehensible. There needs to be accountability for this. Disgusting.
Christian Cooper wrote on Facebook, “Once she put the dog on the leash, I birded my way out of the park as normal (I was done for the day and on my way out when I encountered Karen).” He added, “I’m fine… At this point, I’m getting used to this. Though the full-on racist slant was new.”
Cooper also wrote, “imagine the police responded at some point, but once she put her dog on the leash, I went back to birding (which I was wrapping up and heading out anyway). We’ll see if there’s any blowback the next time I’m in the park, though I doubt it. If there is, I’ve got the video. … Also hopefully the police presence in the Ramble will increase (there is zero right now), and that will put further pressure on the irresponsible dog owners.”
Amy Cooper Social Media Accounts
Amy Cooper deleted her personal Instagram profile after making it private and also changed the name of her dog’s page and made that private. Her LinkedIn profile was also taken down Monday evening as scrutiny on her intensified.
In addition to her pages being down, Franklin Templeton’s website crashed Monday night.
Amy Cooper told NBC New York Monday night, “When I think about the police, I’m such a blessed person. I’ve come to realize especially today that I think of [the police] as a protection agency, and unfortunately, this has caused me to realize that there are so many people in this country that don’t have that luxury.”
She told CNN she meant no harm to Christian Cooper or the African-American community. Amy Cooper told the news network, “I think I was just scared. When you’re alone in the Ramble, you don’t know what’s happening. It’s not excusable, it’s not defensible.”
Christian Cooper told CNN, “I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things. Unfortunately we live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are seen as targets. This woman thought she could exploit that to her advantage, and I wasn’t having it.”