Many times, when a person is victimized due to racial or ethnic discrimination, they call for the other person or persons involved to be dragged through the mud. Christian Cooper, the black birdwatcher who was threatened by a white woman named Amy "Central Park Karen" Cooper (no relation) has come forward to say that while her actions were steeping in racism, he doesn't believe that she should be receiving death threats. The public was outraged after a video surfaced showing an irate Amy telling Christian that she would be calling the police on him after he asked her to leash her dog. She went on to say that she would alert the authorities that she was being threatened by a black man, and while she was on the phone with dispatch officers, she changed her voice to make it sound as if she was under duress.
Amy Cooper has since been fired from her job at the investment management company Franklin Templeton, and recently, Christian Cooper sat down with CNN to discuss the incident. "I think her apology is sincere," Christian said. "I'm not sure that in that apology she recognizes that while she may not be or consider herself a racist, that particular act was definitely racist...And the fact that that was her recourse at that moment -- granted, it was a stressful situation, a sudden situation -- you know, maybe a moment of spectacularly poor judgment. But she went there and had this racist act that she did."
Still, Christian Cooper doesn't believe that his "Central Park Karen" moment calls for people to issue death threats toward Amy Cooper. "I am told there has been death threats and that is wholly inappropriate and abhorrent and should stop immediately," he said. "I find it strange that people who were upset that ... that she tried to bring death by cop down on my head, would then turn around and try to put death threats on her head. Where is the logic in that? Where does that make any kind of sense?"
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