This image made from Monday, May 25, 2020, video provided by Christian Cooper shows Amy Cooper with her dog talking to Christian Cooper at Central Park in New York. A video of a verbal dispute between Amy Cooper, walking her dog off a leash and Christian Cooper, a black man bird watching in Central Park, is sparking accusations of racism. (Christian Cooper via AP)
A white woman walking her dog who called the police during a videotaped dispute with a Black man in Central Park was charged Monday with filing a false report.
In May, Amy Cooper drew widespread condemnation for calling 911 to report she was being threatened by "an African-American man" when bird watcher Christian Cooper appeared to keep his distance as he recorded her rant on his phone.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement on Monday that his office had charged Amy Cooper with falsely reporting the confrontation, a misdemeanor. She was ordered to appear in court on Oct. 14.
After the backlash, Amy Cooper released an apology through a public relations service, saying she "reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions."
"He had every right to request that I leash my dog in an area where it was required," she said in the written statement. "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."
It was a night to celebrate for the stars of “Everything Everywhere All at Once" as it becomes the biggest movie in the awards multiverse. It took a long while for all the cast members to gather in the press room at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where they won best ensemble to go with individual awards for Michelle Yeoh, Key Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The creator of the Dilbert comic strip faced a backlash of cancellations Saturday while defending remarks describing people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”
Angela Bassett won entertainer of the year at Saturday's NAACP Image Awards on a night that also saw her take home an acting trophy for the television series “9-1-1.”
Publisher Penguin Random House says it will publish “classic” unexpurgated versions of Roald Dahl’s children’s novels, after criticism of cuts and rewrites intended to make the books suitable for modern readers.
