World News – CA – Amy Cooper, white woman who called police at the black bird watcher, has dismissed the charges

Amy Cooper, a white dog owner who was at the center of a controversial encounter with a black man who was bird-watching at New York City Center’s Park, dropped her wrongdoing charge for the incident on Tuesday last year

The woman was accused of falsely reporting an incident to the police after telling them that Christian Cooper, who is not related to her, threatened her and her dog. He didn’t

“Given the issues at stake, and Mrs. Due to Cooper’s lack of criminal background, we offered her an alternative solution to the restoration of justice, in line with our position on many primary arrest crimes,” said Joan Illuzzi, assistant district attorney, told a judge in Manhattan

The program, explained Illuzzi, “is not only intended to punish, but also to encourage and promote healing in the community””

Illuzzi said Cooper had a total of five sessions and her therapist described this as a “moving experience.” Amy Cooper learned a lot in their joint sessions “

Since Cooper had completed the Justice Restoration Sessions to the prosecutor’s satisfaction, the Manhattan Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges

Christian Cooper was also found to have refused to participate in the criminal trial, but added that prosecutors continued because they found the crime was not only against Cooper, but also “a threat to the community, if this is permissible, “was left unchecked”

“The simple principle is that you cannot use the police to threaten another, and in this case, racially insulting and accused,” the statement reads

The Manhattan Attorney’s Office indicted Amy Cooper in July Had she been convicted of a Class A offense, she could have faced up to a year in prison, a fine, or both

The encounter between Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper took place on Memorial Day in a wooded part of Central Park called The Ramble.It is an area of ​​the park where dogs must be kept on leashes and disputes between dog owners and bird watchers are common

Christian Cooper said he asked the woman to put her dog back on a leash and then recorded some of their interaction, which was later posted on social media where it went viral

It has become one of the most widespread so-called “Karen” incidents where a white person, usually a woman, calls the police to report a black or brown person involved in worldly activities / p>

In the video that Christian Cooper is recording, Amy Cooper can be seen approaching him while holding her dog’s collar with one hand and a leash and cell phone with the other

She orders him to stop the video recording. If he doesn’t, she threatens that she will call the police on him

“I’m in The Ramble and there is a man, African American, he has a bicycle helmet He picks me up and threatens me and my dog,” she tells the emergency services

Christian Cooper never seems to get any closer to her. After Amy Cooper repeats herself, she starts yelling into the phone with more panic in her voice

“I’m sorry I can’t hear Are you there? I’m being threatened by a man in The Ramble Please send the police right away!” she yells

Immediately after the incident, Amy Cooper said in a statement to CNN, “I am not a racist, I did not mean to harm this man in any way,” she added that she did not want to harm the African American community

Shortly after the video surfaced, she was fired from her job at the Franklin Templeton investment firm

For his part, Christian Cooper told NPR at the time he wasn’t sure the fallout she was receiving was warranted

“I’m not sure if your one minute of bad decision making, bad judgments, and outright racist reactions really needs to fully define it, you know?”

Amy Cooper