Two New York lawmakers are attempting to turn the Amy Cooper/Central Park incident into new legislation criminalizing her actions.
According to PIX11, New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and Sen. Brian Benjamin have introduced Assembly Bill A3566, which would treat falsely reporting an incident to the police as a hate crime.
“Everyone in this nation understands the fear the black community faces when it comes to proper policing,” Benjamin said Wednesday on Twitter. “Therefore calling the police on us at whim is spiteful and is a hate crime as far as I am concerned.”
Ortiz also commented on the bill being introduced, saying these incidents continue to happen despite significant backlash.
“In the past year, we have seen many instances throughout both New York State and the country of people calling 911 on black people who are going about their everyday lives, only to be interrupted by someone calling the police for reasons that range from caution, to suspicious inkling, to all out hated.”
Cooper was walking her dog in Central Park Monday when Chris Cooper (no relation), an African American man who was bird watching, asked the woman to put her dog on a leash per park regulations.
She proceeded to approach him, dragging her dog by the collar, and threatening to call the police. She said, “I’m gonna tell them that an African American man is threatening my life.” Chris filmed the confrontation on his cell phone.
Amy then calls the police, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m in The Ramble, and there’s a man—an African-American with a bicycle helmet—he is recording me, and threatening me and my dog.”
By the time the police arrived neither person was at the scene, so no arrests were made.
Chis Cooper’s sister later uploaded the video to social media. The video went viral within hours as people slammed Amy Cooper for calling the cops and pretending to be in harm while she was on the phone. She has since been fired from her job at Franklin Templeton and has voluntarily surrendered her dog to the Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue.
Republican pundit Candace Owens tried to defend the woman’s actions and was also slammed on social media.