“Central Park Karen’s” Comeuppance
Amy Cooper is the infamous Central Park dog owner dubbed “Central Park Karen,” Karen being a more recently adopted derogatory moniker against white women who call the police on unsuspecting black people to report innocuous conduct like barbecuing, asking for compliance with park or road rules, selling water or making chalk art on the sidewalk, and any number of common behaviors that typically would not result in appeal for police assistance/intervention (no offense intended to the many actual Karens out there, particularly those who would never do such a thing).
Christian Cooper (a black man who was bird-watching and bore no relation to Amy Cooper) asked Ms. Cooper to leash her dog as the park rules required; Ms. Cooper called the police on him in response. Ms. Cooper threatened to inform the police that a black man was threatening her life, when the video provided from the scene does not indicate any threat to Ms. Cooper... Mr. Cooper was standing a good distance away from her, his vocal demeanor does not indicate agitation or threat, and he merely stood his ground in his demand that Ms. Cooper comply with park rules requiring she leash her dog.
When the video of Amy Cooper, aka “Central Park Karen” went viral, a slew of serious consequences immediately served as a rebuke to her threats and police reporting that could well have endangered Mr. Cooper’s life. Ms. Cooper was fired from her job at Franklin Templeton. She relinquished custody of the dog she had adopted and was walking in the park. She received threats and ignominy. And most recently, she was charged with filing a false police report, which is a third-degree misdemeanor in New York.1
However, Twitter user, Josie Duffy Rice2 argued that those who advocate for criminal justice reform should ask themselves whether the criminal justice system should be involved at all, and whether advocates for reform of the system (particularly its harsh impacts on black bodies) should be rejoicing in the prosecution of Central Park Karen. Ms. Rice argued that it was inconsistent to claim that our criminal justice system needs to be less punitive while also wanting to see Ms. Cooper held legally accountable for her conduct, since her threats did not result in actual harm to Mr. Cooper, he did not wish her additional harm, and she had already suffered job loss, public shaming, and loss of her pet. Some argue that without the imposition of real costs on the Karens of the world, they will continue to abuse the criminal justice system and use it as a weapon against black citizens, which in Mr. Cooper’s case could have resulted in grave harm to him if things had gone even just a hair differently.
- Melanie Schuman and Melissa Waldrop, “Woman who called cops on Black man birdwatching in Central Park faces charges,” CNN.com, https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/amy-cooper-central-park-birdwatcher-c…, July 6, 2020,
- Josie Duffy Rice, “We don’t have to charge Amy Cooper, and we shouldn’t charge Amy Cooper” (thread), twitter.com, https://twitter.com/jduffyrice/status/1280213555745259520?s=12, July 6, 2020 11:54 a.m.
From the 2020 Regional Ethics Bowl. Prepared by
Michael Funke
Rhiannon Dodds Funke
Gretchen A. Myers
Greg Shafer
Becky Cox-White