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Executive Loses Job and Dog After Tirade Against African American Bird Watcher [Updated]
download-4We have long discussed the difficult questions raised by private and public employers punishing employees for postings on social media or controversies in their private lives.  When employers are identified in the media, controversial statements or conduct can have an obvious backlash against the them, particularly if there is an allegation of racist or discriminatory views.  For free speech advocates, this can raise a type of “Little Brother” problem but the First Amendment is focused on state, not private action. This ongoing debate over where to draw the line on private speech has a new controversy with the release of a truly shocking videotape of a woman, identified as Amy Cooper calling police on an African American bird watcher in Central Park. Her employer Franklin Templeton has put her on administrative leave while reviewing the incident.  She is reportedly the head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton.  Others have called for animal abuse charges to be filed as Cooper was shown yanking around her hapless dog during her tirade. The dog was surrendered to a local shelter for its protection. Update: Amy Cooper was fired shortly after she was put on administrative leave.
      The video is very disturbing.  Christian Cooper tried to get Amy Cooper to leash her dog because he said he was concerned over the dog ruining the habitat for birds.  When she refused, he pulled out a treat to pull the dog away from the underbrush.  She then picked up the dog by the collar and began walking toward him. He asked her to keep her distance and she told him to stop recording her.  The scene quickly melts down with her saying that she is going to call the cops. She can be heard saying “I’m in the Ramble and there’s an African American man in a bicycle helmet. He’s recording me and threatening me and my dog.” She then repeats “There’s an African American man. I’m in Central Park, he is recording me and threatening myself and my dog.” She soon is yelling in her phone “I’m being threatened by a man in the Ramble. Please send the cops immediately. I’m in Central Park in the Ramble, I don’t know.”

The police arrived but found neither Cooper nor the man were present.

It is not clear if Cooper would be charged though it is unlikely.  She clearly clearly suggesting an imminent attack and says falsely that Christian Cooper is threatening her. Section 240.50 allows a charge for anyone who “initiates or circulates a false report” or, “gratuitously reports to a law enforcement officer or agency…an allegedly impending occurrence of an offense or incident which in fact is not about to occur.”  However, such a charge might deter other people from calling police when they are in fear of an attack.

      Cooper, 41, later apologized for the incident in a phone interview with NBC New York. She also returned her Cocker Spaniel to a rescue shelter where she adopted him a couple years ago.  According to Heavy.com, Christian Cooper, 57, is a former Marvel Comics editor who graduated from Harvard and now works as the senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications.  He is an avid bird watcher.

Amy Cooper is a vice president and head of investment solutions at Franklin Templeton Investments in New York City and a native of Canada. She received a degree in actuarial science from the University of Waterloo in Ontario and a master’s in business administration in analytical finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009.

We have addressed an array of such incidents, including social media controversies involving academics. In some cases, racially charged comments have been treated as free speech while in others they have resulted in discipline or termination. It is that lack of a consistent standard that has magnified free speech concerns.  We have previously discussed the issue of when it is appropriate to punishment people for conduct outside of the work place. We have followed cases where people have been fired after boorish or insulting conduct once their names and employers are made known. (here and here and here and here and here and here).

The fact is that Franklin Templeton has now been drawn into the controversy by association. This case does not raise the type of political speech that we have previously discussed as a growing concern. This is not political speech but an unhinged and deeply disturbing use of what Christian Cooper called “the race card.”  Courts are likely to support employers in holding employees accountable for such controversies.

 

1,379 thoughts on “Executive Loses Job and Dog After Tirade Against African American Bird Watcher [Updated]”

  1. Ooh, yikes, lady! As a dog lover I am glad the dog was returned to the shelter. Sad to see this obviously talented woman ‘losing it’ but I admit I have lost it a few times myself but AFTER retiring. My few ‘freak outs’ were mostly about yelling at the cars racing down my street where many families live with young children; a few were directed at dog owners leaving their dog to poop in my front yard without picking up the ‘poo’ and a few were to challenge a few American people who told me to ‘speak English’ when walking around with European friends speaking Dutch/Flemish/French. Again, so happy the dog will no longer be at risk of being choked. Templeton will find an equally qualified replacement for the woman in this story. Perhaps employers need to submit future employees to a ‘stress test’? Cheers!

  2. So now it’s racist to call an African-American an African-American? Clearly the woman is a few cans short of a six-pack but all she was doing was describing her “assailant.” BUT you CAN tell a lot about a person by seeing how a person treats animals. On that count, I think she should spend at least a week as a guest of the state.

    1. Yeah, I’m sure she would have threatened a white guy by saying she was going to call the cops and say a white guy was attacking her, not just that she was going to call the cops.

      Putz.

  3. We don’t know what happened prior to the film that we saw. She was obviously very upset, so either something happened between the two that we didn’t see, or she was already unraveled when this “black male birdwatcher” came into contact with her. Franklin Templeton is walking a fine line. They’ve already bowed to the pressure of the Twitter Mob and placed the employee on leave. But they’re also sending a message to women that if they call the police when they feel threatened by a black male, that they may lose their jobs. Essentially women’s safety, according to Franklin Templeton, is less important than the feelings of black men.

    1. “We don’t know what happened, but I will presume it could be something where the black person was doing something wrong” is not only stupid and trite, but racist. It’s a boring way for people who know there’s something wrong with what they’re seeing, but who want to retreat from the cognitive dissonance associated with seeing the way white people act, will go to. Every time.

      He was not threatening her at any point. He does not approach her at any point. So approaches HIM and then calls the cops, sobbing, and lies to them, after intentionally saying she will use his race against him.

      There is nothing that could have happened before to justify the fact that she intentionally, sneeringly, told him that she would tell them his race. Stop excusing racists because you don’t like the implications of believing a black man.

      1. Snarky robot……….As TIN said, we don’t know what happened before he started filming and selected what he wanted to be filmed.

        1. Response to Cindy Bragg:
          You know Cindy Bragg when you write Black people hate White people more than we love unity, that’s true because you (White people) don’t stop your hate. You hate Blacks systematically, politically, economically, socially, culturally, religiously, physically. No matter what we achieve you seek to tear it down and you don’t stop until you do. You don’t stop your whiteness, we are reminded of your sh*t everyday in our normal everyday lives. We can’t just live our lives without you interrupting it in some egregious way. You hate us as much as we hate you. If this planet was relinquished of White people this world would be a much better place. White people are subhuman species who possess a subset of genomes so bellicose and wanton-like with a fragile mental mind. White women hate Black women but love a Black man’s dick. White men hate Black men because of their penile incompetencies but secretly lose all control of their loins for Black women. Your species are jealous, hateful and you add nothing substantial to human kind but your diseases. White people are the cankersore of human beings.

          1. Jae – you are painting with a very broad brush there. I know black women who will only date white men. Mandingo is fiction, you twit.

      2. The article tells us the other raced evil man takes out some poison “treat” and tries to lure the dog away from her so he can steal it and sell it in the hood.
        Surprised you missed that.

  4. this is not a race issue but it is a crazy lady issue. karens gone wild. the videos are spreading viral across the internet because people are sick of bossy, arrogant, presumptuous women sticking their noses into other people’s business.

    private employers should forget about AA and political correctness and focus on hiring stable and productive workers who won’t embarrass the company like this obnoxious, fussy, fake woman

  5. She is nutz, but so are over half the women in the country. Probably 75% or more. And this is the pool from which Joe Biden will be picking a VP. Yeah.

    I bet she is a Democrat, though.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. Squeeky, now YOU are a misogynist? A “Girl” who doesn’t like girls?

      1. calling an obnoxious, bossy, liar of a woman crazy is not misogyny

        calling people misogynists for calling a spade a spade is doing the work of the crazy feminist lobby

        women need to check themselves before they go squealing to the cops over made up nonsense

        it’s a seriously bad habit and a lot of women do it, ask any cop

        1. I cannot find Squeeky’s misogenist comment, but as I recall, she said something like “75% of women are hysterical like (the dog lady).” OTOH, I’ve already stated that the dog lady was way off base.

  6. The real issue here is that the man was recording her without her permission with the intent of posting it publically. This is a common tactic used by activists. She should sue.

    1. semcgiwanjer……..I agree about the filming. She may be an emotional wreck, but he’s a pompous jerk . And doesn’t want to be identified as an African American male? Really?
      He would have never survived the early days of Civil Rights where there were REAL atrocities against blacks. .

      1. Cindy Bragg – if I ran into this woman I would hire a film crew, not just use my phone camera. 😉

          1. Cindy Bragg – I would make sure that the film crew got my best side and her worst one.

            BTW, how did the Post-It work out?

              1. Cindy Bragg – I was going to suggest you write it backwards so he could read when he looked at himself in the mirror. 😉 However, I thought you would be up to late doing it. 🙂

  7. Franklyn Templeton can’t just shrug this off. I don’t see her losing salary, say, but the company has a good reason to look at her record. The fact that she called the police makes the difference. While she was only giving a description of the man, which is not a racist thing, she was so unhinged and inappropriate that people can reasonably wonder how she functions as an important officer in the company. And if there are previous complaints of similar conduct, especially if it involves minorities, Franklyn needs to make a meaningful move. She’s in trouble.

  8. She made it overly dramatic and racial. And she’s caught on footage lying to the police. Basic crash course in how to escalate racial drama….

    Hard not to fire her, even if it wasn’t her best day. The investment firm will point out being on such a hair trigger isn’t conducive to the type of mindset necessary necessary to shepard along market policy.

    Hopefully she gets help.

  9. There’s another problem

    A Harlem Tortoise hangs out in NYC, Central Park….Unleashed

    The owner states that this tortoise crashed picnics & church gatherings

  10. Take race out of it and her conduct would still be a concern to an employer. She does not seem entirely stable.
    Injecting race into this just muddies the waters.

  11. The peaceful tolerant progressive tyrant on display once again. We all know who these people are and we spend a great deal of our time these days avoiding them at all costs.

  12. Many people are suffering mentally during this economic shutdown. She in the park with her dog, but she is probably spending most of the week cooped up in a small apartment in Manhattan. i don’t condone her behavior, but these are not normal times and people should be cut some slack. She is acting unhinged, but in normal times may be a normal person. She needs help.

  13. Fired? I don’t know. Here is what I do know. She had her dog off leash in an area specifically requesting dogs be on leash. Rules don’t apply to her. When confronted with this behavior, she lashes out at the person pointing out her illegal behavior. The person pointing out her behavior happens to be black. She acts like she is terrified. Her voice cracks, she treats the dog in an abhorent manner. She approaches the man and says the man is approaching her.

    So why was she so upset? primarily because she is being filmed doing an illegal activity. Secondly, IMHO, because it is a black man doing the filming.

    I am confident that after she calmed down, saw the video, she was completely embarrassed. She did the right thing to apologize. But she did damage to the person calling out her illegal activity, and she was abusing the dog. She needs help.

    Perhaps her employer can move her to a position of public education on the dangers of racist thought.

  14. You have made made a mountain out of a molehill. The woman is hysterical, the man calm and collected. Why make an issue of it. Has the Professor become part of the PC crowd??? I hope not.

  15. He’s right. She’s wrong, but won’t be blamed because these stay-at-home orders have caused almost everyone to suffer some degree of insanity, which is clearly the case with her.

    1. dont worry about the dog, he got his supper

      worry about the cops being called for a trifle made into a false report

  17. That she surrendered her dog is bizarre. Did she not care for the dog? (There’s no reason for the local warden to seize it).

    I’m assuming they put her on leave to review her personnel record, as by all appearances she’s a head case. She may have valuable technical skills and be worth retaining for that, but it’s a reasonable wager she shouldn’t be supervising people.

    By the way, calling the police for frivolous reasons is an offense under New York law. It’s called ‘Obstructing Public Administration’.

  20. I think this was a stupid and childish incident and the woman went over the top, but what does any of what occured have to do with race? She simply described him as an African American man. When calling the cops a description would be required, don’t you think?

    1. Joe:

      I think it’s misandry. She said he was a man, too. Gasp! Maybe sociopathy. She said it was a person!! Double gasp.

        2. Peg – the woman did assume gender and race? That is a huge SJW no-no.

            1. Cindy Bragg – SJW = Social Justice Warrior. Think feminists on steriods.

    2. There was both animus and hysteria in Ms. Cooper’s voice.

      She does not appear to be rational.

      I wouldn’t want her in the office; who knows when she will have her next breakdown.

      Pity the dog; he was the only innocent in this.

    3. You suffer from willful blindness. Note that she warned him pointedly that she would be telling the police that she was being attacked by an African American man. She did more than go “over the top,” she made a false police report that she – and her dog – were being attacked.

      1. rdkay is right. false report charge is what should be laid against her. like jusse smollet. fake phony liars and their cell phones. despicable!

      2. She said she was being “threatened.” She never used the word “attacked.”

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