Birdwatcher Chris Cooper Says Amy Cooper Has Paid a Steep Price & Won’t Cooperate with Investigation

Chris Cooper, the Central Park bird watcher who had the police called on him by Amy Cooper [no relation], on a made up complaint feels that she has been punished enough and will not cooperate with Manhattan’s District Attorney with prosecuting her with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree.

According to the New York Post, “On the one hand, she’s already paid a steep price,” Mr. Cooper, 57, told the paper, referring to the criminal charge. “That’s not enough of a deterrent to others?” The avid birdwatcher added, “Bringing her more misery just seems like piling on.”

“So if the DA feels the need to pursue charges, he should pursue charges. But he can do that without me,” he said, adding that greater principles are at stake.

In the now viral video from May, Amy is seen calling the police and saying, “I’m in the Ramble and an African American man with a bicycle helmet, he is recording me and threatening my dog. There is an African American man. I am in Central Park. He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog. I’m sorry, I can’t hear … I’m being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately.”

Ms. Cooper later apologized for the incident and was subsequently fired from her job at the investment firm Franklin Templeton.