NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The white dog walker who called police on a black birdwatcher in Central Park was trying to “tap into a deep, deep, dark vein of racism… that runs through this country and has for centuries,” the birdwatcher said during a CBS News special that aired Tuesday.
Amy Cooper called police on birdwatcher Christian Cooper, who is of no relation to her, after he asked her to put her dog back on its leash, a now-viral video shows.
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life,” Amy Cooper can be heard saying.
In a CBS News special that aired on Tuesday night, Christian Cooper told Gayle King the argument initially “had nothing to do with race," calling it "just a conflict between a dog walker and a birder."
When Amy Cooper called police, however, she “basically pulled the pin on the race grenade and tried to lob it at me,” he said.
“She was going to tap into a deep, deep, dark vein of racism, of racial bias, that runs through this country and has for centuries,” he said.
Amy Cooper released an apology after the Central Park incident, saying she was “well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred with (Christian Cooper).”
“I hope that a few mortifying seconds in a lifetime of forty years will not define me in his eyes and that he will accept my sincere apology,” she wrote.
During the CBS News special, Christian Cooper said he didn't "know whether she's a racist or not."
"I don’t know her life, I don’t know how she lives it. That act was unmistakably racist, even if she didn’t realize it in the moment," he said. “(But) I’m not sure someone’s life should be defined by 60 seconds of poor judgment."
Christian Cooper’s sister Melody Cooper, who posted the video on Twitter, told King she decided to share the video because she was “through with it.”
“All I could think of was the police arriving and throwing him to the ground and putting him in a chokehold,” she said during the special.
“I had seen videos like this before. I’m through with it,” she added. “I’m through with the weaponization of white women’s tears, and there’s a history of it, from Emmett Till, which we all know.”