NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The Manhattan District Attorney's decision to file charges against a white woman for calling police on a Black birdwatcher in Central Park will "send a message to other white women that they can't and shouldn't put Black people at risk," the birdwatcher's sister said Monday.
The DA's office last week charged Amy Cooper with filing a false police report — a process with which birdwatcher Christian Cooper has said he won't cooperate, as Amy Cooper has "already paid a steep price."
In a statement released Monday, however, Christian Cooper's sister Melody Cooper said that "(w)hat is true for my brother who rarely has run-ins with the police, certainly not violent ones, is not true for most men in the Black community."
I've seen the reactions to my brother's statements and I've thought long and hard about this. I love my brother but my heart aches and I must speak my truth. While #christiancooper wanted the Manhattan DA to be the one to press charges, there's a larger picture. #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/whaMBkUXpx
— Melody Cooper (@melodyMcooper) July 13, 2020
"He can afford to be compassionate, but that is NOT the case for most Black men in this country," she wrote. "And false calls are made by white women like Amy BECAUSE THEY KNOW THIS."
"So while he's absolutely right that policing should change, the fact is it hasn't happened fast enough and is likely to take a long time. People are getting hurt and killed in the meantime," she added. "If there's a chance to send a message to other white women that they can't and shouldn't put Black people at risk in this way, it should be done."
"I understand that in this situation my brother intellectually sees Amy's humanity, who didn't see his," she went on to say. "I emotionally see (Emmett) Till and logically worry for the humanity of our own."
It was Melody Cooper who posted a video in May showing Amy Cooper calling police on Christian Cooper after the two got into an argument in The Ramble in Central Park.
"I'm going to tell (police) there's an African-American man threatening my life," Amy Cooper said before calling 911, the video shows.
Oh, when Karens take a walk with their dogs off leash in the famous Bramble in NY's Central Park, where it is clearly posted on signs that dogs MUST be leashed at all times, and someone like my brother (an avid birder) politely asks her to put her dog on the leash. pic.twitter.com/3YnzuATsDm
— Melody Cooper (@melodyMcooper) May 25, 2020
