The white woman who threatened a Black man with calling the police after he demanded she leash her dog in a wooded area of New York’s Central Park has lost her appeal to get her old job back.
Amy Cooper launched to infamy in May of 2020 when she was seen on video threatening to call the police and “tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.” The person taking that video was Christian Cooper (no relation), a Black bird-watcher who had told Amy Cooper — correctly — that she was required to leash her dog in that part of the park at all times. At no time in the video did Christian Cooper threaten Amy Cooper’s life.
The video quickly became a flashpoint: Criminal charges were filed (and later dropped), and investment firm Franklin Templeton announced that it had fired Amy Cooper, who had worked as a portfolio manager, within a matter of days.
Amy Cooper sued in May 2021, alleging employment discrimination based on race and sex, as well as defamation. Unsurprisingly, a federal district court in New York dismissed her complaint.
She appealed, and on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal.
Amy Cooper’s allegation that her one-time employer “implicated” her race “with each of [their] communications to the public, by repeatedly connecting [their] stated stance against racism with their termination of the Plaintiff,” fails as a matter of law, the court found.
“Defendants’ statements made no mention of Plaintiff...
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