'Amy Cooper Pulled The Pin On The Race Grenade' While Calling Cops

Christian Cooper, whose video-recorded interaction with a white woman in New York's Central Park sparked public outrage, said Amy Cooper pulled the pin on the race grenade when she called the police on him.

"She was going to tap into a deep, deep, dark vein of racism — of racial bias — that runs through this country and has done for centuries," Cooper, who was not related to the woman, said in an interview with CBS.

Amy Cooper was seen warning the birder, a Harvard-educated scientist, that she was going to call the cops and tell them "that an African American male was threatening" her. She was later seen calling up the emergency service and uttering the same phrase in a state of panic.

The confrontation on May 25 assumed gigantic proportions after the video of George Floyd dying under the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis emerged the next day. Franklin Templeton, her employer, fired her, saying they do not tolerate any form of racism.

The woman was derided on social media as an overreacting white woman conscious of her privileges. Christian Cooper said he did not know whether Amy was racist or not. "That act was unmistakably racist even if she didn’t realize it in the moment."

He said it was not fair to assess a person by 60 seconds of poor judgment.

Christian said there was some irony as their confrontation initially did not have anything to do with race. His only request was that she place a leash on the dog in the park’s Ramble.

He described it as a conflict between a dog walker and a birder.

Amy Cooper has since apologized for her actions. However, she has had troubles apart from getting fired as the Central Park Civic Association called her to be banned from the park.