Analytics

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Post #4627 Rant of the Day 2: The Amy Cooper Kerfuffle

Internet kerfuffles come and go. This one will probably be forgotten within a week. Why write a post at all? I'm apparently in the doghouse with Twitter again. I'll append two relevant tweets on the kerfuffle at the end of the post. The first tweet, as I write, has almost 1800 impressions and some 100 engagements. Now Trump could dwarf that just by posting an image of his latest haircut, but for some obscure Twitter user those are amazing stats. The second one has officially gotten less than a handful of impressions over hours despite being provocative in a hot trend. I could probably get more impressions tweeting what I had for lunch. I don't tweet for the numbers but it's abnormal and you have to wonder what's behind it; did someone complain to Twitter Mommy? Is Twitter Mommy tracking my tweets? I decided to expand my discussion beyond 140 characters here, because I don't like what's being done to this woman.

Let's be clear here: I don't necessarily find what the woman did in the circulated clip admirable. In particular, she's all but hanging her sweet dog by the chain/collar; I don't know if she was aware of what she was doing or if she was doing it out of spite to make the point it was her dog, but I wouldn't treat my pet like that. Second, she is being tailed by someone filming her with the dog, but it looks like she is trying to report him to the police. Maybe the guy was annoying, but I don't think it was serious enough to get the police involved. So my response to Amy Cooper would have been to let it go; perhaps easier said than done. I wasn't there the whole while via the film clip.

Here's a summary of  what I've picked up (cf  here for a broader discussion):


  • Ms. Cooper, 41 years old, was walking her dog, a cocker spaniel, in a certain section of Central Park NYC.
  • Christian Cooper, a 57-year-old man of color, an avid bird watcher, took exception to Amy unleashing her dog in that area where posted signs said the dog must be leashed and confronts her. She argues the dog runs are closed and the dog needs its exercise. He suggests a different area, and she's not interested. 
  • The disagreement escalates. It's possible he threatened to report her as violating policy, although there's no video evidence. She feels hassled enough to counter reporting to the police that a black man is threatening her.
  • No one is arrested.
  • Christian Cooper's video of their encounter goes viral. Amy's dog walkers identify her. The "progressives" escalate a war of destruction against Ms. Cooper, identifying her as working for Franklin Templeton, an asset management firm, which immediately responded by putting Amy on administrative leave while it investigates, saying it had a zero-tolerance policy for violations of its diversity program.
  • Amy Cooper is being personally attacked as a racist and animal abuser by literally thousands of Twitter users, many advocating a boycott of Franklin Templeton if it doesn't terminate Cooper.
  • The animal shelter that gave the dog to Amy Cooper has taken it back.
My own take? I don't think Christian Cooper should have confronted Amy over the dog; this was a petty complaint, not worth the benefits of confrontation. If he had an issue, he should have taken it to park security. Stalking someone, filming them without consent could be perceived as threatening. As for Amy, escalating the issue to the police was really disproportionate, at least to the facts I've seen. Was it really worth her while to defend violating posted notices?

But the sheer vindictiveness of the Twitter lynch mob attacking Amy Cooper is morally repugnant. Her life has been nearly ruined by an incident which should never have been escalated.

-
Posted by at
Labels: