May 31, 2020

"Chris Cooper Is My Brother. Here’s Why I Posted His Video. We grew up in a family of activists. I wanted everyone to see his calm bravery."

Writes Melody Cooper in the NYT. She's identified as "a playwright and a film, TV and comic book writer."
[A]s I replayed the video several times, I felt more and more uneasy and angry, until an overwhelming fear swept over me. My mind conjured up rapid images of police officers arriving and shooting first, or throwing Chris down and then beating and choking him. My brother. When I posted the video on Twitter, I didn’t yet know about George Floyd, whose killing last Monday by a police officer has prompted protests across the country, but I knew about Emmett Till. I knew I wanted to make sure that Amy Cooper would not have the chance to weaponize her racism against anyone else. She could have gotten my brother hurt or killed. I wanted my brother’s calm bravery, in the face of a threatening and cowardly act, to be seen. I wanted to shine a light not just on one person, but on the systemic problem of deep racism in this country that encourages her kind of behavior....

I asked my brother for permission to post the video on Twitter, and I didn’t expect more than 100 responses since it was Memorial Day. I was shocked it struck such a chord....

42 comments:

Inga said...

If he would’ve still been there once the police arrived, who knows what would’ve happened. That’s a sad fact of life in the US.

M Jordan said...

This Cooper/Cooper thing is too beautiful. Libs caught in their own traps. Such delicious irony.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne aka Doug Emhoff's Pimp Hand said...

Sorry, no! Amy Cooper was a asshole, but Christian Cooper was playing a dangerous game with his doggy treat tactic.

Ken B said...

I don’t believe anyone involved in this comes out looking good. She doesn’t.

Martha said...

Melodie Cooper:
My mind conjured up rapid images of police officers arriving and shooting first, or throwing Chris down and then beating and choking him. My brother.

Amy Cooper, a neurotic liberal New York single white woman unlucky in love, has been punished for the legacy of police brutality directed against black males. Amy Cooper did not want the bird watcher brutalized. She wanted him to back off, stop filming her, and to stop threatening to give her dog a “treat”.

Ken B said...

I think she was an asshole but: on the phone all she did was describe him. I think if she were reacting to me she'd have said tall, bearded white male. It’s part of the schtick.

FullMoon said...

Did the police actually show up?

mandrewa said...

I'm about to do some WhatAboutIsm but I think this is very appropriate WhatAboutIsm.

Here are three absolutely horrific videos. They have all occurred within the last month.

Each one makes the Cooper story seem trivial. Two are on YouTube and one is on Twitter.

I suspect they are going to be deleted shortly. I believe there is much more of this going on than people want to believe. And I also believe that our media works hard to prevent people from knowing about these stories.

I also believe that if the people doing these crimes were white, male, and right-wing, or could be labeled as such, we would all have heard about it.

Man carrying American flag beaten by Antifa and BLM in Portland

Minnesota youths drop-kick Asian women in filmed attack

A man tried to help the man who was carrying an American flag who was beaten on the ground...

Clyde said...

“You do what you want, and then I’m going to do what I want, but you’re probably not going to like it.” She was right to feel threatened.

BarrySanders20 said...

Fine until that last sentence. "I wanted to shine a light not just on one person, but on the systemic problem of deep racism in this country that encourages her kind of behavior" No, Amy's racism is all her own.

I think it is racist to ascribe the actions of one New York woman to assume that "systemic racism" encourages white people to act a certain way. 1) I would not walk a dog in Central Park, 2) if I did I would keep it on a leash, 3) if I took the leash off for some reason and it bothered someone else to the point of asking me to re-leash my dog, I would immediately do it if the rules require dogs to be leashed, 4) I would not push back if I was in the wrong, 5) I would not freak out if the person asking happened to be black, even if he was a haughty prick, 6) I would not call the police (in fact i have never called the police on anyone, even suspicious black people!); 7) if I did the fact that the guy asking me to re-leash my dog was black would not be a relevant fact I would mention; 8) I certainly would not act as if I was being raped while relating the reasons for my call.

The systemic part is that of grievance mongering for social approval. That's the real encourager. It even acts vicariously via the experiences of others, like a brother. The cousin to grievance mongering for social approval is caring on the social media platform of choice. Weaponize those grievances.

Stu Grimshaw said...

I thought this was about Chris Cooper the actor. Nope, it’s that other Chris Cooper. So many Coopers. Too bad his nemesis wasn’t named Kris or Christine. That would have been great. Just like the two Spider-Men pointing at each other meme.

Sebastian said...

"but I knew about Emmett Till"

Ah, yes, cuz white women cause black men to be killed all the time.

AllenS said...

Melody, please tell your brother to leave white women alone. If you want him to be a real "activist" have him tell black men to quit killing other black men.

bagoh20 said...

We need to do something about the systemic racism among Democrats since 1828. It's no wonder they hate the party founded to stop slavery. Republicans: harshing racist mellows since 1854.

Kevin said...

She's identified as "a playwright and a film, TV and comic book writer.

All the activists have, like, six jobs. They're like the girl who's talking to Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in Coming to America:

I want to work in videos, but I want to be my own star in the video, because I want to be a pop singer, a rock singer, and write my own songs. And then I'm going to try an actress, 'cause people tell me I'm a natural. Then I'm going to write and direct my own stories, produce the movies...

rcocean said...

Emmett Till died 65 years ago - Mississippi! And last time i looked Del blasio and his black wife and kids was Mayor. Oh, and the last R New York City mayor ( i don't count Bloomberg) was Giuliani. And that was almost 20 years ago.

But other than the fact that its 2020 and not 1955, she's got it exactly right.

rcocean said...

The New York City Coopers seem to deserve each other. I wonder if "Karen" Cooper has a family as obnoxious as she is? I somehow think so.

tim maguire said...

Inga said...If he would’ve still been there once the police arrived, who knows what would’ve happened. That’s a sad fact of life in the US.

What a scary place it must be inside your head. The police interact with black men many thousands of times a day and manage to do it without killing anybody. You’ve heard of George Floyd not because what happened to him is common, but because it is uncommon.

Ralph L said...

Did the police actually show up?

Yes, after he'd left.

bagoh20 said...

The woman obviously did not feel threatened. She came toward him, as he repeatedly ask her to stay away.

Martha said...

More police officers were killed by Blacks than unarmed Blacks were killed by police officers in 2018 and 2019.

Source: Washington Post Police Shootings Database

BarrySanders20 said...

Cecil Cooper is my favorite Cooper. Followed by Alice. And don't forget Gary Cooper (super duper!).

Sadly, Chris, Amy, and Melody will never make the list in their three-part harmony.

Biff said...

"We grew up in a family of activists", she is a writer who works in film and TV, and her brother is a Harvard grad who works in media. The chances that she (and he) did not know exactly what was going to happen after posting the video are pretty much zero. Even though I agree that Amy Cooper was out of line, Christian Cooper's public dismay at the impact to Amy Cooper's life and career pegs my BS meter.

wendybar said...

The Liberal white Hillary voter Van Jones spoke of...

Hari said...

Amy Cooper was alone with her dog in a secluded area of Central Park allowing her dog to run without a leash. Chris Cooper comes along and asks her to leash her dog, and apparently she refuses. Chris does two things: He suggests that he would do something Amy wouldn't like (giving her dog a treat) and he begins filming her. In the video (all we really see) Amy is initially screaming for Chris to stop filming her, and then she goes into her rant about calling the police, and finally she does call the police.

Here is what I think doesn't get enough attention: Amy was (initially) alone with her dog. Yet, she is wearing a mask. It seems to me that Amy goes very far to comply with the rules of society, to point of wearing a mask when no one is even around her. (Or, perhaps she put on the mask when Chris shows up, which would also indicate a desire to obey the rules).

It has been suggested that Amy might have been afraid that Chris would poison her dog, but the video records only her screaming that Chris stop filming her.

As I see it, Amy was freaked out not by the presence of a black man and not by any perceived threat to her dog or her safety. I think what caused Amy to freak out was the fact that she was being recorded violating the rules. She knew she shouldn't have let her dog off the leash, and she was scared and angry that there was now a record of her violation.

I think Amy is a woman who has gotten very comfortable by following the rules, and she lost it when she was caught in violation. There is of course plenty of room for conscious or unconscious racism on her part, but I think what triggered her was being caught, and by someone having (and holding over her) proof of her guilt. Of course she would go on to do much worse than be caught with her dog off the leash, but in the end, I think she is the A student caught doing some minor cheating and then losing it.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Calm bravery? More like cry-bully bitching. She and her brother got a white woman fired from her job because she had a dog-shit dispute with him, the proudest moment of their lives, no doubt.

Fuck them. I hope they die from Covid.

chickelit said...

The link goes to the NYT which I loathe and wish would collapse so I cannot comment of Cooper's video or remarks.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Turns out Christian Cooper is a gay activist, what a surprise! He's also a comic book artist who wrote something called “QUEER NATION: THE ONLINE GAY COMIC”. Chrissy's sister is a publicity-seeking drama queen, just like her sissy sibling.

chuck said...

Reading this post made pause and consider all the things I am thankful for. First, I am thankful that I am not an women raised in an activist family and living in NY City. Second, I am thankful that I do not read the NY Times. Third, I am thankful to our hostess for reminding me of all the things I am thankful for.

Tom T. said...

We all know he threatened her, and yet Inga jumps in immediately to throw another woman to the wolves. It's not just that MeToo is dead, Inga's dancing on its grave.

Amadeus 48 said...

A disciple of high art, that Melody. I didn’t read her stuff. The more I see of her brother, the more he seems like a prick. I was initially sympathetic.

Clyde said...

@ AllenS
Yeah, I saw something on Fox News earlier (I think on Fox News Sunday) where it was pointed out to the black leftist guest commentator (Cornel West?) that cops were the #6 cause of death for young black men. They didn't tell me the other top five causes, but if I had to guess, #1 was probably other young black men.

Wince said...

Wasn't that "calm bravery" a belief, indeed a trust, that the police, if they did arrive, would listen to his side of the story?

Backed-up by video, to be sure, but he did believe he would be heard.

Estoy_Listo said...

Amy will be pleased to remember that at no time before have black men had so much latitude in behavior. They can get away w/ almost anything,lest the officer be accused of racism. I doubt this will end well.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

the dog was returned to the shelter, and checked for injury.
The vet was puzzled, however, after looking under the dog's tail,
and asked the staff:

"Hey-- I thought you said this was the dog with the 2 assholes"

Rabel said...

Did Melody ask Chris just what it was that he was going to do that the white bitch wouldn't have liked?

0_0 said...

Racism? Someone has not seen the clips of the white people lining up to shield black protestors (using their "privilege"), nor the one of black Americans forming a line to shield the lone police officer from a mob.

A worse problem is entitled cunts and autocratic police officers who react too aggressively. And our young black men who never learned how to live in society.

Jupiter said...

So did he watch any good birds?

whitney said...

Emmett Till?!? 1955. God these people are just stuck. Tragicomedy. ours or theirs I'm not sure but there is definitely no we

RichardJohnson said...

AllenS
Melody, please tell your brother to leave white women alone.

Christian Cooper is gay, so rest assured that for the most part he leaves women alone.
Bookwormroom: When happens when two leftist Karens meet in Central Park?

He (and his friends) believed that Trump was going to destroy gays (see the comments): The link also has Christian Cooper in a tweet exchange where another commenter believes that Trump will issue an executive order targeting LGQTB rights very soon- and Cooper agrees.

Another Cooper tweet: This gay man stands with his Muslim brothers and sisters.
Get thee to Iran, Christian.

It would appear that if Christian Cooper and Amy Cooper were in a contest to determine which one was more of an insufferable ass, Christian may well win.

stephen cooper said...

What an entitled, dishonest and heartless person. She and her creepy "Dog treat" brother deserve each other.

daskol said...

Chris Cooper the actor did great work with John Sayles.