Listen to Bari Weiss's podcast about "The Central Park Karen," Amy Cooper.

Here. Background at Substack: "The Real Story of 'The Central Park Karen'/New evidence comes to light. And Amy Cooper breaks her silence." 

Kmele Foster, friend of Common Sense and co-host of The Fifth Column podcast, has spent the past several months reporting this story. For the first time since that viral video, Amy Cooper — who now lives in hiding and is suing her former employer for race and gender discrimination — sat down for an extensive interview. Kmele also uncovered important context lost in the public narrative, including:

"On the one hand, she’s already paid a steep price. That’s not enough of a deterrent to others? Bringing her more misery just seems like piling on. So if the DA feels the need to pursue charges, he should pursue charges. But he can do that without me."

Said Christian Cooper, setting a fine example, quoted in "Birdwatcher not cooperating with investigation into Central Park ‘Karen’ Amy Cooper."

In honor of the kindly, generous birdwatcher, I decided to research what is the most kindly, generous bird. The answer, it seems (from The Cut), is the parrot:

A very endearing German study recently found that parrots are capable of selfless acts of kindness. When placed in neighboring cages, researchers found, the birds will pass each other tokens that can be exchanged for food, expecting nothing in return. “This was really surprising that they did this so spontaneously and so readily,” one biologist told NPR, sounding rightfully impressed. So, yes, the study strongly indicated that parrots are among the very few species capable of generosity.... 

"The only thing I’ll tell you is she never spoke directly to a person. She always spoke through her dog, and in a baby voice. It was really bizarre."

Said a 60-year-old woman named Maria Meade, who lived near Amy Cooper, the woman in the story "How 2 Lives Collided in Central Park, Rattling the Nation/The inside story of the black birder and the white woman who called the police on him. Their encounter stirred wrenching conversations about racism and white privilege" (NYT).

Another neighbor, Marisol De Leon, 40, said Ms. Cooper frequently walked Henry unleashed, and became irate when told not to. “There was a sense of entitlement,” Ms. De Leon said.

Alison Faircloth, 37, a neighbor and dog owner, recalled that last winter, she came upon Ms. Cooper on the verge of tears outside the building’s lobby. A doorman had cursed at her for no reason, Ms. Cooper told her. Ms. Cooper vowed to get the doorman fired, Ms. Faircloth said. But when Ms. Faircloth asked the doorman what had happened, he told her that Ms. Cooper had complained about a broken elevator, then cursed at him after she barged into a security booth and had to be removed by a guard.

“There’s always a narrative from her about someone who has done her wrong,” Ms. Faircloth said.

ADDED: Bob Boyd said:

It's too bad nobody got her on video cursing the door man through her dog in a baby voice.

I'd like to see that.

"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....

"It’s not the racist person in the KKK that we have to worry about. It’s the white, liberal Hillary Clinton supporter walking her dog in Central Park."

Said Van Jones on CNN — noticed because "Van Jones" is trending on Twitter:

Y’all — Van Jones just said on CNN that it’s the White, liberal HRC supporters we have to look out for, and I-

pic.twitter.com/py3QPnzHXY

— Jackson (@Jacksonlzz) May 29, 2020

"In a disturbing number of the recent cases of the police being called on black people for doing everyday, mundane things, the calls have been initiated by white women."

"And understand this: Black people view calling the police on them as an act of terror, one that could threaten their lives, and this fear is not without merit. There are too many noosed necks, charred bodies and drowned souls for these white women not to know precisely what they are doing: They are using their white femininity as an instrument of terror against black men."

From "How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror/There are too many noosed necks, charred bodies and drowned souls for them to deny knowing precisely what they are doing" by Charles Blow (NYT).

Everyone's talking about that woman in a mask yelling at a man — something about her dog not being on a leash.

I saw the video last night as I was sitting up in bed and getting my last glimpses of this and that before turning off the light. But I didn't hear it. It was a time for keeping things on mute. So I don't really have my own idea of how awful this person really is — this woman plucked out of obscurity for roasting everywhere. Apparently, it's more interesting than anything else right now. It's ragingly viral, this video. This audio. I haven't heard it.