The Manhattan district attorney's decision to charge a white woman with filing a false police report against a Black man in Central Park does not have the support of one key person -- the victim.
The man, Christian Cooper, has not cooperated with the prosecution's investigation. The woman, Amy Cooper, lost her job and was publicly shamed after a video Christian Cooper made on May 25 was posted online; it showed her calling 911 to claim an "African American man" was threatening her. Those consequences alone, Christian Cooper said at the time, were in his view perhaps too much punishment.
"On the one hand, she's already paid a steep price," Christian Cooper said in a statement on Tuesday. "That's not enough of a deterrent to others? Bringing her more misery just seems like piling on."
But he added that he understood there was a greater principle at stake and that this should be defended. "So if the DA feels the need to pursue charges, he should pursue charges. But he can do that without me."
The announcement that she will now be prosecuted has drawn mixed reactions from Black community leaders and advocates for overhauling the criminal-justice system.
Amy Cooper's 911 call was seen by many as an example of everyday racism and fueled anger over the dangers associated with making false reports to the police about Black people.
Some social-justice advocates said that Amy Cooper's case should serve as a warning to others who might seek to wrongfully use the police in a racially charged encounter. But some argued that charging her criminally reinforces the idea that the only just consequence for wrongdoing should be incarceration.
The incident on Memorial Day weekend began when Christian Cooper was looking for birds in a wild part of the park known as the Ramble, and encountered Amy Cooper as she walked with her dog off the leash.
He asked her to leash the dog. She refused and he began filming. Amy Cooper said she would tell the police that "an African-American man is threatening my life" before dialing 911.
The video of the encounter was seen widely on Twitter and garnered more than 40 million views.
On Monday, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., announced plans to charge Amy Cooper with falsely reporting the confrontation, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year behind bars.
If convicted, however, she is likely to receive a conditional discharge or be sentenced to community service or counseling. She was ordered to appear in court on Oct. 14.
Amy Cooper's attorney, Robert Barnes, has said his client would fight the charge.
Vance's decision received praise in some quarters.
"Her racist behavior could have had dire consequences for a Black man," Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter. "Glad she'll face consequences of her own."
The video of the incident captured on Christian Cooper's phone shows Amy Cooper with a tight grip on her dog's collar. She says to a 911 operator in a high, frantic voice: "I'm in the Ramble, there is a man, African-American. He has a bicycle helmet and he is recording me and threatening me and my dog."
Before ending the call, she adds, "I am being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately!"
Christian Cooper said in a Facebook post that after the woman refused to leash her dog, he had decided to offer the dog treats in an effort to convince her to abide by the leash law.
"Look, if you're going to do what you want, I'm going to do what I want, but you're not going to like it," he told her, before he pulled out the treats and began filming, according to his post.