Home Scandal and Gossip My life is ruined: Central Park Karen fired from $170K Franklin Templeton...

My life is ruined: Central Park Karen fired from $170K Franklin Templeton job

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Christian Cooper NYC birdwatcher
Pictured Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper NYC birdwatcher.
Amy Cooper fired
Amy Cooper fired: Pictured Central Park Karen and bird watcher, Christian Cooper.

Amy Cooper Franklin Templeton VP fired over false black man threat. White woman Central Park Karen terminated from $170K job after false threat against Christian Cooper.

A white woman dubbed ‘Central Park Karen’ has been fired from her senior position at a New York investment firm after video showed her calling the cops on an African American man who asked her to put a leash on her dog at NYC’s Central Park.

Amy Cooper, 41, was terminated from her job as head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton on Tuesday, having been placed on administrative leave a day earlier.

Earning up to an estimated $170,000 per-year, the company came to the decision following an internal investigation into footage of Cooper hysterically dialing 911 on former Marvel Comics editor and birdwatcher, Christian Cooper, 57, on Monday, claiming ‘an African American man is threatening my life’.

‘Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately,’ the company said in a tweeted statement. ‘We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.’

The decision to fire Amy Cooper after the hash tag ‘fire Amy Cooper’ prominently trending on social media, with commentators accusing the company of abetting racism and others threatening to take their business elsewhere if the senior executive was not terminated.

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Hours earlier, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned Cooper as a racist in response to coverage of the incident, which took place in the wooded area of the park known as The Ramble . 

‘The video out of Central Park is racism, plain and simple,’ de Blasio tweeted Tuesday, ‘She called the police BECAUSE he was a Black man. Even though she was the one breaking the rules. She decided he was the criminal and we know why.

‘This kind of hatred has no place in our city,’ the mayor continued.

Before her termination was announced, Cooper told CNN she wanted to ‘publicly apologize to everyone’, and insisted she isn’t a racist and didn’t intend to inflict any harm on the African-American community.

Amy Cooper fired
Amy Cooper fired: Pictured, Central Park Karen aka former VP at Franklin Templeton

“I’m not a racist’ 

‘I’m not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way,’ she told the network. ‘I think I was just scared. When you’re alone in the Ramble, you don’t know what’s happening. It’s not excusable, it’s not defensible.’

Cooper says that now the video has sparked widespread outrage online, her ‘entire life is being destroyed right now’. 

The incident has since been cited as yet another example of white people calling the police on African-Americans for unnecessary reasons, in acts many interpret to be fueled by racial prejudice.

Christian Cooper NYC birdwatcher
Pictured, Christian Cooper NYC birdwatcher

Black men gunned down because of assumptions of black men

‘I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things,’  Christian Cooper later explained to NBC New York. 

‘We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and I’m just not going to participate in that,’ he continued. ‘I’m not going to participate in my own dehumanization.’

When asked if he would accept Cooper’s apology, Christian, a senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications, said ‘if it’s genuine and if she plans on keeping her dog on a leash in the Ramble going forward, then we have no issues with each other.’  

Cooper has since conceded to CNN that she knew walking her dog unleashed in The Ramble was against the rules.

Adding to Cooper’s woes, president of the Central Park Civic Association, Michael Fischer, is urging Mayor de Blasio to permanently ban her from the park.

Fischer called Cooper’s actions ‘a disgusting display of intolerance’, and said such behavior should ‘never, ever be accepted in the City’s public domain like Central Park’.

‘The Central Park Civic Association condemns this behavior and is calling on Mayor de Blasio to impose a lifetime ban on this lady for her deliberate, racial misleading of law enforcement and violating behavioral guidelines set so that all can enjoy our city’s most famous park,’ he said, according to the NY Post.

He added that his association has received a multitude of complaints from local residents who were equally as outraged by the woman’s actions as he was. 

While the NYPD have said they aren’t pursuing charges against Cooper, Fischer has urged the mayor’s office to take action.

‘The police, we know they’re busy and maybe they don’t need to be the ones taking the action,’ Fischer said. ‘Maybe the mayor needs to take the action and go through the process of not allowing her in the park unless she goes for rehabilitation and gets help.’

The community activist says his organization has not yet reached out to any city agencies regarding the incident, but he will be doing so in the coming days. 

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