Viral’s video shows Christian Cooper – a black man accused of “threatening” a white dog because he only asked him to release his puppy in Central Park – find out about his obsession with birds, especially rare ones.
In a 17 second clip, which gathered more than 7 million views on Twitter on Wednesday morning, Cooper talked about the “unicorn effect” of the birding hobby.
“You hear about birds, you see them … You say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s an extraordinary bird, I want to see it someday,'” Cooper said in a date-free recording. “And one day, you walk through the forest or through a swamp or whatever and suddenly flap, flap, flap, flap, flap.”
Cooper began filming his meeting with the woman, Amy Cooper, on Monday morning after telling her that it was against the law to let her hen be released at the Central Park Ramble.
The confrontation culminated with Amy telling Harvard University graduates that she would call the police “to tell them that there was an African-American man who threatened my life.”
Christian is a member of the board of directors for the New York City branch of the Audubon Society and often bird watching in Central Park.
No charges were filed with him or Amy, who was dismissed from his job at the investment company Franklin Templeton when news of the shocking incident circulated widely. Since then he apologized for the incident, saying he was not racist.
The New York City Human Rights Commission is currently investigating and the Central Park Civil Society Association is calling for him to be banned from the park.
