Friday 20 May 2022 06:07 PM Black birder threatened by 'Central Park Karen' to host birdwatching show on ... trends now
A black comic book artist and scientist who was threatened with the police by a white woman after telling her to leash her dog has landed his own TV show.
Christian Cooper will star in National Geographic's Extraordinary Birder, the network announced Friday. Cooper, 59, was confronted by Amy Cooper in New York's Central Park on May 25 2020 - the same day George Floyd was murdered.
He was birdwatching in the park's Ramble area at the time, and had asked Cooper - no relation - to leash her dog in accordance with park rules.
That prompted her to dial 911 and claim she was being threatened by a black man.
The encounter was caught on video, with Christian, a Harvard-educated scientist, ultimately vindicated as an innocent victim, while Amy lost her job amid a firestorm of outrage over her decision to 'weaponize' the police against a blameless black man.
In his new show Christian will take viewers into the 'wild, wonderful, and unpredictable world of birds,' throughout multiple locations, National Geographic said in a statement.
'Whether [he is] braving stormy seas in Alaska for puffins, trekking into rainforests in Puerto Rico for parrots, or scaling a bridge in Manhattan for a peregrine falcon, he does whatever it takes to learn about these extraordinary feathered creatures and show us the remarkable world in the sky above,' the statement read.
Christian Cooper, 59, of Manhattan, will now be the star of National Geographic's Extraordinary Birder after he was the victim of a racist attack in Central Park last year
National Geographic announced Cooper will be taking viewers through multiple locations, such as Alaska and Puerto Rico, to birdwatch. The company did not give a release date
He told CBS Mornings in June 2020 that he said: '"Excuse me, ma'am, but dogs in the Ramble have to be on the leash at all times'... And she said: "Well, the dog runs are closed."'
He can be heard over in the video he recorded telling Amy to 'please don't come closer to me,' to which she replied, while holding her dog by his collar, that she was 'going to take your picture and calling the cops. I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life.'
'She basically pulled the pin on the race grenade and tried to lob it at me,' he told CBS Mornings.
Cooper's video garnered thousands of views and Amy was dubbed the 'Central Park Karen' and eventually lost her job and was charged with a misdemeanor for making a false police report. The charges were later dropped after Manhattan prosecutors said she learned her lesson in therapy.
