Viral Video: Crazy 'Karen' Calls Police on African-American Man in Park Claiming He 'Threatened Her Life'

AP Photo/Seth Wenig
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Two people walk a dog through Central Park on a rainy day in New York, Monday, April 13, 2020. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York’s death toll from coronavirus has topped 10,000, with hospitals still seeing 2,000 new patients a day. The death tally hit the milestone only about a month after the state recorded its first death. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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This Memorial Day weekend certainly seems to have brought out the crazy in some people.

First we posted about the crazy mob in the grocery store in Staten Island who screamed obscenities at a woman without a mask and tried to verbally force her out of the store.

Now there’s a second wild viral video from New York, this one from Central Park with another “Karen.” Here’s a great definition of what a “Karen” is, but short form: Karen is a self-important person who thinks she has the right to make life difficult for someone else because that person isn’t complying with whatever Karen wants.

The video captures a white woman reacting to an African American man after he asked her to put her dog on a leash in Central Park in an area where dogs were required to be on a leash.

The woman then said she was calling the cops and melted down on the phone saying that there was an “African American man threatening her life,” pleading with them hysterically to come quickly that she was in danger while she was in no danger. At the same time, she seemed unconcerned that she was inadvertently choking her own dog, as he struggled to get free from how she was holding the leash. The man was Christian Cooper and his sister Melody posted the video to Twitter that went viral on social media with over 5.5 million views.

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According to Heavy, Christian Cooper gave an account of what led up to the video. Cooper, 57, was there birding when he encountered the woman with the dog.

ME: Ma’am, dogs in the Ramble have to be on the leash at all times. The sign is right there.
HER: The dog runs are closed. He needs his exercise.
ME: All you have to do is take him to the other side of the drive, outside the Ramble, and you can let him run off leash all you want.
HER: It’s too dangerous.
ME: 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.
HER: What’s that?
ME (to the dog): Come here, puppy!
HER: He won’t come to you.
ME: We’ll see about that…

Cooper wrote, “I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence. I didn’t even get a chance to toss any treats to the pooch before Karen scrambled to grab the dog.” He said she then yelled at him, “don’t you touch my dog.” Cooper said, “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn…”

Now we don’t have the other side of the story as to what preceded this, but what was caught on camera certainly didn’t look good and appeared racist and ridiculous. What made it even more troubling is that one can see how this could potentially have put his life in danger if the police arrived and misread the situation, given the hysterical nature of the call. She painted it as though she were desperately under attack, which could have made cops come guns at the ready anticipating an assault in progress.

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Fortunately the encounter ended with the woman putting the dog on the leash. Cooper said thank you and continued on and the woman left. The police arrived to a “possible assault,” and found no one there.

ABC 7 New York’s Morena Basteiro tweeted a statement from the NYPD, “Call came in for a dispute, inside of the Central Park’s Ramble, around 8 a.m. this morning. Officers arrived and neither party was on scene. Thus, no report was filed and no arrests were made. No one has come forward to police since.”

Chris Cooper wrote on Facebook, “Once she put the dog on the leash, I birded my way out of the park as normal (I was done for the day and on my way out when I encountered Karen).” He added, “I’m fine… At this point, I’m getting used to this. Though the full-on racist slant was new.”

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