When Two Karens Collide

If you pay attention to the fluff pieces that pop up on the news feeds, you probably heard of the "Central Park Karen" incident. In that incident, a bird watcher (a black man) confronted someone (a white woman) for walking a dog off-leash in an area where that was not allowed. The confrontation resulted in both throwing down their respective victim cards. The woman lost.

       Now we see headlines like this one from the Daily Mail: "Bill de Blasio brands white investment banker Amy Cooper, 41, racist for calling 911 to report an 'African-American man threatening her life' when he simply asked her to leash her dog - as she whines that her 'life is being destroyed'." Just watching the video that the man--Christian Cooper--took of the incident, it does appear that Amy is overreacting, while Christian maintains that he was acting out of his concern for the birds and vegetation in the area and never threatened her. However, just reading his own (sanitized?) account of the incident, Christian doesn't come off exactly as non-threatening. This Hot Air article recounts Christian's version of the first part of the encounter prior to filming. From the article:

He’s certainly not threatening her in the footage, although the conversation that preceded the video is much more ambiguous. This transcript comes from the man himself, Christian Cooper, per his Facebook post about what happened:

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…

“DON’T YOU TOUCH MY DOG!” he claims she shouted, just before he began recording. What was he planning to do to the dog that she was “not going to like”? Because that *does* sound threatening.