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Amy & George
Two weeks ago in these pages I wrote about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man gunned down in cold blood by a trio of south Georgia rednecks in a town near my old high school. As I noted, the murder was horrific enough, though not surprising, as it was part of a long and vile history. But the real outrage was the blithe decision of the local authorities not to charge the killers until public outcry forced a reversal. (One of the accused was affiliated with the local DA’s office.)
As if by design, this week saw two other incidents that join Ahmaud’s murder in a damning triptych.
The first, improbably, was an encounter in Central Park between a woman walking her dog and a birdwatcher.
DOGS AND MASTERS
Here is Jelani Cobb in The New Yorker, describing what happened:
A white woman named Amy Cooper called 911 and told the dispatcher that an African-American man was threatening her. The man she was talking about, Christian Cooper, who is no relation, filmed the call on his phone. They were in the Ramble, a part of the park favored by bird-watchers, including Christian Cooper, and he had simply requested that she leash her dog — something that is required in the area. In the video, before making the call, Ms. Cooper warns Mr. Cooper that she is “going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my…
