From today's opinion by Judge Ronnie Abrams (S.D.N.Y.) in Cooper v. Franklin Templeton; this seems correct to me (for more on the defamation theory here, see this post):
Plaintiff Amy Cooper, a white woman, was formerly employed by Defendant Franklin Templeton in New York as a Portfolio Manager. On May 25, 2020, she was involved in a confrontation with birdwatcher Christian Cooper, a black man, while walking her dog in Central Park. Video footage of the encounter was posted to Facebook and Twitter later that day. The video quickly went viral—garnering millions of views—and earned Plaintiff the moniker "Central Park Karen" on social media. The next day, Franklin Templeton announced that it had conducted an internal review of the incident and terminated Plaintiff's employment….
The following facts are drawn from the complaint and are assumed to be true for the purposes of this motion….
On May 25, 2020, Plaintiff was involved in an altercation with Christian Cooper, a black man, while he was birdwatching and she was walking her dog in Central Park. The confrontation, which Plaintiff claims caused her to fear for her safety and that of her dog, culminated in Plaintiff placing a 911 call, during which she told the police that there was "an African-American man threatening [her] life." A video of the encounter was shared on social media that same day; it quickly went viral and "became international news as a racial flashpoint." Plaintiff was soon branded a "privileged white female 'Karen'" by the media and social media users….
On the night of the Central Park incident, Franklin Templeton—Plaintiff's then- employer—published the following statement on Twitter concerning the incident:
We take these matters very seriously, and we do not condone racism of any kind. While we are in the process of investigating the situation, the employee involved has been put on administrative leave.
