In an Instagram post this weekend, Tina Knowles-Lawson questioned if actor Jussie Smollett would receive “the same compassion” shown to Amy Cooper, who notoriously called police and made false claims against Black Central Park bird watcher Christian Cooper in May 2020.
Knowles-Lawson shared a screenshot of a CNN opinion piece written by Issac Bailey titled, “What Jussie Smollett’s guilty verdicts tell us.”
Bailey is a college professor and the author of Why Didn’t We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland.
In her post, Knowles-Lawson wrote, “The article goes on to say both were wrong but Jussie faces possible prison time and Amy Cooper the woman who called the police and lied about the black man that was Bird watching in Central Park was trying to attack her. Leading to the arrest of the man where in the history of black men In Custody could have led to his death!!”
“Amy Cooper got off with public service,” Knowles-Lawson adds. “We will see the outcome of this for this Black man. Will he get the same compassion as Amy Cooper? I am not condoning what Mr Smollet was found guilty of. I am just asking will he get the same compassion and understanding of knowingly lying to police. Kyle Rittenhouse walked free after killing two people because the jury had compassion?”
Cooper faced a single misdemeanor charge of falsely reporting an incident after her encounter with the Black bird watcher who requested she leash her dog in a part of Central Park where leashes are required. She was captured on video accentuating her pleas to 911 asking for help and saying the Black man was potentially a threat to her. The incident occurred early in the coronavirus pandemic and quickly became national news.
Cooper’s charges were ultimately dismissed after she completed a “therapeutic” program.
Smollett was accused of staging his own assault in January 2019, when he told police that two men put a noose around his neck, poured bleach on him and hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, shouting, “This is MAGA country.”
The former Empire star has been found guilty of five felony counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports to the police and is facing a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
In his CNN article, Bailey writes, “It’s hard for me to think of Jussie Smollett without thinking of Amy Cooper. They each did something horrifically stupid and dangerous, echoing the worst of this country’s racial history for their own selfish reasons.”
“And let’s be frank,” he continues. “Even though he is a wealthy celebrity, and she was unknown to most Americans before she was launched into the public eye through viral infamy, it’s not particularly surprising that it is the Black man who might lose his freedom while the White woman might parlay her false claim into a payday by suing her former employer, claiming she was a victim of racial discrimination.”
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