Experts Say Whatever Amy Cooper Got, It Wasn't Restorative Justice

Last week, the Manhattan district attorney announced that it had dropped charges against Amy Cooper, the white woman who notoriously threatened to call the police on a Black man who was birding in Central Park. 

In return, Cooper received several sessions of therapy, an outcome the D.A.'s office referred to as "restorative justice." 

Advocates for restorative justice argued the D.A. had co-opted the term and had potentially damaged their efforts by allowing a privileged white woman to avoid a public reckoning.

"Using ‘restorative justice’ feels like three steps back—using that term to do the opposite of what it was intended or potentially can do," said Shailly Agnihotri, who runs the Restorative Center in Newburgh.

"It reeks of unfairness."