I’m not gonna retweet the woman who’s trying to explain that Life is Too Hard for the Amys of this world, but can we all just please take a moment to recognize that Christian Cooper was filming in self-defense?

He didn’t have a “bad interaction with her.”

She was threatening to falsely report him to the police for a crime he did not commit!

At a very minimum, even if the police were civil and nonviolent in response, he was risking a stay on Riker’s Island over her say-so.

She threatened his life, his liberty, his job, his future prospects, potentially his right to vote in the coming elections.

He was just being smart.

(Don’t respond to the obvious troll in my mentions, but you know what you can do if you don’t want your dog taking treats from unknown strangers? You can put your dog on a freaking leash.)

One last thing: the Amy Defender in question wants us to believe that the issue is with him posting the video online, and he should have just *taken* the video but not *posted* it.

The problem with that is that he then risks being picked up by the police and separated from his phone. Maybe he’ll get everything back and squared away...in 72 hours or so...but in the meantime, he’s stuck in Riker’s.

When you can’t count on someone listening to your side of the story until they are absolutely forced to do so, *having* a side of the story isn‘t enough. You have to get ahead of it.

And in the meantime, this woman—who is demonstrably willing to go around the park causing harm—is still potentially causing harm.