You seem to think I’m defending her actions. I’m not. Yes she broke the law. Yes she was in the wrong. I don’t know whether you have bylaws in the US but I suspect here it would be a civil matter rather than a criminal matter. When someone has broken the law you seek redress in the law. That’s what the law is for and that’s how it works.

So yes, by all means inform the park authorities. By all means phone the police and make a complaint. By all means take note of her dog, what she was wearing, what the time was and where the incident happened and seek to get her fined. Take the matter to court if you have to. Those are all valid ways of resolving the issue of dog walkers in Central Park.

But that’s it. That’s the law. That’s how citizens resolve disputes. Do not carry food for dogs when you don’t have one, do not police the area like an ersatz Batman. Do not make verbal threats to someone on their own in a wooded area. That’s doubly true if the person is a woman and you are a man.

As I have said MANY times in the comments and in the article. Her reaction and attempt to call in the force of the law is entirely reprehensible but you keep skipping over this point to insist upon his absolute innocence at all costs. This interaction (and others before it although they are hearsay) demonstrate a level of belligerence on his part that fuelled the situation. I suspect that is why he didn’t want the matter taken further.

Now, whether or not you care to listen to that point of view is up to you. It’s a point of view shared by many. Summarised by the British phrase ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’. They both combined created a mountain out of a molehill…. And, as I said, a much better response would be for them both to sit down together and work out what went wrong…. What might motivate him to police the local bylaws. What might have caused her to react the way she did? How could they have handled it better?

That’s your jam though isn’t it? That’s the premise of IZI, or is it just contrite faux-liberals you invite and then berate at length until everyone turns out to be a racist? They agree, cry a bit and everyone goes home under the pretence they’ve had a discussion when in reality they’ve had a lecture and input nothing.