Jacqueline Kent Cooke, the heiress daughter of the late Jack Kent Cooke, the former owner of the Washington football team that refuses to change its racist name, apparently got drunk on New Year’s eve at a fancy restaurant and used anti-Semitic slurs on a fellow patron that later resulted in a brawl on the street outside that was captured on video, with Cooke sitting on the sidewalk and bringing down her adversary with an ankle tackle.
Matthew Haberkorn, a 52-year-old lawyer from the San Francisco Bay Area, told The News that Cooke caused two gashes on the right side of his head after winging her $300 Lulu Guinness Chloe Mirrored Perspex Box Clutch at him during the sidewalk skirmish.
…Haberkorn said it all started shortly after he finished a meal with his 77-year-old mom, his wife and their four daughters at Caravaggio on E. 74th St. near Madison Ave., a high-end eatery boasting $55 veal chops.
He said they were collecting their belongings at the coat check when Cooke, who was behind them in line, got annoyed and belligerent.
“Hurry up Jew,” Cooke allegedly spat, according to Haberkorn.
“What did you say?” Haberkorn’s wife Linda Thomas asked.
“Hurry up, Jew. I got places to be,” Cooke allegedly repeated.
…“We were so surprised that on the Upper East Side that this would happen,” Thomas told The News.
Why was Thomas surprised? Does Thomas think that rich people are immune from bigotry? What world does she live in? Or is she surprised that they would reveal it so openly?
Cooke initially denied even having been at the restaurant but later turned herself in to the police and was taken away in handcuffs.
What intrigued me about this story were the little tidbits that the reporter added that indicated that we were dealing with wealthy socialites. One was the detailed description of Cooke’s handbag (“Lulu Guinness Chloe Mirrored Perspex Box Clutch” which presumably means something to the cognoscenti) and its cost (other reports listed it at $500) and the other was the cost of the veal chops. You would hardly think that the name of the handbag and the cost of the food would be meaningful to such a story.
OP: “You would hardly think that the name of the handbag and the cost of the food would be meaningful to such a story.”
Except as a “they can afford those things and you can’t” sort of touch.
Lucky there was someone who could recognize such objects; I would not have had a clue.
$300 (or $500, whichever) is nothing for a handbag, and $55 for the veal isn’t that much either. Hardly “wealthy socialites”…
Bay area liberals live in their own cocoon 🙂 (Like me!)
I think we’re also supposed to recall that New York City is famously diverse and liberal-tending. Also, the Upper East Side has a largish Jewish population, and therefore, one would expect non-Jewish people from that area to have neighbors and friends who are Jewish, and therefore, would not use Jewish ethnicity as a slur.
Given that context, anti-Jewish bigotry in that area can seem unusual, and therefore surprising.
It can’t be a hate crime -- she’s too rich.
Dunn @#2,
I dunno. For me, paying $300 for an accessory or $55 for any entree would be out of the question.
I goggled “Lulu Guinness Chloe Mirrored Perspex Box Clutch”, it looks like it would hurt if it hit you.
I’d keep it, if someone bounced one off my head.
In my experience there are two kinds of rich people:
1: Jews
2: anti-Semites, sometimes closeted, sometimes less so.
Given that one in eight NYC residents is Jewish, the only thing surprising about the anti Semitic described is that they thought they’d get away with it in 2018.
Mano: you’re not rich, or even pretending to be. And if you think those sums are excessive, you’re probably better off not finding out what real rich people spend on stuff.
$55 for an entree in San Francisco is not exceptional. A $300 or $500 bag, however, is.