A racist bold enough to give his address on video and challenge people to do something about it may have some regrets after his challenge was accepted.
Featured Video
Hide
Footage of Edward Cagney Mathews harassing his neighbors, repeatedly shouting racial slurs and trying to intimidate them, went viral over the weekend. In it, he repeatedly insisted that the police couldn’t do anything about his behavior, and after an officer showed up, not much happened at the time other than him being told to go home.
He also pointedly gave out his address in the video, telling the person recording to “come f—king see me” and “bring whoever.”
Advertisement
Hide
Sure enough, by Monday, dozens of protestors showed up outside Mathews’ condo in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, chanting and demanding action. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that, at one point, there were up to 150 protestors outside his home.
Although he came out to apologize at one point, folks weren’t buying it, and the protests continued until the police came and arrested him on charges of bias intimidation and trespassing based on what happened in the video.
Mathews told the Inquirer that he wasn’t being racist when he repeatedly threw out the N-word and yelled at one Black man to “learn your laws; it’s not Africa,” but that he “just [talks] like this.”
“I certainly wasn’t expecting an encounter like that and certainly wasn’t expecting to disrespect anybody,” Mathews said. “Let me be clear: That is no excuse for what I said, but I lost my temper.”
But neighbors in the area say Mathews has been causing trouble for years, ranging from harassment to destruction of property. Even in the video, when the police officer shows up to deal with the dispute, he refers to Mathews as “Cagney” and appears to already know him.
Advertisement
Hide
The Mount Laurel Police admitted there have been past complaints about Mathews, but that evidence was always circumstantial or otherwise insufficient.
“This type of behavior is totally unacceptable,” they said in a statement. “We can assure our residents that incidents like this are thoroughly investigated and that those who commit such offenses will be held accountable for their actions.
It only took a viral video, nationwide attention, and over a hundred protestors to get it done.
*First Published: July 6, 2021, 6:30 am
0 Comments