Tensions high as white man is arrested after racist rant against black neighbor

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Mount Laurel, New Jersey – A white man seen in video pushing a black neighbor with his chest and using racist slurs to address the neighbor and others on Friday was arrested.

Edward C. Mathews, 45, was arrested Monday night after hundreds of protesters gathered outside his townhouse in Mount Laurel for several hours, CBS Philly reports. Things got tense when Mathews was taken away by the police.

“Now what I did was not acceptable. It is completely wrong,” Mathews said in another video taken by a protester on Monday before his arrest.

In the footage showing Friday’s showdown, Mathews gives his address several times before finally walking away saying, “Come (expletive) see me.”

“This is not Africa,” Mathews can be heard saying in the video, according to CBS Philly. “This monkey over here and this monkey over here …”

In a statement posted online Monday morning, Mount Laurel Police said Mathews was charged with harassment and one-sided intimidation, but had received a subpoena and had not been arrested.

New trends

Protesters were angry that Mathews was allowed to return home and demanded that he be detained, CBS Philly explains.

On Monday evening, prosecutors said at a press conference that they were laying new charges against Mathews based on additional video footage.

Police were standing at the door of Mathews’ house on Monday. When officers moved to arrest him at around 7:30 p.m., footage posted by a reporter showed protesters throwing objects and liquids at officers and Mathews as they walked towards a police car and then onto the road. car as she drove away.

Police say they are investigating other incidents involving Mathews. Many people in the area say he has been harassing his neighbors outside his home for years, says CBS Philly.

“This is America, we all live here, we can’t stand this,” Alyia Robinson told the station.

Several years ago her daughter Jazmyn lived in an apartment below Mathews in a nearby complex. When the recent video was shared online, Jazmyn decided to upload one that she had taken down.

“(I was) literally in fear the whole time living with my son, like, what am I supposed to do?” Jazmyn Robinson said.

Another neighbor told CBS Philly that at least 10 other people have been continually harassed because of the color of their skin.

“He used a BB gun to shoot at their windows; he smeared dog feces all over their car,” a neighbor said.

“I fully understand why the protesters were here today. They had seen videos that were not available Friday night and were even worse,” said Burlington County District Attorney Scott Coffina.

After the new video was reviewed, new charges were added, including assault, and the decision was made to arrest Mathews.

Protests that had been peaceful all day escalated as police and SWAT units pulled Mathews out of his home.

Two arrests were made after the mace was reportedly thrown by a member of the crowd.

Mount Laurel is 19 miles east of Philadelphia.

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