Julian Mark
A man police say yelled racist slurs in front of a residence in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, on Friday, gave out his address to a person filming him, and then challenged them to visit his home.
"Bring whoever," the man police identified as Edward Cagney Mathews, 45, added.
The video, which appears to show Mathews repeatedly calling his Black neighbour the n-word and a "monkey," went viral.
Three days later, protesters started showing up at the address listed in the video. By Monday morning, dozens of protesters had gathered outside Mathews's door, chanting "We want Edward!" the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. And, by the evening, the crowd appeared to have grown to more than 100.
With a line of police officers guarding his house, Mathews briefly emerged during the protest and tried to apologise, the Inquirer reported, but protesters remained livid. As he faced charges for his behaviour in the video, including harassment and biased intimidation, police later escorted Mathews out of his home with his hands behind his back.
Protesters cheered, while some hurled food and water bottles at him. The incident followed more than a year of nationwide protests over the treatment of Black people and race relations in the US.
"He said to pull up. We pulled up," Aliya Robinson, 43, who lives near Mathews, told the Inquirer. "We're not going to tolerate this anymore."
WATCH THE INCIDENT THAT SPARKED THE PROTEST HERE:
Mathews could not be reached for comment late Monday, but he told the Inquirer that his racist tirade was a result of him being drunk and the confrontation involved a long-running dispute over the homeowners' association. He apologized.
"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."
Robinson and her daughter, Jazmyn, are among several residents who claim that Mathews had harassed them and used racist language toward them before Friday's incident, according to KYW-TV. Ashleigh Gibbons, 35, another neighbour, told the Inquirer that Mathews has been harassing her for years.
"I totally understand why the protesters were here today," Burlington County Prosecutor Scott A. Coffina said at a Monday night news conference.
In a statement early Monday, the Mount Laurel Police Department said that the incident began at 7:50 p.m. on Friday, when a resident reported that she was "continually harassed by her neighbor," who police identified as Mathews. After the video of him spread on social media, which racked up tens of thousands of views by Monday, police launched the investigation and then announced the charges.
Coffina said at the news conference that his office is also charging Mathews with assault.
The police department said in its statement that it does not tolerate hate or bias intimidation "in any form."
"This type of behaviour is totally unacceptable," the statement adds. "We can assure our residents that incidents like this are thoroughly investigated and that those who commit such offences will be held accountable for their actions."
Likewise, the Mount Laurel Township mayor and council said it rejected Mathews's "horrible and dangerous behaviour and acts of hate like it." "This is not who we are and what our township stands for," the statement adds.
The video appears to show Mathews approaching one of his neighbours, and repeatedly getting into the man's face. The unidentified neighbour, who is Black, tells Mathews to leave. But Mathews argues that he had a right to stand in front of the house and does not leave.
"Learn your laws," Mathews allegedly says to the man. "It's not Africa."
"I was born in America," the man replies.
A police officer shows up minutes later and asks Mathews to go back to his house. As Mathews continues to scream racial epithets, the police officer says, "Cut it out, dude."
Tia Brown, a protester at Mathews's house, saw the video and said it was the police officer's lax attitude that angered her, NJ.com reported. "They had a conversation with him like it was nothing," she said.
Likewise, the Mount Laurel police department was criticized for not acting on complaints it received in the past about Mathews. A police spokesman, who did not return calls from The Washington Post late Monday, told the Inquirer that there had not been enough evidence to bring charges in the past.
"We understand the frustration," Kyle Gardner, the department spokesman, said. "The perception was that we did nothing about it. We're doing the best we can."