A New Jersey man who claims he was drunk when he paused a racist rant to read his address to a livestreamer, daring them to “come f**king see me,” got more than he asked for when scores of people showed up at his home.
Dozens of people – over 100 by some reports – gathered outside the Mount Laurel condo of Edward Cagney Mathews, a man who quickly became internet-famous by arguing with his neighbor outside both of their properties, occasionally deploying racist slurs during a lengthy video of the men insulting each other.
The clip, reportedly taken on Friday, starts in the middle of an argument between Mathews, who is white, and his neighbor, who is black. It’s not clear what they’re arguing about – Mathews later told local paper The Philadelphia Inquirer that it “stemmed from a long-running housing dispute involving the homeowners’ association” – but acknowledged that he had been drunk and “wasn’t expecting an encounter like that” or “to disrespect anybody.”
This was a racist incident in Mount Laurel, NJ. This POS name is Edward Cagney Matthews, he’s been harassing his Black neighbors for some time now, and ML police department refuses to do anything. pic.twitter.com/2uJYBQCNtR
In versions of the clip circulating on social media, the two men come close to physically fighting but manage to limit themselves to verbal insults. Matthews’ n-words and “this ain’t Africa” comments brought back jabs of “white monkey” and “b*stard” from his neighbor.
Local “activist” Gary Frazier told the Inquirer that he helped organize the protest after seeing the video on Sunday night – a version in which Mathews can reportedly be heard yelling his address, as well as telling whoever’s watching the livestream to come challenge him there. The person filming seems to be another disgruntled neighbor eager to get his behavior on camera.
It’s not clear if Mathews spent more of the weekend harassing his neighbor, but he was no doubt shocked when people started pouring onto the driveway of his Mount Laurel home on Monday.
Protesters chanting outside the home of Edward Matthews, the South Jersey man captured on video in a racist rant. They just set up a speaker in front of his home. Looks like they plan to be here for awhile. Follow story @PhillyInquirerpic.twitter.com/MSplRgRPRl
As the assembled, mostly-black crowd jeered at him, police eventually showed up to arrest him on assault charges, though the arrest likely served the double purpose of offering Mathews some protection from the angry crowd, who were decidedly displeased with his behavior despite his insistence he was just “drunk” when he made the comments to his neighbor.
“It was a difficult situation to extract him,” Mount Laurel Police Chief Steve Riedner told local media. “Unfortunately some in the crowd made it more dangerous for everybody.”
Bias-crime suspect Edward Cagney Matthews is arrested on new charges, this time in front of demonstrators who protested outside his Mount Laurel home for hours Mondayhttps://t.co/rQD23a8Aa7pic.twitter.com/CCpE1rUqLW
Mathews acknowledged to the paper that being drunk is “no excuse for what I said, but I lost my temper.” He insisted he “just talk[s] like this,” and didn’t mean to be racist, claiming he used the same language in conversation with white people.
The Inquirer claimed “as many as 150 demonstrators gathered outside his house and chanted for him to come out” – some peppering their chant with “b**ch” as they got into the rhythm.
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