By Chris Menahan
A 100-strong Black Lives Matter mob in Mount Laurel, an edge city suburb of Philadelphia, surrounded a man’s home on Monday after an out-of-context video of him going on a racist rant during a heated dispute with his neighbors went viral on social media.
The video cut out the beginning of the dispute so it wasn’t clear what the man, later identified as 45-year-old Edward Cagney Mathews, was so angry about.
The video shows Mathews was first pushed by his neighbor after getting up in his face.
HAPPENING NOW: Protestors have gathered outside the home a Mt. Laurel NJ man captured on video shouting offensive and racist slurs at his neighbors.
The man identified by police as Edward Mathews faces harassment and biased intimidation charges.@6abc pic.twitter.com/brReZEHWfi
— George Solis (@GeorgeSolis) July 5, 2021
NOW: Calls of “No justice, no peace” have begun. Mathews stepped out of home momentarily about an hour ago.
He soon retreated back inside the house.@6abc pic.twitter.com/jDkRhoZsJK
— George Solis (@GeorgeSolis) July 5, 2021
After police eventually showed up, the mob was filmed attacking Mathews with a BLM flag and hurling objects at him as well as the police who escorted him out of his home.
In Mount Laurel where protesters amassed outside the home of a man who was charged after a video of him using racist slurs against a neighbor Friday went viral. Hours into the tense standoff, with cops posted at the guy’s door, they walked him out into the crowd. #MountLaurel pic.twitter.com/adn7TEMi99
— Rebecca Everett (@RebeccajEverett) July 6, 2021
The mob could be seen jumping on what’s presumably Mathews’s car and cheering as they hurled everything they could find at him, forcing him and police to duck for cover.
The mob then proceeded to smash up his home:
After Edward Mathews was removed from his home, protesters smashed the windows until police in riot gear pushed them away from the area. Many more police were standing by in riot gear and EMS are staging in a nearby plaza.
— Rebecca Everett (@RebeccajEverett) July 6, 2021
Despite pleas from many community members some younger people have been throwing objects at suspects house. With Matthews removed from the home crowd has moved back. pic.twitter.com/VYJcgMVrt7
— Alexandria Hoff (@AlexandriaHoff) July 5, 2021
After being escorted out, Mathews was placed under arrest for bias intimidation and harassment and was later hit with additional bias intimidation and assault charges. As best as I can tell, the assault charges may have been for him getting up in his neighbor’s face and pushing his belly into him.
Not even one member of the mob who attacked him, responding police, or his house was placed under arrest.
Mount Laurel Police Chief Stephen Riedener told NBC Philadelphia they had received previous complaints about Mathews and he was brought to court before “but those charges were either dismissed or no probable cause was ever found.”
“We had investigated him several times,” Chief Riedener said. “But until this particular incident where the neighbors had video available from the ring cameras and things of that nature, we were finally able to get the evidence that we needed to actually charge him with the crimes he was committing.”
From NBC Philadelphia, “NJ Man Facing New Charges After Daring Protesters to Show Up During Racist Rant”:
During an interview with NBC10 on Monday, Mathews admitted to using racial slurs but denied being a racist.
“I’ve never been a racist,” Mathews said. “I’ve made mistakes. Said racial slurs out of anger or being drunk. I may not be able to relate to communities of color but I am not a racist and I have the upmost respect for us as a community.”
Mathews told NBC10 he lost his composure and regretted his words.
“I did not mean this,” Mathews said. “It was a lapse of judgment at a moment at my weakest point and my anger got the best of me.”
Rather than telling BLM not to form vigilante mobs and surround and attack people’s homes and instead let our justice system work out such disputes, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina told the mob they “had every right to be upset” because of his “despicable conduct.”
During a press conference Monday evening, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that additional charges of bias intimidation and assault were filed against Mathews based on the video.
“I want to especially commend the victim who showed incredible restraint with somebody spewing awful, vile things in his face. Assaulting him,” Coffina said. “That’s the subject of the additional charge today. That was on video.”
[…] Coffina also said he understood why the protests took place.
“They had seen videos that weren’t available to us on Friday night that were even worse than what we did have available to us on Friday night,” Coffina said. “And the protesters had every right to be upset about that because this is despicable conduct.”
He doesn’t appear to have said anything about the mob’s conduct.
Chief Riedener had a similarly weak response:
Chief Riedener said about 10 to 15 officers were sprayed with pepper spray and hit by bottles thrown at Mathews by members of the crowd. He also said there was damage to adjoining townhouses next to Mathews’ home. Police remained at the scene Monday evening and Riedener said they would review body camera footage to identify anyone who caused property damage or attacked officers.
“On large part the protesters that were here were peaceful and they were actually working with us and we spoke to many of them to try to get them to cooperate with us so that we could keep everyone safe,” Chief Riedener said. “And that was our goal from the minute we got here to make sure everyone was safe and our community was safe.”
Mathews will remain at the Burlington County Jail until his first court appearance later this week.
Mathews was also denounced by Mount Laurel mayor Stephen Steglik.
I’m sharing this official statement from council but in addition I’d like to add a personal statement.
The vile hatred being spewed by that person does not reflect who we are as a community and it made me sick to my stomach to see that happening in our township pic.twitter.com/KwxsuwpXKE
— Stephen J. Steglik (@StephenSteglik) July 5, 2021
While the mob was busy surrounding Mathews home and chanting “No justice, No peace,” the murder rate in Philadelphia under Soros-funded District Attorney Larry Krasner has been skyrocketing.
This year, Philly is on track to match if not exceed last year’s record 499 murders.
There’s been some 250 murders already, with 4 homicides and a dozen shootings taking place within “just a few hours” on the evening of July 4th, according to Fox 29.
Incidentally, we don’t see any of these BLM activists targeting neighborhoods in West Philadelphia where black people are being murdered by other black people en masse.
The national media similarly couldn’t care less. Black lives only matter to the media and BLM agitators if the perceived aggressors are white. Wholesale slaughter is taking place in major cities across America in the wake of the Floyd riots and it’s hardly even an issue!
A similar incident to this happened in April in Columbia, South Carolina after Army Sergeant Jonathan Pentland was filmed in an out-of-context video telling a black man to get out of his neighborhood and stop harassing his neighbors.
Pentland’s house was surrounded by a BLM mob for some 8 hours who smashed out his windows with a hammer and attacked his home with a baseball bat. He too had to be escorted out to a safe location by police.
It later came out the black “victim” was reported for putting his hands down a woman’s shorts and snatching a baby and was facing charges for trespassing and malicious injury to animals.
“Deandre,” the alleged “victim” who all evidence showed was in fact the aggressor, was declared “mentally ill,” had his charges dropped as a result and was committed — effectively brushing the case under the rug.
For all we know, he may already be back out on the street. Sgt Pentland, meanwhile, is under investigation by AG Merrick Garland’s DOJ for shoving the guy and is still being dragged through the courts!
This is only just the beginning of our descent into anarcho-tyranny.
When Biden said America needs to scrap the “white man’s” “English jurisprudential culture,” he wasn’t joking and he wasn’t alone.
All Biden’s appointments from Merrick Garland to Alejandro Mayorkas and all the newly-elected Soros-funded District Attorneys from Chesa Boudin to Larry Krasner share the exact same belief and they’re working overtime to make it a reality!
This article originally appeared on Information Liberation.
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