New Jersey 'Karen', 60, is arrested for repeatedly screaming the N-word at black woman who stepped in when she was complaining about post to her mailman
A 60-year-old New Jersey woman has been arrested after she was caught on video yelling racist slurs and profanities at a black woman she was following.
Claudia Emanuele has been charged with bias intimidation and harassment stemming from her argument with 40-year-old Tameka Bordeaux in Bayonne on Monday afternoon.
According to a statement from the Bayonne Police Department, Bordeaux had left her house on West 17th Street at around 3pm and observed Emanuele talking to a postal worker about the late delivery of her mail.
Claudia Emanuele, 60 (left), has been arrested for bias intimidation and harassment after being caught on video hurling racial slurs at Tameka Bordeaux (right) in Bayonne, New Jersey
Bordeaux on Monday recorded a series of video, showing Emanuele following her for several city blocks in Bayonne, New Jersey, and calling her the N-word and other names
Emanuele accused Bordeaux of injecting herself into her conversation with a postal worker
As Bordeaux approached Emanuele to offer some 'neighborly advice,' the 60-year-old proceeded to hurl a stream of foul-mouthed, racially-charged expletives at her, including the N-word.
Bordeaux turned on her phone and recorded Emanuel heaping verbal abuse on her in public.
In one of the clips she later shared on her Facebook page, Emanuele is seen gyrating her hips in a mocking gesture and accusing the victim of following her, even though she is the one who is seen walking behind her.
'I came out of my apartment, I talked to the mailman and I just wanted to know where my mail was, but she had to be an intrusion, she is not minding her business and she is a procrastinator and an instigator,' Emanuele says into the camera. 'You nasty f***ing wig-headed b****.'
In another clip, Emanuele yells at Bordeaux: 'call the cops, you black f***ing n*****'.
'How long are you gonna follow me and call me a n*****?' Bordeaux calmly inquires of the woman.
'You went into my street, you followed me,' Emanuele shoots back, to which Bordeaux points out that she happens to live on the same block.
As Bordeaux reaches a 7-11 convenience store on Avenue C, several bystanders come to her defense and yell at Emanuele to 'stop being a f***ing racist.'
One of the passersby tells Bordeaux that she's got 'the patience of a saint' for showing restraint.
Emanuele followed Bordeaux all the way to a convenience store on Avenue C, where several Good Samaritans came to the victim's defense and made her harasser leave
Bordeaux explains to the other woman, who is white, that she was not going to react with aggression to Emanuele's provocations.
'I've been black for 40 years,' she says. 'N***** is not gonna do anything to me.'
Police said a concerned citizen was able to step in and calm Emanuele down, ultimately coaxing her to leave the area.
Bordeaux turned over her video evidence showing the confrontation to the police, sparking an investigation that quickly led to Emanuele, who was arrested the following afternoon.
According to police, Emanuele had moved to Bayonne from Tennessee in September 2020.
Bordeaux told local news outlets that the racial abuse has left her traumatized, especially given her grandparents' experience living in North Carolina during Jim Crow.
Bordeaux, 40 (left and right), was universally applauded for showing restraint in the moment. She turned her footage to the police, leading to Emanuele's arrest
'I broke down, because those words are connected into some history,' she told WPIX11.
State Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, who represents Hudson County, issued a statement, calling the incident a 'racist act' and demanding that Emanuele and others like her be held accountable for their actions.
'This behavior is becoming so common now that we simply refer to these racist people as “Karen” and let it go. I can’t just do that,' she wrote. 'I put myself in Tameka’s shoes and I know it had to take a lot of restraint for her to endure what she went through today. I thank her for being the strong black woman that she is to remain calm and reserved during the entire ordeal.'
Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis also addressed the incident on Facebook, writing in part: 'the video content was appalling and certainly not indicative of who we are in Bayonne. Our community will continue to stand together and work to eliminate these acts of hatred.'
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