A 60-year-old white woman has been arrested for racially harassing a Black woman in Bayonne, local police said.
What We Know:
- Claudia Emanuele has been charged with prejudice, intimidation, and harassment from a disturbance captured on video that went viral after Tameka Bordeaux, 40, published the events to Facebook on Monday.
- Bordeaux mentioned, on Monday at 3 p.m., while she was “walking to the store,” she saw Emanuele talking to a mail carrier regarding the mail’s late delivery. As the victim addressed the woman to give “neighborly advice,” Emanuele immediately began yelling racial and sexist insults at the victim, causing her to walk away feeling traumatized.
- As the victim continued to walk toward a corner store located on Avenue C, Emanuele followed while continuing to shout racial slurs at the victim. “She proceeded to follow me from 17th Street all the way to 21st Street and 7/11, calling me every n-word in the book,” stated Bordeaux.
- The victim was able to catch the disturbance on video, which she handed to the Police Department for investigation.
(WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT VIDEO AND LANGUAGE)
- Angela McKnight, State Assemblywoman, who serves the Hudson County area, had asked for an investigation on Monday night.
“I watched the social media live video posted by Tameka Bordeaux of her being racially harassed as she walked down a street in complete outrage and disgust,” Knight said in a statement. “The white Woman shown in the video trailed her and hurled the worst racial epithets imaginable to a Black woman who was calmly walking down a Bayonne street on the way to a store. This behavior is becoming so common now that we simply refer to these racist people as ‘Karen’ and let it go.”
- The investigation led to Emanuele being recognized as the suspect. She had relocated to Bayonne from Tennessee in September.
- Bordeaux completely discards any justification or explanation for Emanuele’s behavior, which she reports were pure racism.
- Assemblywoman McKnight, who spoke to PIX11 News Channel Tuesday night, wants to go even further and have the incident charged as a hate crime against Emanuele at the state level.
PIX11 News went and knocked on Emanuele’s front door in Bayonne Tuesday night but received no response.
