Vince's Crab House, Baltimore County Spar Over Protest Response

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — The owners of Vince's Crab House say they are taking legal action against Baltimore County after weeks of protests at their restaurant in Middle River.

"The past month has been hell, to be quite honest," Vince's Crab House owner Brenda Meyer said at a news conference Wednesday morning at her restaurant on Compass Road.

Nearly four weeks before, she said the business tucked at the end of a strip mall erupted into chaos after racist social media posts by her son, Vince Meyer, came to light. Protests have ensued ever since.

The restaurant has five locations, including three in Baltimore County.

"Police officers didn’t allow it," Vince Meyer said of Carroll and Harford county law enforcement officers. They “shut it down,” he said, if there was protest activity at the Fallston and Manchester crab houses.

In Baltimore County, Brenda Meyer said officers told her they were ordered to "stand down."

Police contested the claim.

"This statement is false," Sgt. Vickie Warehime, director of public affairs for the Baltimore County Police Department, told Patch.

"The Baltimore County Police Department's approach for all protests has been consistent and focused on protecting life, property and first amendment rights for all citizens," Warehime said.

"I have customers that come in, and they're afraid to go back out," Brenda Meyer said.

"We can't walk outside," she continued. "We have had threatening phone calls all day long" to the business and "with the threats, from them following us home, riding past our homes, calling my cell phone in the middle of the night — we have two young children that we have to keep pretty much hemmed up in the house on beautiful summer days."

Attorney Linda Brown said a team representing Vince's Crab House is seeking a court order as part of a series of legal actions "requiring Baltimore County to enforce the rule of law" so it can "operate its business without interference of the protesters."

Said Brown: "Baltimore County has allowed the protesters to engage in unlawful activity such as trespass, death threats, and other acts of harassment and intimidation."

The claims by the crab house owners are "baseless," according to the county executive's office.

"These baseless claims are not grounded in facts or reality," Sean Naron, spokesman for Baltimore County, said. "The men and women of county law enforcement have consistently gone above and beyond in service to all residents of our community regarding this matter. The county will continue to protect residents’ first amendment rights to peaceful protest while doing whatever is necessary to ensure public safety."

Former GOP Delegate Pat McDonough said County Executive Johnny Olszewski (D-Baltimore County) was not fulfilling his obligation to protect.

"People are going beyond their right to protest,” McDonough said. "This is not a protest; the strategy is to harass and close."

The delegate said there was no negotiating. "Nobody has come to Brenda and said let's talk about what you can do for us and what we can do for you," McDonough said. "We don't give capital punishment for jaywalking."

McDonough added: "The police sit outside like furniture." He said the restaurateurs have paid tens of thousands of dollars for private security.

"We’ve had a well-coordinated and planned approach with our incident command team that started with the pandemic and has now transitioned to protests," said Warehime of the Baltimore County Police Department.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office said officers were called June 6 to the crab house in Fallston for a demonstration and since then have conducted routine checks as they would at other businesses in a strip mall.

The owners of the crab house closed all five locations — in North Point, Dundalk, Fallston, Middle River and Manchester — from June 20 to June 26 and "focused on our family and our business and our employees" and "how to keep ourselves safe," Brenda Meyer said.

"We had people all around banging on our windows, pulling on our doors, screaming to come out, protesters out there fighting, people spitting on each other," Brenda Meyer said of what happened on June 6 at her Middle River restaurant. "It escalated so badly that that's when we had to call in our own security to get us out of this building before we ended up getting hurt."

Ava-joye Burnett, a reporter from WJZ, asked whether the owners of the restaurant reflected on what prompted the nine-day closure.

"It's OK for some people to speak one way and not others," Brenda Meyer said, noting comments her son made that were racist were "said so many years ago."

Protests began at the restaurant after a June 1 Facebook comment Vince Meyer made about those demonstrating in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

CBS Baltimore reported the post from Vince Meyer read: "There is one place I bet protesters/rioters won't light on fire or break into or even block the road to…the social services building."

Both restaurateurs rejected the idea that the comment was about race.

“That was about protesters and looters,” Brenda Meyer said. “It was not racist.”

Her son said his intent was not about race.

"When I made the statement that started this whole mess, it was definitely not a racial statement," Vince Meyer said Wednesday. “It was offensive, I agree, but definitely not racist."

When a reporter asked whether he regretted saying it, Vince Meyer stated: "I definitely regret saying it just because it is so offensive." He also said in the weeks since, business has been slow because people are "scared to come in."

In 2011, when someone said they would work at his crab house but $8 an hour was slave labor, Vince Meyer allegedly responded on social media: "U would be a good slave if u had a better tan."

When the social media posts first resurfaced, he released a video about his comments.

At the news conference Wednesday morning, the focus was on the pending lawsuit.

"We have customers that come in that are afraid to go back out," Brenda Meyer said at the news conference. "I have people that are here just trying to make a living, and they're fearful."

Stating her employees have been "threatened on a daily basis," Brenda Meyer said: "It's time for the law to be enforced."

Watch the full news conference from Vince's Crab House on WBFF.

Related:

• Vince's Crab House Owner Sues Baltimore County Over Protests
• Owner Of Vince's Crab House Plans To Reopen Restaurants: Report
• Vince's Crabhouse Closes All Locations For 9 Days After Protests