'We Will Be Here Until You Leave' | Protesters Want Vince's Crabhouse To Shut Down
MIDDLE RIVER, Md. (WJZ) -- Another protest was held outside Vince's Crabhouse in Middle River Friday morning, this time protesters said they will continue demonstrating until the business has to close its doors.
Vince's Crabhouse has been at the center of a social media storm after a post from one of its owners went viral.
Kellie Vaughan, the organizer of Shut Down VCH Protest group, said she felt personally betrayed by Vince Meyer's Facebook post calling it "disrespectful" to the Black community.
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Vaughan, who called herself a customer of Vince's Crabhouse, spoke about how she did everything she could to keep the protests peaceful, diffusing any heated situations -- many of which, she alleged were triggered by the business owners themselves.
She said the business owners allegedly came out and taunted protesters, aimed sprinklers at them and created an environment where customers threatened protesters with violence.
"You can't love my money and not my skin color," Vaughan said Friday.
The protesters said both employees and customers have used derogatory terms toward them. They said they have been spit on and flipped off.
"Until we see a 'For Lease' sign on the building, our mission is to keep pressing on, our mission is to change this world into a world where racism is not tolerated," she continued.
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Their statements come after the business owners said protesters were threatening them and sued the Baltimore County executive for failing to protect Vince's Crabhouse from unlawful protestors.
"We have had threatening phone calls all day long to the crabhouse," Brenda Meyer of Vince's Crabhouse said at a press conference Wednesday.
In the midst of protests over George Floyd's death, Vince Meyer posted to Facebook:
"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."
He later apologized.
"When I made the statement that started this whole mess, it was definitely not a racial statement. It was based on just what I was seeing," Vince Meyer of Vince's Crabhouse said.
"That was not a racist statement. Some may have taken it that way because we all perceive things differently, but that was about protesters and looters," Brenda Meyer added.
Protesters have gathered outside the Middle River crab house for weeks, and the Meyers report they have been followed home and harassed since the post went viral.
Vince Meyer said he has regrets about the post.
"I definitely regret saying it," he said. "Just because it is so offensive. People took it that way, they took it the wrong way."
On Monday, the county said it does not comment on pending litigation.