A May 29 encounter between Howard County Council member Deb Jung and a group of young men has some county leaders asking for an apology.
Representatives from the NAACP Howard County, Council of Elders of Howard County, Howard County African American Community Roundtable, other organizations and residents gathered outside the George Howard Building in Ellicott City Wednesday to address the encounter.
The incident, which was recorded on video, involved Jung and her husband, Ben, accusing the men, who were in their late teens and early 20s, of revving their car engines and violating a noise ordinance in a parking lot at Clarksville Commons, according to a news release from the NAACP Howard County Branch.
According to Jung, she and her husband approached the young men after finishing dinner at Clarksville Commons because the couple had observed the men revving their engines in a nearby parking lot for nearly two and a half hours.
On the video, one of the men was heard saying “we weren’t doing anything.” In response, Jung told them that she was on the county council and she could report them, prompting this response from one of the men, “Nobody gives f***. Do it.”
Another man followed up to say, “This electric car was being loud. That is what you are saying.”
Ben Jung responded: “Everybody noticed it and it was very disturbing.”
Representatives of several organizations expressed their outrage over the incident and called for Jung to apologize.
“The best options that we could see were to address this incident and hopefully have a conversation with the council member to ask for an apology,” said Willie Flowers, president of the NAACP Maryland State Conference. “In this case we think she overused her powers and the call to action to her is, ‘Do you see it as an unfortunate situation?'”
Jung represents District 4, which includes parts of Clarksville, Fulton, Harper’s Choice, Hickory Ridge, Highland, North Laurel, River Hill and Town Center, and is running for re-election.
Since the incident, Jung said she has had four campaign signs stolen and has been harassed on social media.
“I think that this is a smear campaign and that the individuals who were at this press conference this afternoon are trying to create an issue that doesn’t exist,” she said. “The issue that existed were a group of young men who were driving around with modified engines dangerously drag racing in the area and that is something that I would hope anybody who witnessed that would speak of on an issue that is so important to public safety.”
Paula Seabright, of Columbia, is the mother of Sam Hightower, one the young men involved in the incident.
Seabright said she felt Jung’s behavior toward her son, who is biracial, and his friends, who were of various ethnicities, was “appalling.” Jung and her husband are white.
“We cannot have elected officials behaving like that, especially in Howard County, where we pretend to value diversity,” Seabright said.
Sam Hightower, 20, of Columbia, who is a third-year student studying forensics at Howard Community College, said he felt it was important to speak out about what happened. He also provided the video of the encounter.
“We just think that us speaking out will hopefully prevent it from happening again, especially to more people like us,” Hightower said.
