Washington Football Team star Chase Young testified in support of a landmark police-accountability bill on Tuesday before the Maryland House Judiciary Committee, telling the panel that his parents — like many Black parents — fear for his life because of police brutality.
“At this stage I don’t know what can happen,” Young, 21, said during the virtual hearing. “My mom is scared for me, my dad. Just everybody. I feel like people are just tired of just everything that is going on. That’s why I feel like we have to pass this bill.”
The measure he was supporting would create a statewide use-of-force policy for police that includes a ban on chokeholds and a restriction on no-knock warrants; require every police department in the state to use body cameras by 2025; and repeal the powerful Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, a decades-old statute that offers legal and workplace protections for police officers accused of wrongdoing.
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It is a top priority of House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) and other Democratic legislative leaders, but faces strong opposition from police unions in Maryland. Maryland was the first state in the nation to pass a Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights in the 1970s; eliminating it would be a major step forward for advocates who have pushed for dramatic changes in policing in recent months.
Young, a defensive end who was voted the NFL defensive rookie of the year, was joined at the hearing by two teammates: long snapper Nick Sundberg and wide receiver Dontrelle Inman.
Inman described police brutality as a “disease” and said the police reform package is the antidote needed to fight it. Sundberg, who is White, told lawmakers he couldn’t “imagine feeling some of the things that have been expressed on this call.”
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He called the legislation a “giant step in the right direction ... the only way for our communities to restore the trust.”
Young grew up in Prince George’s County and played football at DeMatha High School and Ohio State University, where he majored in criminal justice.
His father served in the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office for 27 years, and several other relatives also have law enforcement ties — Young told lawmakers that he has considered a law enforcement career himself.
Even though “every man that I looked up to in my house” is in law enforcement, he said, growing up in Prince George’s County he would “still worry about the police that was in my own community.”
Young said it was difficult to explain to the committee members how he feels. He said he has almost become “numb” when he sees an officer.
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“If I do drive up to 7-Eleven in my nice Mercedes, why are you giving me this look?” he said. “It’s certain stuff that’s hard to explain, but it’s very true. Everyday life for me is being real cautious all the time.”
Young is one of a growing number of professional athletes advocating for social justice both on and off the field in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.
In Week 7 of this year’s NFL season, he took a knee during the national anthem. And in June he advocated for the end to police brutality in a viral video with other NFL stars.
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