Baltimore Orioles Chief Operating Officer John P. Angelos said via Twitter on Saturday that inconveniences and game cancelations were “irrelevant” compared to the real problems being protested in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, which occurred while he was in police custody.
Angelos, the son of the team’s owner, responded to comments made by a Baltimore radio broadcaster who complained the protests that shut down the baseball field were creating a hassle for fans and Baltimore residents.
Below are Angelos’ tweets:
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop Brett speaking only for myself i agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, and all
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical .
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop that in any democracy investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop or police members are judged responsible. That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop group but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the US to
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop 3rd world dictatorships like China and others plunged tens of millions of good hard working americans
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop into economic devastation and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop surveillance state. The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the bill of rights by government pay the
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop true price, an ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importance of any kids’ game played
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the US and
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights and this is
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop makes inconvenience at a ball game irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
@BrettHollander @ThBaltimoreChop upon ordinary Americans.
— John P Angelos (@JohnPAngelos) April 26, 2015
h/t Think Progress
All I can say is thank you.
Epic righteous statement by a baseball exec without regard for his own personal career–I just became a huge John Angelos fan! Do–and say–the right thing!
Well said, and I now have a team to root for in the A.L. East.
Why is it that sports journalists, in general, are such troglodytes (there are exceptions. I’m looking at you, Keith Olbermann)?
One of my main beefs with Twitter: I had to scroll too much to read the entirety of an outstanding statement that should appear in paragraph form. The entirety of the message is one of the best defenses of non-violent protests I’ve read in quite a while