Baltimore Protests: Orioles Executive Offers Perspective on 'Lives and Dreams Cut Short'

April 28, 2015, 11:29 AM UTC / Updated April 28, 2015, 2:52 PM UTC / Source: NBC News

When a sports broadcaster said that protesters hurt their own cause by disrupting other people’s lives, a Baltimore Orioles executive responded in a lengthy defense Saturday that “people are suffering and dying around the U.S.”

The exchange happened on Saturday, during protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody. Those protests were far less violent than the riots that convulsed the city on Tuesday.

That night, fans at the Orioles game were kept inside the ballpark for their own safety. Brett Hollander, a radio personality from WBAL-AM, posted on Twitter:

It's written in our Constitution In the first Amendment "right of the people peaceably to assemble" I think a key word is 'peaceably."
— Brett Hollander (@BrettHollander) April 26, 2015

Everyone should feel fortunate for our freedoms in this country, as written in our Constitution.... (1/4)
— Brett Hollander (@BrettHollander) April 26, 2015

I'm by no means a legal scholar, so please understand that, but protests should not violate the basic freedoms of non-protestors. (2/4)
— Brett Hollander (@BrettHollander) April 26, 2015

People of a community should be able to commute, commerce should happen & citizens who want to go to a ballgame should be able to go. (3/4)
— Brett Hollander (@BrettHollander) April 26, 2015

And any really important message out of these protests is lost when the rest of the community is disrupted. (4/4)
— Brett Hollander (@BrettHollander) April 26, 2015

The response came from John P. Angelos, the chief operating officer of the Orioles. The inconvenience of some baseball fans, he said, was irrelevant in context:

@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
— 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

IN-DEPTH

Baltimore Reels After Gray Protests Descend Into Chaos
Appalled: Freddie Gray's Family Condemns Riots