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Should the New York Rangers take a stand?

BySteve Paulus|
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 05: Hundreds of protesters march in downtown Brooklyn over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on June 05, 2020 in New York City. The white police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder and the three other officers who participated in the arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Floyd's death, the most recent in a series of deaths of black Americans at the hands of police, has set off days and nights of protests across the country. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 05: Hundreds of protesters march in downtown Brooklyn over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on June 05, 2020 in New York City. The white police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder and the three other officers who participated in the arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Floyd's death, the most recent in a series of deaths of black Americans at the hands of police, has set off days and nights of protests across the country. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The New York Rangers haven’t made a statement about George Floyd yet, but are retweeting

The New York Rangers are the only organization in hockey that has not made an official statement about the death of George Floyd.  Team owner James Dolan explained his position in an internal email that was obtained and published by ESPN.

In his email, he explained that  “as companies in the business of sports and entertainment, we are not any more qualified than anyone else to offer our opinion on social matters.”   He did add “What we say to each other matters. How we treat each other matters. And that’s what will get us through this difficult time.”

The organization has taken some heat for not making a public statement, especially in NBA circles.  Today, the Rangers website retweeted a post by Anson Carter.

The post featured a video created by Carter, a former Ranger, that features a number of current and former NHL players as well as Commissioner Gary Bettman.  Henrik Lundqvist leads off the video, his first public statement on the situation.

The organization has not retweeted any posts by current Rangers and prospects including Jacob Trouba, K’Andre Miller, Anthony DeAngelo, Vinni Lettieri and Ty Ronning.

People care

There have been some comments on two prior posts on Blue Line Station about how hockey and the Rangers in particular are responding to the issue of racism and police violence.  Some are supportive and some expressed the desire that we stick to hockey and not get into other  issues

We conducted an unscientific Twitter poll to see if we could gauge public sentiment on the team’s position.

The question was whether the organization should take a stand on the death of George Floyd.  100 folks voted with 55% saying that the team needs to comment.  Another 12% felt that retweets would be enough.   33% felt that as  a sports team, it wasn’t necessary to take a position.

This season the issue of race in hockey became an important topic when Akim Aliu came forward with the story of the racism he experienced in the minor leagues.  That led to the resignation of Calgary coach Bill Peters, his AHL coach.

In April, the New York Rangers experienced the issue firsthand when prospect K’Andre Miller was the subject of racial slurs during a Zoom Q&A with fans after he had signed his entry level contract.  Miller addressed the issue on Twitter on June 1 with a lengthy statement about racism he had encountered throughout his career.  The team did not retweet that post.

The bottom line is the situation is not going to go away.  While the team is being criticized for not commenting, it’s clear that the orders are from corporate.  The fact that they have finally addressed the edition through a retweet is encouraging and will be worth monitoring.

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