Baltimore has been a powderkeg of racial tension and furious emotion following the unnecessary and frankly barbaric death of Freddy Gray in police custody on April 19th. Those tensions spilled over into a full-scale riot on Monday night that saw the streets filled with protestors (both peaceful and violent). The Orioles game at Camden Yards was cancelled and the National Guard sent in to quell the violence.

On Tuesday former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis posted a message to Facebook, urging Baltimore residents to return to their homes and stop committing acts of vandalism.

“Violence has never been the answer,” Ray Lewis said. “We don’t do nothing [for Freddy Gray] by doing this.

“You don’t have no right to do what you’re doing to this city. Too many hard-working people built this city.”

Lewis’ entire two-minute message is worth watching. However, it should bear noting that Lewis as an individual is a person who has his own, um, checkered history with violence. So hearing this message from his mouth might dilute it for some listeners.

Regardless, here it is below.

I've got a message for the rioters in Baltimore.

Posted by Ray Lewis on Tuesday, 28 April 2015