Warren banquet hall owner apologizes for sharing racist post on social media

Owner says he 'should have read it more thoroughly'

WARREN, Mich. – “I just picked an inappropriate post to share and it wasn’t intended to harm anybody,” said Gary A. DeCarlo with DeCarlo’s Banquet and Convention Center.

Gary DeCarlo, the owner of DeCarlo’s Banquet and Convention Center is talking about his latest post, he posted on his Facebook page.

It said, “Black Lives Matter. The entire country is sick of your s***, sick of the lawlessness, sick of the riots, sick of the threats and demands.

The only thing you’ve managed to accomplish in all of this is to live up to the ghetto stereotypes. Congratulations”.

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“I should have read it more thoroughly before I shared it and I made a mistake and I take fully responsibility for it,” said DeCarlo.

DeCarlo talked to Local 4′s Larry Spruill on the phone, Wednesday for about 15 minutes. He said that post doesn’t represent him or his beliefs. He just made a terrible mistake, “It’s an error on my part and it’s a shame that it upset so many people and certainly wasn’t my intent.”

Larry: What was your intent for sharing that post?

DeCarlo: That I was against racism and I was against violence, that it’s not helping the cause. I’m not a racist.

Larry: Some people are calling you a racist, what is your reaction to that?

DeCarlo: I’m not and I never have been.

Larry: Can you understand why so many people would be upset about this post and seeing it on your page?

DeCarlo: I certainly do now. I thought if I didn’t push like and just push share, I like some of the things that were shared in there, but not all. I certainly want to apologize.

DeCarlo said he hopes that people can forgive him. Local 4 looked at several comments about this post. Many people said they will never have another event at the banquet hall.