Breaking Down the Beer Summit

Call it what you will, but the term Beer Summit seems to be what the media is going with, so we’ll follow suit. I beileve the term Beer summit, has no place here, and should notbe taken lightly. The term “Beer Summit” should only be used for an occassion of the greatest beer drinking magnitude, a showdown between two raging alchie’s, or a gathering of guys who own really famous breweries, not for 4 guys nursing beers in a backyard.
Much has been debated about race, society, and now beer in all of this. This being the arrest of the black harvard professor. I’ve decided it’s time to get to the bottom of all this, once and for all.

Is this an act of Racism? Does this reveal the current state of race realtions in America? Does this show us anything about descrimination, or police profiling? Is beer the greatest negotiating tool since sex? The answers, in order are No, No, No, No, and yes. Sorry America, Hooray Beer.
This is a touchy subject, but lets dive in head first. Yes, it is unfortunate, that anyone gets arrested for breaking into their own house, even though that’s not what the original arrest was for. However, both parties involved in the original act, can accept blame, but I’m going to play jury and solve this sucka.
Based on what I’ve read, and it is quite a bit, as the Reds are now completely un-watchble, and I sat for 45 minutes getting an oil change, and read USA Today. I read an account, from both Professor Gates (whom we will refer to as either Black Dude, or Professor), and the cop Whom we will refer to as Cop), based on their words. Here’s what went down. Some chick was driving by, and saw two dudes forcing open a door in a house, and then going inside. A few robberies had taken place of recent, in this area that she knew about. She calls 911. I can buy this, just playing it safe. Cop arrives, sees black dude, who is pissed off, inside said house, since he either lost his key, or it didn’t work, and he just got back from the airprot, and may have contracted swine flu. Black dude sees him. They lock eyes. Black dude claims “his hair stood up on the back of his neck” (He has wrote several famous pieces on race in America). Cop had heartburn from Dunkin Donuts Coffee (It is Mass.) Black dude opens door (sans force) and is pissed off. Cop acts all Coppish. Black dude gets real pissed, tosses him his I.D. (Black dude claims it was his drivers license with his address, Cop claims it was a Harvard ID badge, no address) Cop can’t bend over to look at it, from all the Dunkin Donuts (they have one on every block near Boston) Cop, who thinks he has walked in on a burglary in progress, does not want to enter the house, as the 911 call reported 2 men entering the house. (The Professor’s driver was the other dude, he already left, most likely to go to DunkinDonuts) Cop asks Black Dude to step out onto the porch. Black dude claims all his years of studying race, and police profiling were coming to fruition”right on my front porch” Black dude says “I’ll meet your mama on my porch” Cop gets pissed, black dude, even more so. lack dude again refuses to step outside, more cops arrive, pissed they had to leave the Dunkin Donuts 90 feet down the street. Screaming ensues, and what could have been easily handled, is now a full blown race issue, and national news.
Here’s the deal. I respect cops, at least those who do their job the way they are meant to. They face unknown dangers every day, and too many cops have died because they let their guard down, or they allowed themselves to get into a situation they could not control. Now, cops who sit, completely avoiding the whole “protect and serve” thing, and try to make a few quick traffic stops, on people who are barely breaking a law, or are otherwise to threat to anyone, are the lowest forms of life on earth. I recently witnessed someone very close to me getting pulled over at night, by a small town cop, with a Clint Eastwood complex, for doing nothing at all. It was after 11 at night, so the cop was looking for a quick DUI arrest, and maybe a joint bust or something even more lucrative. This person, had broken no laws (this cop claims he ran a stop sign, even though he stopped to wait for the car to his right to proceed). The cop whipped past me, with no lights on, hauling ass, in a 25 MPH zone, in a sleepy little town. Within minutes, the cop had him out of the car, giving him sobriety tests, that had countless times been rules in-admissiblein many, many courts. I witnessed it all, as I had ninja crawled up to the scene, with a claw hammer at ready, just in case this cop tried to take it too far. This douche cop, ended up letting him go, as he had done nothing wrong, and he needed to get back to his hiding spot to catch other hard core criminals. Cops who act like this, should be tarred and feathered.

The Boston cop was not acting this way. He was not seaking out the situation. From all he knew, he was first on the scene of a crime, as someone had dialed 911, and someone was in this house, and they were not acting cool, and calm, like the owner of the house should. Black Dude, was just having a bad day, and it got way worse, way too quickly, but partly because of his actions. Cops need to be authority figures. When they tell you to do something, you still have to do it, fair or not. This is notprofiling, this is cops. Cops talk this way to white people too. When a cop asks you to step out onto the porch, you step out onto the porch. You don’t say "I’ll see your MaMaon the porch" This is what gets you arrested, not your skin color. Even though Black Dude was being a dick, he didn’t need to be arrested, but he pretty much painted the cop into the corner, and the cop did what cops do. Plain and simple. This is notracism. It’s pretty simple. If anything, it’s reverse racism. Lets say a white dude in a East St. louis says to a cop whom is on his porch, and asks him to step outside "I’ll see your mama on my porch" and then gets arrested. Lets not even consider what color this cops skin is. What is gonna happen? White guy is going to get arrested, post bail, show up to court, and pay a fine. No news stories, no debating, and sure as hell no Beer Summit’s. Simple as that. White guys not likely to get his charges dropped either. What happened, was a cop doing his job, confronting a pissed off dude, who insulted him, and refused to cooperate, and then used his power a little too much, and arrested the guy.
As for the Beer thing, I do like to see this. I’ve found there are few things in life that can’t either be settled, or improved when people sit down, and hash things out over beer. I’ve read that Obama had a Bud Light (good call) Black Dude had Sam Adams Light (well done sir) and Cop had a Blue Moon (very nice), and joe Biden had some NA beer. I’ve got to hand to to 3 of the 4 men for their choices in suds. All 3 are beers I would recommend to anyone.
So here’s what we learned.
This was not racism, this was one dude having a bad day, and another guy not only walking into this bad day, but helping to make it worse for everyone.
People throw racism out way too often. There is real racism out there, you don’t have to look too hard to find it. This was a case where had it even been a not famous black dude, no would would be crying racism on the news. I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to face discrimination, I’m white. As a white dude, who makes good money, and pays good taxes, I however don’t have people looking out for me. I can’t cry racism, I’m on my own. That being said, I do know a thing or two about cops, and can say this fits easily into the cop being a cop thing, much more than racism.
Was this unfortunate? yes. However, I hope this will open new doors into the realm of beer relations, and both parties can go on with their live’s, and neither has to find themself in a situation like this again. I’ve actually read one of Professor Gates books, or at least part of it. He is a smart dude, and he’ll get over this, and use it to teach lessons to others.
The two most important things we’ve learned, are that the White House has a pretty kick ass beer selection, from what I’ve seen. Four people, drinking 3.5 different beers, not bad at all. This could be one of the few things our government gets right. And of course, Joe Bidenshould be impeached, and sent to the far corner of the globe, for drinking fake beer. You can’t use the title "lunch pale Joe" and drink NA beer. You just can’t.