Gates Crowley Beer Summit! Part Deux

Remember when Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley and President Barack Obama all sat down for the major news event of the summer? For those still wondering about the long-term efficacy of the "beer summit" strategy, well, the proof is in the pudding. On Wednesday night, Gates and Crowley held a beer summit of their own volition, sans Obama.

According to the owner of the "River Gods" pub in Cambridge, MA, the two were spotted sitting in a booth, talking for about an hour.

Gates and Crowley had been planning a get-together for some time. In August, Gates suggested they might take in a Red Sox game or have the families dine together. "I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me again," Gates said at the time, laughing.

Comments

[imworking4me]

01:44 PM on 11/01/2009

Now this is what I call a news item that has left me on the edge of my seat with shock and excitement­--NOT!!

[RoadSkoller]

03:22 PM on 10/30/2009

Wish I could just buy a beer for the guy that mows my yard, mine cost me $40.00. Lucky Sgt.!

[ViciousButterfly]

02:14 PM on 10/30/2009

Now see that? We can all get a long after all! If we can act like rational adults. Awww love and peace is in the air! ;)

[Cavil]

03:51 PM on 10/30/2009

I don't know what is in the air reeks of hypocrisy. More of a clean-up of the PR nightmare.

[cbat]

01:59 PM on 10/30/2009

Well, that is so special. Seriously, this is what adults do, they work it out.

[realpolitic]

01:08 PM on 10/30/2009

It is great that two men, not so much of different colors, but of such different socio-econ­omic background­s, a Harvard professor and a cop on the beat, can get together for a beer and talk about their different worlds. it is probably a real education and, hopefully, an enjoyable experience for both men.

[Cavil]

03:05 PM on 10/30/2009

It was damage control and pr op.

[Beki345]

06:49 PM on 10/30/2009

But it also worked. Instead of turning Boston into a race riot, the storm was calmed by a very simple gesture. What's so bad about giving credit where credit is due? Tempers were flaring over this incident, it could have been disastrous­. I'm from Mass., it was all we heard about in the news for weeks.

If by any chance these two men are now friends, who's to say this simple method can't be used in calming flared tempers elsewhere?

[GoDems2012]

11:29 AM on 10/30/2009

I'm in SHOCK. I thought the first summit was a photo op.

[mypov123]

04:12 PM on 10/30/2009

It was lol. And the second beer summit seems even more ridiculous than the first one.

[nailinpalinnow]

11:16 AM on 10/30/2009

Hey this is an all male thread!

Well to all you grousers down there, you really need to be invited to have a beer.

[amyhasopinions]

11:07 AM on 10/30/2009

If this story is true, it makes my heart too, too happy.

[Cavil]

11:26 AM on 10/30/2009

happy, happy, joy, joy.

[Cavil]

11:05 AM on 10/30/2009

I have the testicular fortitude to add that the son0f@b!tc­h was acting like an elitist pompous @ss and then tried to make it a racial issue,AND then tried to sweep it under the rug; if he truly felt he had something to expiate he would have taken the cop to a t!tty bar!

[MoeB]

11:29 AM on 10/30/2009

LOL...I don't think your comment required any "testicula­r fortitude" to type on a message thread.

Two things should not have happened:

1. Gates should not have yelled at the officer (even though it was his home and I totally understand­)
2. Crowley should not have arrested Gates.

PERIOD.

[Cavil]

11:39 AM on 10/30/2009

I did a bad cut and paste of an earlier comment. But you are right:
two wrongs a right does not make, However a media circus it did equate!

I suppose you're gonna critique my prose too. Keep in mind I'm a Cylon, machines suck at rhythmic devises.

[NOSMAVAN]

02:33 PM on 10/30/2009

True, but since those two things DID happen, the two people who made them happen are, apparently­, mature enough to sit down and try to understand eachj other's point of view.

Surely nobody expects them to part with hugs and kisses; just understand­ing and respecting each other's point of view is enough.

Asking birthers and tea-partyg­oers (or most Republican­s) to comprehend this is of course asking to much, so I won't even try (lack of intestinal fortitude, I gues).

NOSMAVAN

[Netizen]

10:56 AM on 10/30/2009

What shoddy journalism­! Local CBS station WBZ quotes the owner of a bar who says they were there. Then Lila Shapiro of the Huffington Post picks up the story without question and puts her spin on it, even calls it "proof" of the success of Obama's "Beer Summit." Apparently having so little else to write, about something that is at yet unsubstant­iated, she fleshes out the story with old news and further speculatio­n - from August. See the CBS story at http://wbz­tv.com/loc­al/gates.c­rowley.cam­bridge.2.1­277701.htm­l Well, the "River Gods" bar got some free publicity ... and a reputation for not being the most discreet or private place to meet (if indeed the meeting occurred at all).

[gingersnap77]

08:15 PM on 10/30/2009

Why so negative? The meeting occurred all right. I know the owner, she had no reason to make this up--the place is popular, packed every night, in fact was just picked "Best Casual Bar of Boston" by Boston magazine.

Both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald covered the story.
http://www­.bostonher­ald.com/ne­ws/regiona­l/view/200­91029james­_crowley_h­enry_louis­_gates_jr_­meet_up_fo­r_beer_sum­mit_part_2­/srvc=home&posi­tion=6

http://www­.boston.co­m/ae/celeb­rity/artic­les/2009/1­0/29/toget­her_again_­for_a_good­_cause/

[scottbalogh]

10:51 AM on 10/30/2009

The headline on the home page says the two shared a beer. They could not afford to have one each?

[ViciousButterfly]

02:15 PM on 10/30/2009

Ew cooties!

[SadAmericanDad]

10:47 AM on 10/30/2009

A prefessor and a cop walk into a bar.......

[SiberianRat]

10:27 AM on 10/30/2009

This story is riveting. Have they friended each other on Facebook too? Thinking about it makes me so giddy I need to pee.

[kenrynne]

10:11 AM on 10/30/2009

We welcome Professor Gates & Policeman Crowley having, as reported, an hour long meet in a Cambridge, MA watering hole. This is further validation of the wisdom of The Nobel Prize Committee'­s awarding The President a Nobel Peace Prize for engineerin­g a truce in the longest running battle in America - town vs. gown.

As we reported at the time of Beer Summit I:

The Professor, Policeman, and President. Where else can a diverse clientele work out problems over brewskies. Intellectu­al Frasier Crane, opinionate­d but good hearted civil servant Cliffie Clavin, celebrity host, Sam Malone. Only 1 missing (Norm!). You may be well known but you're only really famous when...

Barack's - Where Everybody Knows Your Name!
Parody of "Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
Performed in Cambridge, recorded by PBS
http://for­um-network­.org/lectu­re/lau ghs-planet­-washingto­n

"Comin home from a long lecture tour /
To find your door is jammed /
And your oh so helpful next door neighbor /
Has decided to call the man/
Wouldn't you like to get away? /

Where everybody knows your name. /
And they're always glad you came. /
You wanna go where people know. /
Our troubles are all the same. /
But you're only "famous" when the Cambridge cops know your name!"

Norm! -er - Rahm!

Planet Washington­.com
when news breaks, we fix it

[Cavil]

11:30 AM on 10/30/2009

See now there's no place for this kinda stuff. you ether h@te the guy or think this is the best thing since white bread(noth­ing bad intended,i­f you like make pumpernick­el)

[trinidadgirl]

10:11 AM on 10/30/2009

Did they have a playdate? (the nouveau term that Americans call children playing together)