Black Lies Matter...Hamptons brewery targeted with boycott over Black Lives Matter support

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/hamptons-brewery-facing-boycott-for-black-
lives-matter-support/

A Hamptons craft brewery’s declaration of support for Black Lives Matter
unwittingly tapped into a groundswell of community outrage.

Weeks after principals of the Montauk Brewing Company posted their backing
for the group in pastel chalk on a board outside their Montauk tasting
room and pledged to donate part of their profits to civil rights groups,
the beer company became the target of a sometimes vicious online boycott.

Robert Frank, a police officer in Suffolk County, and his real estate
agent wife Valeria Frank formed the Facebook group “Defund Montauk Brewing
Company” on Aug. 12. The group currently boasts nearly 30,000 Facebook
followers.

Its purpose is “to bring awareness to the recent events that Montauk
Brewing Company has decided to take … by supporting an extremist
organization,” according to its Facebook page.

Entrance to the private “Defund” group requires social media users to
answer yes or no to the questions “Do you support extremist radical
organizations?” and “Do you believe ALL LIVES MATTER?”

Michael O’Keefe, a novelist and retired NYPD homicide detective, said that
most of the members are retired or active police officers on Long Island
who feel sidelined by the Black Lives Matter movement. “We’ve been so
beaten down,” he told The Post. “If you want to sell beer on the backs of
our dead bodies, we’re not going to participate.”

O’Keefe said the Franks were stunned when the membership catapulted into
the thousands. “We now want to go in a new direction, and use our voices
to support businesses that support the police,” O’Keefe said.

In addition to posts blasting the craft brewer as a “Marxist hate group”
and a video of a can of Montauk Pumpkin Ale being poured down a sink, many
took their grievances to Yelp. There were so many negative posts that Yelp
added a warning that posts could be “related to media reports.’

The BLM-support message was written on a chalk board June 2, a week after
the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis cop. It
read, “The founders and team at Montauk Brewing Company support the
movement with all our hearts. Black lives matter.” It was written by co-
owner Vaughan Cutillo.

As the boycott grew, the company’s owners issued a lengthy letter on their
Instagram page on Aug. 15 reaffirming their support to Black Lives Matter,
and noting that they had made contributions to nonprofits, including the
NAACP. They also said they “consistently donate to police precincts, fire
fighters the Navy Seal Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project.” They posted
another chalkboard message saying “we support good people doing good
things.”

That did little to assuage critics. “Please stay out of politics. You’re a
beer company,” posted one social-media user.

Enlarge ImageMontauk Brewing Company apology/clarification post on
Facebook.

Montauk Brewing Company apology/clarification post on Facebook.facebook
The craft brewer was founded in 2012 by three friends who attended East
Hampton High School and has grown to be the second largest brewery on Long
Island.

In a statement to The Post, a spokesman said, “Montauk Brewing Company
values and respects everyone. … we’ll always support the people of our
Long Island home, and their right to peacefully protest but never condone
violence of any kind against those who keep us safe and secure.”

They did not comment on whether the boycott has hurt business.



--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.

Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.

Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."