Boston Cop Suspended After Racial Slur on Gates

(NEWSER) - Turns out the president was right: the beer summit was pretty boring. In fact, it wasn't even the first time Skip Gates and Officer Crowley had gotten together after the arrest. "Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them," said Obama in a statement. Crowley called today's meeting "cordial and productive" and said that while he and Gates "agreed to disagree," they also plan to talk again, the Boston Globe reports. More»

Museum on black history now has them

(NEWSER) - The "beer summit" is now a little piece of American history. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has donated the handcuffs used to arrest him to the new museum on black history at the Smithsonian. Last summer's arrest set off a racial brouhaha that led to the so-called summit at the White House with Gates, Cambridge cop James Crowley, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama. More»

(NEWSER) - The Boston police officer suspended for referring to Henry Louis Gates as a “banana-eating jungle monkey” is suing the city and the department for violating his civil rights, the Globe reports. The BPD, police commissioner, and mayor are “conspiring to intentionally inflict emotional distress” and interfering with Justin Barrett’s “property rights, due process rights, and civil rights,” the suit claims. More»

But don't forget about racial profiling

(NEWSER) - The beer meeting at the White House has come and gone, but Henry Louis Gates offers a postscript: "I thank God that I live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day," he writes in the Root, where he is editor in chief. The Harvard professor also thanks President Obama for bringing him and Sgt. Crowley together. "Our country is blessed to have such a leader," he writes. More»

(NEWSER) - It's happy hour at the White House. President Obama, Joe Biden, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and James Crowley are clinking beer glasses in the White House Rose Garden, but alas, the media isn't invited to listen in. Earlier, the president sought to tamp down expectations, noting that he's "fascinated with the fascination with this evening." (CNN has no fewer than five cameras in place.) He even objected to the term Beer Summit. More»