Steve Hindy Sez Unleash The Bulldozers

[UPDATE: I've changed the title of this post, which had been "Steve Hindy Is Unabashedly Evil". He's not. He's a former AP war correspondant, brewer of fine ales, and cheerleader for the destruction of my neighbourhood. Which doesn't make him evil, just misguided]

Nice to see that sorted out, then. Why I had entertained the idea that Steve Hindy is a nice man because he helps me get drunk is beyond me. The evidence was right there, from the long history of brewery magnates supporting the forces of reaction, to the fact that the list of people that try and get me drunk includes time-share salesmen, financial PRs, and unsavoury wine merchants.

There is a certain sense of relief to it, a moral clarity to my choice to abstain from Brooklyn Beers. The man has the sort of outsize chutzpah one would find in Mr. Wiggles. According to the Brooklyn Papers, opponents of the Atlantic Yards took Hindy around the site of the development, only for him to emerge even more determined than ever that several residents and my favourite bar need to be forced from their homes so he can sell more beer to basketball fans.

Ah, but what of the private email set by his brewmaster, Garret Oliver, who opposed the plan in an email to a project opponent? Here's the Papers:

The brewmaster had strayed from the company’s existing line in the exchange with angry beer drinker, Ian McLaughlin, who had emailed Oliver that he would join the boycott because of the company’s “support of Bruce Ratner’s stupid arena project.”

Most brewmasters would’ve hit delete and then checked the temperature on the primary fermenter. But Oliver did what Brooklynites have always done: he gave his opinion. But talking out of turn got Oliver into hot wort with his boss.

“He went too far and he has apologized to me about it profusely,” Hindy said.

But he blamed McLaughlin for “hooking Garrett into” the e-mail exchange. “I told Fans for Fair Play that they were ridiculous to claim [Garrett] spoke for the brewery. I said, ‘If you want to do that, I’ll put you in touch with our warehouse manager, too.’ Garrett was speaking for himself.”

Dissent will not be tolerated. Makes me suspect also that it is Hindy that thinks that Marty Markowitz is a great guy to have a beer with rather than his beer guru Oliver.

So, and with a heavy heart, and knowing what we now know about the Darth Vader of suds, we must move from saying "I am going to have to abstain from the beer, god that's a pain", to "DO NOT DRINK THE BROOKIE AT ALL COSTS IT BURNS IT BURNS".

But, I should add a quick note to the clown-journalists that keep harping on about the fact that Freddy's, the physical epicenter of opposition, mostly cause it is cosy and has plenty of Johnny Cash, still sells Brooklyn Lager. You are clearly either ruthless hunters after hypocrisy or you do not understand the first thing either about the role that Freddy's plays in opposing the project or about how beer is distributed. I'll make yours an O'Doul's and Ass.