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.”
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,. There were so many negative posts that Yelp added a warning that posts could be “related to media reports.’ 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.