Editing 617: Understocked

{{comic
| number    =617
| date      =July 31, 2009
| title     =Understocked
| image     =understocked.png
| titletext =My biology grad student friends tell me that different types of alcohol don't actually have different effects. I trust their expertise, not because of the 'biology' part, but because of the 'grad student'.
}}

==Explanation==
On July 16, 2009, Harvard University professor {{w|Henry Louis Gates}} was {{w|Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy|arrested at his home}} in Cambridge, Massachusetts by police officer Sgt. James Crowley, after the police department received a call that Gates and another man were breaking and entering into the residence. Returning home from a visit to China, Gates had found his front door jammed, and tried to force it open with the help of his driver.

Arriving at the scene and finding the front door forced open, Crowley (a Caucasian) asked the African-American Gates to show his ID or other proof that he lived there.  Gates, feeling persecuted, responded with belligerence.  He presented identification, but continued to talk back to the officers. Sgt. Crowley arrested Dr. Gates and charged him with disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped on July 21, but the incident sparked a national debate about ''racial profiling.''

On July 22, U.S. President {{w|Barack Obama}} criticized the arrest, saying that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in his own home." He also commented on the racial undertones of the incident, saying that "there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."

The president's remarks were furiously criticized by the law-enforcement community, and President Obama apologized two days later, saying that he could have chosen his words better, and it wasn't his intention to malign the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley. He also invited Gates and Crowley to discuss the situation over beers to air out their differences and come to an understanding about the situation.

This comic explores a hypothetical situation in which President Obama found he was all out of beer, and chooses to share {{w|tequila}} with Gates and Crowley instead. In pop culture, tequila is frequently represented as the "let's-get-trashed" alcohol of choice, and so in the comic, President Obama, Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley all get trashed on tequila, take a White House limo on a joyride, and end up behind bars.

The title text goes back on the suggestion that drinking tequila rather than beer would cause this kind of behavior. It also jokingly implies that biology grad students are authorities on the effects of alcohol because they drink a lot, not because they understand how the human body works.

==Transcript==
:[A bald bearded man with glasses standing in his open doorway outside his house and a police man wearing a black peaked cap with white emblem standing on the stoop at the top of the stairs leading down from the house are swearing at each other]
:Both: *$@#!

:[The bearded man is in prison sitting on a bench behind bars.]

:[Cueball, as the president of the United States, is standing behind a lectern with the Presidential Seal (eagle and all) on its front.]
:President: To defuse this misunderstanding, I've invited both men to have a beer with me at the White House.

:[A policeman is standing left and looking left while the bearded man is walking towards the president both with their hands stretched out towards each other. They are in the oval room in the White House with a couch and an oval carpet and two large windows.]

:[The president has opened cabinet on top of another cabinet. He is looking into it with a hand on his chin.]
:President: Actually, it seems we're out of beer.
:Voice (off-panel): Is there anything else?

:[Zoom in on the back of the president's head viewing the shelve in the cabinet with a single labeled bottle:]
:Tequila

:[The black Presidential Limo, with grayed out windows in the rear is being driven at high speed by the president who can be seen through the regular windows in the front of the car. The bearded man has his arms up and the policeman is waving his hat and holding the bottle of tequila are standing up looking out of the sunroof.]
:All: ''WOOOOOOOOOOOO''

:[The policeman, the bearded man, and the president are sitting on a bench behind bars in the same prison from panel two.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Politics]]