Police should guard against the scourge of mammophobia
Most readers know I’m a staunch supporter of the local police departments.
I’ve often opined about the daily difficulties police officers face, and I’ve noted the thankless nature of their work for our community.
But a recent incident at a fast food restaurant suggests a troubling trend in our fair city. Of course I'm referring to the Berea Police Department’s draconian insistence that women remain fully clothed in public places.
This disturbing policy first became evident to me some months ago after I learned that officers responded to a report of an intoxicated woman running topless in the parking lot of a Berea motel.
The poor woman in question was arrested for indecent exposure. Officers apparently saw a woman running wildly topless in a public place and simply assumed the worst. Was the loss of her top an honest mistake? Did her blouse catch fire, prompting her to discard it? We’ll never have answers to those questions because she was never given the benefit of a full police investigation.
Several months later, police responded to a call about a woman at a Berea Laundromat. Even police admit she was apparently trying to wash her clothes. And mind you, she was allegedly walking around the premises without any pants or undergarments. But if cleanliness is next to godliness, is it not incumbent upon all of us to show some degree of understanding when one of our fellow citizens is temporarily disrobed?
I know some would beg to differ, but perhaps police should have adopted a more tolerant stance. After all, who among us, at one time or another, has not found ourselves pantless in a public place?
Turning to the recent incident I mentioned earlier, I think the Berea Police Department is getting a bad rap.
If you’ve been following reports in the local news, it’s been asserted that a woman was asked to leave a local restaurant after management objected to the fact that she was breastfeeding her child at the establishment.
Some posting on this Web site believe police ran her out of the store because she was breastfeeding. Not true. Police were presumably called at the request of the management to remove a patron, who was, in the view of management, trespassing. The restaurant is private property. I think it is management who erred in this case by calling for police to intervene. The officer wasn’t there to impose a moral judgment. He was merely responding to a complaint of trespassing.
Was the young mother within her rights to breastfeed her child? The law says yes.
Still, rightly or wrongly, I think this latest incident will be construed as another unfortunate example of the Berea Police Department’s creeping mammophobia.
In recent years, Kentucky has been witness been to some infamous acts of sexual harassment at fast food restaurants, including one in which an employee was strip searched on the orders of a man who was pretending to be a police officer.
For the restaurant's management, some self reflection may be in order. At a time when many a fast food employee can’t do an honest days work without having someone grab their McNuggets, isn’t it a little ridiculous to be focused on a minor issue like breastfeeding? I think so.
By the same token, I think it’s time for senior officers of the Berea Police Department to be vigilant in guarding against the growing scourge of mammophobia in our city.
People are always complaining that Berea is boring. I submit that the increased presence of scantily clothed (and ocassionally topless) women in Berea would go a long way toward dispelling that notion.
I’ve often opined about the daily difficulties police officers face, and I’ve noted the thankless nature of their work for our community.
But a recent incident at a fast food restaurant suggests a troubling trend in our fair city. Of course I'm referring to the Berea Police Department’s draconian insistence that women remain fully clothed in public places.
This disturbing policy first became evident to me some months ago after I learned that officers responded to a report of an intoxicated woman running topless in the parking lot of a Berea motel.
The poor woman in question was arrested for indecent exposure. Officers apparently saw a woman running wildly topless in a public place and simply assumed the worst. Was the loss of her top an honest mistake? Did her blouse catch fire, prompting her to discard it? We’ll never have answers to those questions because she was never given the benefit of a full police investigation.
Several months later, police responded to a call about a woman at a Berea Laundromat. Even police admit she was apparently trying to wash her clothes. And mind you, she was allegedly walking around the premises without any pants or undergarments. But if cleanliness is next to godliness, is it not incumbent upon all of us to show some degree of understanding when one of our fellow citizens is temporarily disrobed?
I know some would beg to differ, but perhaps police should have adopted a more tolerant stance. After all, who among us, at one time or another, has not found ourselves pantless in a public place?
Turning to the recent incident I mentioned earlier, I think the Berea Police Department is getting a bad rap.
If you’ve been following reports in the local news, it’s been asserted that a woman was asked to leave a local restaurant after management objected to the fact that she was breastfeeding her child at the establishment.
Some posting on this Web site believe police ran her out of the store because she was breastfeeding. Not true. Police were presumably called at the request of the management to remove a patron, who was, in the view of management, trespassing. The restaurant is private property. I think it is management who erred in this case by calling for police to intervene. The officer wasn’t there to impose a moral judgment. He was merely responding to a complaint of trespassing.
Was the young mother within her rights to breastfeed her child? The law says yes.
Still, rightly or wrongly, I think this latest incident will be construed as another unfortunate example of the Berea Police Department’s creeping mammophobia.
In recent years, Kentucky has been witness been to some infamous acts of sexual harassment at fast food restaurants, including one in which an employee was strip searched on the orders of a man who was pretending to be a police officer.
For the restaurant's management, some self reflection may be in order. At a time when many a fast food employee can’t do an honest days work without having someone grab their McNuggets, isn’t it a little ridiculous to be focused on a minor issue like breastfeeding? I think so.
By the same token, I think it’s time for senior officers of the Berea Police Department to be vigilant in guarding against the growing scourge of mammophobia in our city.
People are always complaining that Berea is boring. I submit that the increased presence of scantily clothed (and ocassionally topless) women in Berea would go a long way toward dispelling that notion.