When ignorance about breastfeeding coincides with an irrational fear of terrorists, what do you get?
A very nasty scene at a ritzy New York Country Club, that’s what!
This is exactly what Belgian diplomat Tom Neijens and his wife Roseline Remans discovered when they stopped by the Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, New York on June 8, 2013 and inquired about having lunch.
Club employees permitted the family to dine on the terrace despite the fact that they weren’t members, whereupon Remans began to discreetly breastfeed her daughter Luka at the table.
Neijens, first secretary of the Belgium Mission to the UN, told the New York Post that a female employee of the club quickly interrupted Roseline’s perfectly legal and proper feeding of her baby with this sharp rebuke:
“Please leave immediately, you are disturbing the members!”
When Neijens protested and said it would only take a few minutes, the female staffer insisted that Remans finish in the restroom.
Understandably incredulous at the blatant ignorance on display at such a high end establishment, Mr. Neijens inquired why a baby would be asked to have lunch in the restroom when adults are not.
The Greenburgh Police Department arrived minutes later with Detective Scott Harding apparently yelling, “Close the doors!” with two other diners ordered to leave the terrace.
Mr. Neijens described the chaotic scene as something straight out of a Western movie with the officer walking around like John Wayne with “one hand on his gun, one hand on his Taser.”
The officer warned the couple that they were trespassing despite the fact that country club staff had given them specific permission to dine. He also said that some fearful members thought Mr. Neijens’ black backpack indicated they were terrorists.
Most laughable if not actually true, is what the officer came out with next when a tearful Ms. Remans asked why terrorists would breastfeed at a ritzy club:
“In Sri Lanka, babies are used by terrorists.”
Well, you learn something new every day, don’t you?
Attention all breastfeeding mothers. Your milk engorged breasts are actually considered weapons of mass destruction by law enforcement authorities. That liquid is NOT food for your baby. It is actually highly explosive material that could detonate at any time, sparking a chain of events identified by the media as bona fide terrorist activity.
Detective Harding quickly backed off his ridiculous posturing when Mr. Neijens revealed his State Department issued identification.
He dismissed his over the top behavior by explaining that the club had received terrorist threats in the past.
Despite the fact that they were doing nothing illegal or improper and possessed proper identification, the couple was still escorted off the premises via the back door.
A few days later, Mr Neijens sent an e-mail demanding an apology from Country Club general manager Tracy Fraus and assistant general manager Audra Vaccari.
“I am deeply worried about your staff if they cannot distinguish between a European couple looking for a quiet place to breast-feed a baby and suicide terrorists carrying a backpack.”
Lt. B.J. Ryan, a spokesman for the Greenburgh Police Department, labeled the incident as a simple “cultural misunderstanding.”
Ahem. On behalf of breastfeeding mothers everywhere, I beg to differ.
Breasts are not “cultural” and there is no “misunderstanding” their true purpose. They are the universal instrument for optimal feeding of babies.
Not “boob grenades”.
Hard to believe the terrorism handbook didn’t cover this point properly.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources:
Belgian diplomat booted from golf club, treated “like terrorists” over wife’s breastfeeding
Couple “treated like terrorists” over breastfeeding and backpack at ritzy restaurant
like we learned to say about critical strangers when we were kids: if you don’t like what ya see, don’t look! further, I’ve never seen a nursing mom in public who didn’t have a burp cloth or scarf, or some kind of cover over her nursing baby. So you can’t “see anything” anyway! so wth are they whining about, I’ll never know.
I don’t use a cover when I nurse in public, but my baby has a giant noggin and there’s nothing exposed! 😉
How about of you don’t like the rules of private dining establishment, don’t eat there?
Nope.
N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 79-e (1994) permits a mother to breastfeed her child in any public or private location. (SB 3999)
The ‘rules’ of the establishment are irrelevant. New York law states that she can feed her child, so she should have been left alone.
that’s just crazy!!!
That poor mother. I have breastfed at a table in a restaurant countless times .. can’t even imagine this happening!
1st world society has gone so out of touch that breasts are only seen as things for men to play with. Its even sadder when you see that so many women actually support that notion. The women’s movement never intended for their bodies to be sexualized and degraded in this way. Or for nursing babies to be compared to deification, sex or numerous other “no-table” activity.
Well in Europe we see it very much as something normal and natural. In scotland, anyone who tells a woman to stop breastfeeding in ANY public place can receive fines for interferring with the woman feeding. So I wouldn’t say it’s a 1st world issue at all, it mostly seems to be an American issue.
This seems to be an issue in Europe as well.
This is one of the reasons I’m thankful to be in the US and not in Europe
Europe is a large continent with several cultures contained within its borders. In France, breastfeeding is highly frowned upon. There was a piece not that long ago about it, where a woman was told that her breasts were meant for her husband and not for her baby: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/01/france-breast-breastfed-baby-death
More and more of this kind of kooky stuff is happening lately. Either the American Sheeple have lost their minds completely, or we are in for even more infringements on common sense (and on our rights, when government is involved on the other side). Perhaps both.
So remember everyone. When you see someone being harassed about breastfeeding, go support that woman! Or even if there is no harassment, you can still tell that woman she is doing a good thing. And if you see anyone behaving against common sense, stand up for the right side. A lot of times people just shake their heads and walk by. Think how this could have ended quickly if a patron of that club intervened with common sense at that moment.
WTH!
Speechless!
wth? wow. >:(
That is so freaking funny! I’m rolling on the floor!
God is great, beer is good…and people are CRAZY
I think so too.
“Despite the fact that they were doing nothing illegal or improper and possessed proper identification…”
What is also crazy is the notion that we should all possess proper identification when we are out in public at an eating establishment or anywhere else. Show me your papers!
You can’t fight crazy!