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
No one was invoking any law against breast feeding here. If the country club has a policy which forbids breast feeding, that’s their prerogative. Though the LEO was wrong to bring terrorism into this, I don’t see any reason to ‘reprimand him severely’.
But it’s NOT their prerogative.
N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 79-e (1994) permits a mother to breastfeed her child in any public or private location. (SB 3999)
White Plains, NY and the surrounding environs are the American capitol of snotty, ignorant people.
WHAT kind of training do these Police Officers get??
No comment on the grossly insensitive comments made by restaurant employees. Tourism anyone? HA!
The real issue here is someone using the terrorist fear to enforce his will over others, basically doing what terrorists do. It’s more than obvious that terrorism was not the problem. The problem was the couple not complying with the staff request which was just the reflection of the other customers’ complaints. When they couldn’t get what they wanted, they threw the terrorist suspicion in there to get the police involved. Let’s get real, if you really think that there’s a terrorist with a bomb in the same room where you are, you don’t complain to the waiter and stay there, you run away like the devil is on your heels. And the police comply because, in the terrorist madness, no “suspected terrorist” call can be ignored. Common sense is thrown out of the window, as usual, and “proper procedure” has to be followed. I think the couple should have left as soon as they were informed that they were not welcomed anymore. After all, it’s a private place and the people in charge ask them to leave. A disgusting attitude for a someone trying to get your business, no doubt about it, but they were on their right to do it. If I were the police, I’d severely punished all those saying that they suspected a terrorist attack where there was none and not even a hint of a possibility of one. If I were the police, I’d fire all the officers involved for showing lack of common sense.
i’m sure plenty of the officers thought it was ridiculous. often they have to do as they are told, a lot like military. a lot of the times many of the police are outside stopping traffic or whatever they are instructed to do and they don’t even know what the issue is. but i don’t know that area of the country, maybe the officers aren’t that great out there. not sure.
So… a bunch of lactating women, positioned strategically around a country-club, breasts detonating in unison, could take down said country-club? If their explosive breasts were used to augment the already known explosive nature of infants, we could be talking genocide! No wonder liberals are pushing so hard for birth control. No babies = no lactation. No lactation = every country-club becomes a safe haven.
I wonder if Obama would be willing to consider cutting one of his vacations short in order to provide funding for my study of women’s breasts?…
Land of the free.
http://www.examiner.com/article/is-homeland-security-the-greatest-threat-to-our-security
YEAH MAMMA SARAH OVER HERE IN SF WE CALL THEM CHESTICLES & SINCE I HAVE THE BIGGEST ONES HERE, AND AS A DOCTOR I FURTHER ORDER YA’AL
“STOP GO NO FURTHER” WITH YOUR RIDICULOUSNESS OR YOUR GOING TO GET DONKEY KICKED
Of all of the stupid non sensical stuff read about and then find they have been sued for being stupid you would think people would learn. I hope people boycott that restaurant just for being stupid.