Breast-feeding mom demands apology for indecent exposure ticket

GJsentinel ^ | July 28, 2005 - 11:33 p.m

[Asphalt]

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Never mind officials voiding a $50 ticket for indecent exposure, or an explanation from county officials that a ranger who issued the citation to the breast-feeding mother was inexperienced.

Dorian Ryan said she wants an apology for what she called a "humiliating and degrading" experience.

"This isn't right. Women shouldn't be harassed for breast-feeding their children," Dorian Ryan said.

Colorado lawmakers agree. A law passed last year gives women the right to breast feed anywhere she's allowed to be in public.

Ryan, 43, was ticketed for indecent exposure July 14 when she breast fed her son at the Carter Lake swim beach in Larimer County. She was shielded from view by two umbrellas and a towel.

An inexperienced park ranger mistakenly issued the ticket, said Dan Rieves, manager of the Blue Mountain District, which oversees the beach. Park officials have voided the ticket.

Rieves, who has been in contact with Ryan, said a written apology would be sent Friday.

[Larry Lucido]

If we have a right to bear arms, we should also have a right to bear breasts.

[Publius6961]

You also forgot that once this becomes acceptable, a host of other ills will also become acceptable.

Are you familiar with the definition of "dense"?
That statement becomes meaningful if and only if the rest of us agree that breastfeeding is an "ill".

[AndyJackson]

huh?

your interlocutor has none [common sense].

[exnavychick]

LOL...true enough. :) I'm a little slow on the uptake today, it seems.

[after dark]

I'm sad so many can not understand breastfeeding.The breast unlike the bottle does not need to be sterilized.The mothers body filters out toxins and gives the baby the benefits of her antibodies . Breast fed babies are cuddled more than bottle fed babies.Formula was invented for orphans and children born out of wedlock.A hundred years babies who were not breast fed died.I wish more women would breast feed their babies.The police officer sounds ignorant . She should appologize.When I see a mother taking the time to breast feed her baby ,I feel joy because I know the baby is loved.Those of you can't stomach the sight of a mother breast feeding her child need to get over yourselves.

[Publius6961]

I will take my leave of this thread by remarking (incredulosly) that evidently many otherwise normal-looking folk are convinced that everybody else has no stardards, we are all going to hell, and are otherwise doomed.

I suggest those folk stay indoors more...

[Red6]

Most people know this. Many people breastfeed their kids. Especially the more educated.

Besides some troll and an idiot COP, there aren't many people who are bothered by breastfeeding. Many states have rules that protect a woman who wants to breastfeed.

Red6

[SandwicheGuy]

You seriously equate public breatfeeding to two men having sex in a public park??

Sure he did. Some other dimwit earlier compared it to taking a crap in public. Their mother obviously dressed them funny and it obviously has had negative consequences in their adult life - They don't seem to be able to separate their mother's breast from a stripper's. I wish they would get help, I find their beliefs more than a littel creepy.

[MilspecRob]

I was a breastfeeding mom, and have you ever used a breast-pump??? they hurt, and they take forever. To get the effect, place a vacuum on your penis. Now leave it there for a half hour. Why do some people have such a problem with nursing in public? AS LONG AS IT IS DONE DISCRETELY. I, and everyone I know, always nurse with covering, or in a nursing top so nothing is exposed. What is so wrong with that?

I live in one of the most densely populated areas of the country and I have never. seen a Mom being indiscreet nursing a baby.

BTW I (once) saw my sister using the breast pump (a shower gift) and I would not want it on my finger, let alone anything else for half an hour!

[tuffydoodle]

Oh God, not again.

[exnavychick]

They don't seem to be able to separate their mother's breast from a stripper's. I wish they would get help, I find their beliefs more than a littel creepy.

Thank you...that summed up my opinion rather neatly, too.

[Dante3]

Just go on google or talk to a physician and you will find plenty of cases where bottle feeding is preferable to breast feeding: toxic chemicals found in breast milk - and there are many of those; the baby overeats and develops fat cells; the baby does not get enough food (because of some muscular condition as happened with some people in our neighborhood), etc.

Then there are cases where the mother has to work or is ill or the baby is adopted.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Babies' first teeth are called "milk teeth," and they don't interfere with breast-feeding at all. In fact, Mama-milk helps relieve teething pain. God designed that for a reason.

Worldwide, natural breast-feeding (exclusively for 6 months-1 year and at bedtime, for comfort, etc. up to about age 3) is the #1 method of child-spacing. Less breast-feeding = more unnaturally closely-spaced, untimely pregnancies.

Just a little fact-a-roo everybody should know.

[kiki04]

I agree with you there, I was just shocked how many anti-nursing statements were made!

[Ma3lst0rm]

I agree. So many things have come together to forge the unholy “culture" we witness today. I think it shows how far we have fallen when the natural mode of operation for breasts is deemed indecent while the truly indecent use of such is considered freedom of speech.

[AndyJackson]

I would reply, "Apologize this!"

I would disagree with you here. You are viewing this from the standpoint of the psychology of the individual woman demanding the apology and whatever [inappropriate - I think you mean] gratification she might get from the apology.

What you fail to examine is the altogether beneficial effect on the conduct of public officials that can come from demaning appropriate public apologies. Having suffered the public humiliation of admitting that they were wrong, there is then little further price in admitting an error to themselves and not repeating that action and that type of overreaching in the future. Allowed to maintain a public face of "well actually I really did nothing wrong and the woman while perhaps acting within the law offended the moral standards of our community which I was defending - blather, blather." Allowed to get away without apolgising, the official is likely to be encouraged to see what further misdeeds he can perpetrate in is arrogant ways.

[kiki04]

If anything, I find it disturbing to see a baby at Walmart with a bottle full of manufactured formula propped in its mouth while Mom is doing her shopping.

I can understand formula, I have a friend whose premie wouldn't latch, so she had to use formula. She was devistated.
The WORST thing I ever saw was a baby at the mall, in nothing but a diaper (april, still chilly, and the diaper looked FULL) with a bottle the mother (maybe 16) filled with SODA. The child could not have been more than 8 months old.

[Calpernia]

LOL!

That was a study bought and paid for by the financial interests of a baby formula company.

Thank you for pimping for them further.

[after dark]

One of my babies had to stay in the hospital after birth. I had to resort to using a pump.Some of the more pig headed nurses tried to pressure me into using formula.To this day their ignorance astounds me.My son and I were fortunate.I was able to keep my milk up.He was able breast feed after being taught to use a bottle.Publicly bullying breast feeding mothers must stop.

[RGSpincich]

I see your mommy spiked your sippy cup again. Or do you still take it like this one year old?