police & bf : what would you have said??

[roosmum]

after all the recent fuss about the police & bfing in public, i'm wondering what the best thing to say to them would've been??
quite sure i'd have been too shocked/spitting angry to say anything useful or withering at the time...so what d'you reckon would be the best retort??

(partly so i can save them up for future reference... )

probably just as polite though - unlike some of the comments on here.

They are boobs young man, your mother has them.

So you think it is OK for the police to go around harassing women who are peacefully feeding their babies? I suppose it's easier than actually trying to solve or prevent crime.
And WE are paying for him to behave like this.
And btw I DON'T think it is polite to go up to a woman peacefully feeding her baby and bother her in any way.

I'd have said OK, if I can pee in your helmet.

Harrassing? Oh please.

The police go around harassing women peacefully feeding their babies? Er, I think not!

I'd feel harrassed if I was feeding my dd and a policeman tried to move me on, while telling me that people found what I was doing offensive. I'd also feel extremely upset, and I'm pretty tough.

Would you? Oh well, s'pose I can't argue with that how you feel. Personally I wouldn't get that upset about it and I wouldn't be embarrassed if a policeman came to talk to me either. I just think it's a lot of fuss about nothing even though I do think he was probably wrong to pass on the mistake.

We all make mistakes in our jobs and perhaps say things we shouldn't have - that's life!

I'd probably have told him to F* off - in the politest terms of course and ask him if he could be out catching criminals!!!

Yeah but the point is, GdG is that with this mistake, breastfeeding mothers will continue to be harassed and made to feel bad about feeding in public, unless it's challenged.

Every time a bf mother is harassed for feeding her child, we should protest about it. Because it feeds into the culture which is hostile to breastfeeding, and that is bad for us and bad for our children. And it's not unreasonable to demand that that culture be changed, and to take steps to change it. (Whether that step be a furious of Tunbridge Wells letter to your MP or the Daily Mail or a freedom for norks protest)

i often feel quite vulnerable while breastfeeding in a public place - partly because i know the world is full of ignorant tossers. to be 'moved on' by some policeman would be very humiliating and upsetting.

What I would have said would probably have got me arrested then they would have had to cope with me feeding DS in the police station

I would have been tempted to offer him ds2 and ask him how he intends to pacify him

I cant believe it either

The article on the Beeb web site is here btw.

So she made no formal complaint but it's in the national news?!

And she wasn't stopped while breastfeeding - it was afterwards. Doesn't change whether he should have told her or not but not like he walked over while she was actually feeding - he didn't 'move her along' as people have suggested.

He also admitted that she had committed a crime but just suggested to her that she could feed somewhere else - I guess 'for her own benefit' might mean 'if you don't want someone else to come over and tell you to move'. Rightly or wrongly, they might do and I guess he was just telling her it was raised - rightly or wrongly.

I just really don't think this is an issue with the policeman at all - it's about the person who complained and all those like them.

Sorry, had not committed a crime

Can you smell bacon Officer? I could have sworn I smelt bacon! Just about the time you came up!

Speechless

gdg, but like alohs i'd be gutted (fuming yes, but also v upset) if this happened to me.
it took courage on my part to begin bfing in public, as i guess i was worried abt exactly this kind of thing...
what if it puts someone off bfing that would otherwise have bf? i know it really shouldn't, but can actually imagine it happening. that's one good reason why it's indefensible imo & why it shouldn't be swept under the carpet.

aloha, even!

"does your head go all the way up to the top of your helmet?"

This is getting rather childish tbh.

gdg, didn't mean it to be tho...

guess i should think up my own withering retort to keep ready for whoever is imbecile enough to take a pop at me bf (& hope i don't ever need it!)

Ooooh! Sorry to be childish! But that is actually what I would say! I'm no great fan of the Law Enforcers.

Well lets hope you never need their help then! Idiot.