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Protesters outside the Riverhead police station Saturday. (Credit: Michael White)
It was an education in lactation outside the Riverhead police station Saturday, where six nursing moms and about two dozen supporters staged a public “nurse-in” event to shine a light on breastfeeding rights.
“Breastfeeding should be as acceptable as bottle feeding in public,” said Jeanne Rosser of Amityville.
“The more nursing mothers breastfeed in public, the more normalized it becomes,” said Vanessa Parson of East Quogue .
“This is something that should be respected and admired, instead of being scrutinized,” said Andrea Zeledon-Mussio of Westhampton, who organized the rally in response to what she described as unpleasant dealings with the police department over her right to breastfeed in public.
The mothers at the protest breastfed their babies without cover next to the steps of the police station.
Ms. Zeledon-Mussio said she organized the nurse-in over what she felt was a less-than adequate response from the Riverhead police chief after she called to complain about an officer related to an incident in Wading River.
She had initially called police for help with a domestic matter on April 14, when a responding officer told her to “cover that up” multiple times after he approached her car and noticed she was breastfeeding.
She said he did so in a stern, threatening matter, which actually convinced her 12-year-old son who was in the backseat that she could be arrested.
After texting her husband for information on New York State law, she then informed the officer that she had a right to breastfeed her daughter in public — and that he was breaking the law by requesting she cover up.
“I said to him, ‘I’m going to cover up out of courtesy to you,’” she recounted. “But I said, ‘Let me tell you, what you’re asking me to do is actually breaking the law. He stepped back and his eyes got big.
“Then he went and talked to me ex and filled out his paperwork.”
Reached before Saturday’s event, Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller — and other sources within the department — described the officer in question as one of the more polite officers on the force, and one who has an impeccable record from his two years with the department.
“From his point of view, he was thinking about both of them,” Chief Hegermiller said. “He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable in front of him, or accuse him later on of looking where he shouldn’t be looking.”
“All he did was ask her to cover up, which she did,” he added. “When you call police, you need to give them your 100 percent undivided attention for the five minutes you’re being interviewed. It’s just common courtesy.”
Ms. Zeledon-Mussio told the newspaper she had a hard time understanding the chief’s logic.
She said he told her something similar when she called to complain and he informed her the police officer was in part trying to avoid a sexual harassment complaint.
“I don’t think any police department should operate in a manner where they break the law because they are afraid of liabilities,” she said. “Take the breastfeeding out of it. Anytime a police officer responds to something he’s going to sit there [afraid to act]? What is that? And they get away with it.”
And, she suggested, if the officer was concerned about her comfort, he could have called a female officer or waited in his car until she had finished.
Although headlines in other news outlets indicated Ms. Zeledon-Mussio is suing the department, she said she has not taken any legal action. She said the lawyers she had contacted on the East End had declined her case.
“It’s very incestuous out here” when it comes to police, prosecutors and lawyers, she said.
She also has filed no formal, written complaint — but said she plans to Monday with the town supervisor, who also serves as police commissioner under town law.
“I thought contacting the police chief myself was a complaint,” she said, adding that she might not have taken any further action, had the chief simply apologized and recognized the error.
“If the chief would have said, I’m sorry, I’ll see that these guys get some sensitivity training,” she said. “But his tone was along the lines of, this is all your fault and not my problem. I’m bothered by it.”
Chief Hegermiller said he believed the whole matter to be “ridiculous.”
“We’re very supportive and sensitive here at our police department,” he said. “Most of us are moms and dads and wholeheartedly belive in breastfeeding children.”
Her husband, Quanah Miller, said the couple was most bothered by the chief’s “handling of the situation.”
He also said he and the others in attendance hoped the event would help draw attentino and education not just the police but the public at large about the law, and the naturalness of breastfeeding.
“For me it boils down to the social stigma in this country,” said Mr. Miller, who said he’s traveled many different places in the world as a member of the military and has learned that in most countries, public breastfeeding isn’t given a second thought. “In this country, boobs have become all about sex but they serve a real, actual purpose. It’s also something some here look down upon as being for less-fortunate people.”