Breast-feeding addressed
The Denver sheriff’s office is reviewing its policies on howit treats nursing moms.
A breast-feeding mother offended by a Denver Sheriff Department deputywho ordered her to stop it in the downtownjail lobby has triggered an internal investigation and a review of the department’s policies on how it treats women.
Rochelle Bricker, the mother who was ordered to stop breastfeeding her 2-year-old daughter Nov. 26 at the Downtown Detention Center, staged a “nurse-in” Thursdaymorning with two other nursing moms.
Bricker wanted to raise awareness about the Colorado law that protectswomen’s rights to breastfeed in public places and to put pressure on the sheriff’s department to examine theways it deals withwomenwhether they are visitors, inmates or employees.
“This is part of a large, systematic oppression of women here,” Bricker said. “It’s really time this doesn’t happen anymore.”
Bricker was waiting in the DowntownDetentionCenter lobby on Nov. 26 because she was bailing out people who had been arrested at the previous night’s protest in solidarity with Ferguson, Mo.
As she held her daughter, Penelope, to her breast, she heard a man’s voice yelling, “Hey, you! You with the blue hair!” Bricker recounted.
Once the deputy had her atten- tion, Bricker said he told her she wasn’t allowed to breast-feed in the lobby and had to go to the bathroom.
She said she objected and asked for his badge number and supervisor.
“The entire room of peoplewas looking at me,” she said. “He didn’t even have the courtesy to come up and tell me.”
Interim Sheriff Elias Diggins got word of the situation and went to the lobby to apologize, Bricker said. She was allowed to continue feeding her child.
Diggins issued a training memo to the entire department that same day to remind deputies of the state’s law, which protects a woman’s right to breast-feed in public places, said Simon Crittle, the sheriff’s department spokesman.
The sheriff also opened an internal affairs investigation. And he formed a committee to look at all of the department’s policies regarding women, Crittle said.
“It’s absolutely imperative we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards when it comes to treating people with dignity and respect,” he said. “We respect women’s rights.”
Bricker and Josie Shapiro, another breast-feeding mom at the “nurse-in,” said they were glad to hear the sheriff is taking them seriously. And they have some recommendations for his committee, including allowing inmates to use breast pumps or have breast-feeding visits with their children.
“Awoman being able to feed her baby is not a threat to anybody,” Shapiro said.