Think about it

A woman in the United States was recently arrested by a policeman as she was driving along the highway of a town. It was not because she was talking on a cellphone, which in some places is against the law, nor was she driving without seatbelt, which is definitely against the law all over the US.

What she was doing was breast-feeding her baby while driving! She was pounced upon by the policeman and he ordered her to immediately pop that nipple from the baby’s mouth and put the child into the safety of its carseat. The charge was reckless driving, endangering the life of the child, her own life, and other users of the road. This is an interesting story and one can imagine the scenario that could have led this mother to breast-feed her baby while driving. We could visualise her driving with the baby in the carseat demanding food in the way that only babies know how to do, screaming their heads off incessantly. She had the option of pulling to the side of the road and breast-feeding the child. But she may have dismissed this considering that it would attract more attention from passing, gawking, staring motorists. In addition she would have considered how safe she would be because of predators observing a woman alone in her car on a highway breast-feeding her baby. So she did what she considered the next best thing, which was to take up the baby and breast-feed it while driving. The news report did not detail the outcome of this unusual event, and I have no idea whether she was called before the court and thrown into jail with her baby or whether she was just given a fine and advised by some kindly judge to travel with bottle feeds. A breast-feeding driver is clearly a driving offense which I imagine would apply everywhere.

But scanning the news these days one comes up with some clearly unusual “offences”. For example the mayor of New York has introduced some unusual new laws to say the least. You can be fined in New York for feeding the pigeons in the park. If a policeman sees you sitting on a sweet-drink crate or on a step be prepared to hand over some dollars in court. Also, it is now an offense to take a nap while travelling in the sub-way. A couple visiting from Europe worn out after taking in the city sites took the subway on the way back to their hotel. Apparently they dozed off only to be shaken awake by the subway policeman who fined them $50 US dollars (lucky for them they weren’t French or German for the mine might have been doubled), given the anti-French/German feeling in the States these days. But the unkindest cut of all was what the said mayor did to smokers, particularly reporters many of whom make their living by smoking. He has stopped smoking in bars used by said scribes, which means that bars in the area where reporters hang out are now empty. All the smokers are on the sidewalk. As one wise woman from the New York Times put it: you can now get second hand cancer simply by walking down some New York streets.


jstarr@newsday.co.tt

Comments

"Think about it"

More in this section