Throughout time, and art, breasts have been and continue to be a ‘hot’ topic. (un)Equally revered and reviled when exposed in public, now summer is here and the public display of female breasts and the persecution for doing so are in the news…again.
Different people have differing viewpoints (think short people vs tall people) and concerns about this behaviour some consider to be overexposed.
While many people get lost in the ‘titillation’ of the visual what is really at issue is the legal actions of people or police who disagree with the “free the breasts” folk (and is some cases free everything male and female).
We have cases in B.C. and Ontario hitting the news and some police stepping over the line into illegal harassment and unlawful arrests on trumped up charges which is the REAL issue on this blog.
Subject matter does not matter when police overstep their authority, jurisdiction and common sense….so what are the wronged parties going to do about the wrongdoers?
Complain, properly I hope.
- outline the story of events, clear, concise, factual (no assumptions, claims, accusations) in point form
- gather witness testimony in affidavit form, audio, video
- file a formal complaint with the local police and their superiors
- file a claim in court seeking compensation – when appropriate
- this process is fair, reasonable, recognized by law, your right and your duty
Kitchener women say they were stopped by police for cycling topless
Sisters plan to file formal complaint with police watchdog
Three Kitchener, Ont., sisters are planning to file a formal complaint after they say they were stopped by a police officer for cycling topless.
…..
The officer said there had been complaints, according to Mohamed. She said the officer began backtracking once her sister, Alysha, began recording with her smartphone. The officer then denied having pulled them over for riding topless, before letting them continue their ride, Mohamed said.
“We went on our way and went straight to the police station to report it,” she said.
…..
“We’re doing an internal review on the situation,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Haffner. “It is a current law that if a female chooses to go topless, that is their right.”
The sisters say they plan to file a formal complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, which oversees public complaints against municipal and regional police services in Ontario as well as the Ontario Provincial Police…. read more
Kelowna Mom Continues to Sunbathe Topless After RCMP Says Cover Up
Why does she continue? Because there is no law against it and the RCMP cannot stop it, it is not up to them.
Ever since Kelowna mom, Susan Rowbottom was told to cover up, she’s been on a fact finding mission. Her question: is it illegal for women to go topless in this province? Have a listen to her story. You’ll also hear from Cpl. Joe Duncan, who speaks for the Kelowna RCMP.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/being-topless-public-legal-b-200221143.html
Being topless in public is legal, B.C. woman reminds others after police encounter
If you’re topless in any part of British Columbia and a police officer tells you to put a shirt on, you don’t have to obey.
That’s the message a Kelowna woman wants to deliver to anyone who doesn’t realize being topless in B.C. is legal.
….
After confirming with city staff and the local RCMP detachment, Rowbottom said her understanding of the law was correct.
“Hopefully this comes to the RCMP’s attention that they can’t enforce laws that don’t exist,” she told CBC’s Radio West.
In 1996, the Ontario Court of Appeal granted [not granted, confirmed the act was not unlawful] women in that province the right to bare their breasts in public after overturning the earlier conviction of Gwen Jacobs. Jacobs was initially found guilty of committing an indecent act, but the appeal court later ruled that “there was nothing degrading or dehumanizing” about her decision to take off her shirt in public.
In 2000, the B.C. Supreme Court also stood behind the right of women to bare their breasts. Linda Meyer had been charged with violating a clothing bylaw after showing up topless at a city-run pool, but the judge in the case wrote that there was no evidence to support “the view that the parks could not operate in orderly fashion if a female were to bare her breasts in a circumstance that did not offend criminal laws of nudity.”
Kelowna RCMP Cpl. Joe Duncan says arrests for public nudity are rare, and usually only happen if someone is “doing something sexual,” or if a convicted sex offender is naked near children or a school.
…..read more
Who Knew that Breasts Were an Assault Weapon
The issue is not the breasts but ANY unwanted touching by ANY part of the body is assault… hmmmm
You can make the same claim and charge ANYTIME a police officer touches YOU, without your consent and in an unlawful arrest.
Woman convicted of ‘assaulting a police officer with her breasts’
A woman has been convicted for assaulting a police officer using…
wait for it… her breasts.
Ng Lai-ying, a 30-year-old woman from Hong Kong, was arrested after allegedly assaulting a police officer during a protest on March 1.
In court Lai-ying claimed that an officer had reached out to grab her bag, but had made contact with her breast instead, at which point she allegedly screamed out ‘indecent assault!’.
However the magistrates did not believe her story, and even accused her of using her ‘female identity to trump the allegation that the officer had molested you’, which they called a ‘malicious act’, according to the South China Morning Post.
UPDATE – women an men rally in protest of absurd charges and conviction of a woman for alleged assault of a police office with her breasts. The charge appeared to be in response to her complaint he touched her breasts. Classic, you complain and police find a way to charge YOU.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/men-wear-bras-in-hong-kong-breast-assault-protest-1.3179171
Men wear bras in Hong Kong to protest woman’s ‘breast assault’ conviction
‘Breasts are not weapons,’ say protesters after woman is convicted of assaulting police officer with her chest
If the image of a 66-year-old man wearing lacy, hot pink lingerie over his clothes strikes you as absurd, the male protesters gathered in front of a downtown Hong Kong police station on Sunday achieved their goal.
Dozens of bra-wearing men joined approximately 200 other demonstrators in Wai Chan over the weekend to protest a court ruling that saw a 30-year-old woman jailed for “assaulting a police officer” with her breast.
According to BBC News, activist Ng Lai-ying had accused a police inspector of touching her chest during a crowded demonstration against Chinese border traders in March — an incident thought to be caught on camera by local media outlets.
It wasn’t the officer who was reprimanded, however. Ng was found guilty in court of deliberately pushing her breast against the policeman in order to accuse of him of assault, and to damage his reputation.
“You used your female identity to trump up the allegation that the officer had molested you,” said the magistrate presiding over the case, according to CNN. “This is a malicious act.”
Ng was sentenced on Thursday to three months and 15 days in prison for what has been described as “breast assault” — a conviction that protesters and their supporters online have deemed ridiculous.
“It’s ridiculous and alarming that the judge didn’t just convict the protester of assaulting police with her breast, but that her seeking help was also considered part of the assault,” said Ng Cheuk Ling of the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities to CNN during Sunday’s “Breast Walk” protest.
The bottom line? Complain properly when officers act improperly, unlawfully and without authority…or they will continue to do so to you and others.
I say no more except, exercise your rights and demand your rights be respected whether it is baring your female breasts without police harassment or ANYTHING else not unlawful (like everything where there is no evidence of harm to person or property).
