Tempest in a C-cup

I have sat back and watched the drama unfold over the two women – arrested for allegedly committing two separate crimes – who feel their rights were violated by being required to remove their bras while in police custody.

And before you go running for the pitchfork and torches, yes, I am a female and believe in women’s rights and that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.

That being said, I don’t understand how the Chatham-Kent Police Service and its officers “humiliated and intimidated” these women. CKPS Chief Gary Conn has offered up the booking video for people to see exactly how the woman who was charged with impaired driving was treated by the officers involved. As well, the practice of removing bras when in custody has been in place as far back as the 1990s when a woman tried to strangle herself with her bra in a cell but was thankfully revived.

I am one of those people brought up to respect authority, but also to speak up for myself if I feel I am being treated unfairly. I’m lucky and I know not all people have had life experiences that give them the confidence to be their own advocate.

But a teacher? Who co-operated fully with everything she was asked to do, according to court reports, and at no time lodged a complaint after her arrest March 7, 2015 through proper channels? Yep, I don’t get it.

She was offered a jumpsuit to cover her clothes before her breathalyzer test, according to police, but declined.

With no previous record, the woman certainly wouldn’t have known what to expect.

Anybody who has never been arrested or gone through the arrest process before would probably feel humiliated and intimidated simply because you are in a police booking area for allegedly breaking the law. That in and of itself would be intimidating and humiliating to a first-timer, especially when family members, co-workers and employers find out.

Does that mean her rights were violated? I don’t think so. The police don’t humiliate prisoners by booking them; people tend to do that to themselves.

The police officers are simply doing the job we demand they do – keep us safe, even if that means from ourselves. Projecting their feelings and blame onto the officers just doing their job is just plain wrong to me. Arresting officers get assaulted, threatened, spit on, puked on, urinated on and have feces thrown at them, and still have to remain professional. They are human beings, just like the people they arrest.

Whatever happened to making people accountable for their actions? That goes for police as well. Nobody’s perfect; that’s why we have laws and police and courts and appeals and oversite committees.

The law shouldn’t be used to try and avoid punishment. If the police legitimately did something wrong, that’s on them, but requiring women to take off their bra while in custody – I don’t believe is one of them. For years, no one has complained about being asked to remove her bra in custody here, so why now?

Would I want to sit there for hours without a bra on under my clothes? Not really, but I would have taken the jumpsuit.

And if a woman dies in custody from strangulation with a bra, shame on our legal system that allows a Charter of Rights technicality to take precedence over human life.