Cop present during ‘inspection’
A member of the Legislative Assembly staff, accompanied by a Royal Cayman Islands Police Service officer, was sent up into the press galley of the LA chamber Wednesday – apparently to check the length of a journalist’s pants.
According to the female reporter, who is employed by Cayman Free Press, she was taking notes during a speech by Premier McKeeva Bush when an RCIPS officer beckoned her to the back of the press gallery.
When the reporter went over, a member of the LA staff said she needed to check if the journalist was wearing shorts.
The journalist, who was wearing Capri pants that came to her mid-calf, wasn’t wearing shorts and was allowed to return to her seat to resume taking notes.
Cayman boxing champ Charles Whittaker, who was sitting in the viewing section of the upstairs gallery when the reporter was called over by the officer, said he was a bit taken aback by the incident.
“I asked the reporter over and said ‘did she really check on the length of your pants?’ She said ‘yes’. And I said ‘wow’,” Mr. Whittaker said.
Mr. Whittaker said there was another female sitting in the press gallery wearing a skirt that was much shorter than the pants worn by the Cayman Free Press journalist, but she wasn’t approached by the officer or LA staff member.
“I thought she was up there for the other young lady [who was wearing a skirt],” he said. “I was also surprised that it took her [LA staff member] to get an officer to check [the reporter’s pants].”
The RCIPS issued the following statement on the incident: “A police officer merely accompanied a member of the LA staff into the press gallery. The member of LA staff was acting on the instructions of the Speaker of the House.
“Any comment [on] the incident in question, or the circumstances surrounding the instruction, should be sought from the Speaker or the LA.”
The Caymanian Compass sent questions to the clerk of the Legislative Assembly seeking to clarify the incident. LA clerk Zena Merren-Chin said the RCIPS officers assigned to the assembly are under the direction of the Serjeant-at-Arms. Speaker of the House Mary Lawrence had not commented on the matter by press time Thursday.
Around the time the journalist’s pants were inspected, another media representative in the press box was using an iPad – which is against the stated rules of attendance for the Legislative Assembly that bar laptop computers and the use of electronic devices like BlackBerrys or iPhones in the press gallery. Nothing was said to the representative by LA staff or RCIPS officers.
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Why exactly are iPads and laptop computers barred from the LA? I would have thought they would be useful note taking gear.
Are they scared that bored reporters would be playing Angry Birds rather than listening to them?
It has always been allowed to take notes, but the rules of order have been slow to take notice of technology, and have apparently been slow to take notice of sensible clothing too.
With due respect Madam Speaker…
Gobsmackingly ridiculous, the brouhaha re the length of the journalist’s capri pants in the Legislative Assembly Press Gallery! If the MLAs were as concerned about the moribund economy in Cayman Brac as they (or whomever organized the Capri pants measurement in the Press Gallery) were over the shorts (sic) worn by a female reporter, we would all be walking in tall cotton, eating high on the hog and enjoying prosperity over here on the Brac. Know this! – the attire of the journalist/reporter seated in the Press Gallery is NONE of the business of the CI Government or its elected members!
Hats off to Madame Speaker and the RCIPS! It’s nice to know you’ve really got your fingers on the pulse. the length of pants is exactly what you need to be concentrating at this time
How do you get a job checking the length of pants of random ladies?
Is there some kind of formula needed to deem if they are too ‘racy’? Because some women have little legs, yet the EXACT same pants may not cover up the flesh of a leggy lady, who has the same hip size.
Also, a woman with a leg like a tree trunk, may only show a sliver of flesh, but it could well be more actual flesh than a lady with legs like pipe cleaners.
We need either a poll or a committee to solve this problem!
I think people are missing the point in this story. The LA has a dress code. It is posted for all to see. The capri pants may have been hiked up because the person wearing them was sitting down and hence it may have seemed as if she were wearing shorts.
I am not so sure what the whole fuss is about. In every establishment on the Islands, you have a dress code posted at the door. This even includes clubs and bars. About the only place where there is no dress code is church.
The Compass wrote an editorial implying that they are being victimized. That could not be further from the truth. I think it is about time our media practitioners started reporting the news rather than going out there and being the news.
Editor’s note: The LA previously had a dress code posted, but it is no longer there. Also, the commenter fails to notice there were other journalists in the press box that were violating ‘dress code’ and other House rules and no one from the LA staff approached them.
It also might be worth noting, with regard to TennisAce’s comment, that at no time has the Compass staff sought to make itself the story. Both times, reporters were confronted or indeed thrown out of the House without warning by the Speaker or the LA staff. It was they who created the stories, not our unsuspecting journalists.
We will always stand firm, as the editorial states, against what we believe to be selective harassment. Our journalists must be allowed to do their jobs.
I’m all for decency and proper dress according to the situation and the circumstances, but this is plain ridiculous, brings ridicule on the House and its Members. But probably they don’t recognise stupidity even when it’s shoved into their faces.
And meanwhile, of course, critical matters relating to Cayman’s future are the subject of staggeringly inept, tit- for- tat ( otherwise known as sophisticated political debate) handling by the House.
This story is very troubling because clearly a Compass reporter is being targeted.
At the English Court of the Star Chamber (1515-1529), where truth was not a defense to seditious libel because the goal was to prevent and punish all condemnation of the government. The Court of Star Chamber became a political weapon for bringing actions against opponents to the government policies.
It appears to me that the goal of the local government is to prevent and punish all condemnation of the government.
I cannot believe what I am reading. The country is becoming positively dangerous, There are warnings in the foreign media, which will affect our world tourist image and the powers that be in the legislative assembly are carrying on a personal feud. There was a quotation that I saw the other day as follows Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad!