Shit like this makes me want to go get me a card.
I can’t watch the video, so I assume that these people are all unabashed jerks, but it’s worth pointing out that you can’t always tell a handicapped person by the way they walk out of their car.
My aunt has a severe mitochondrial condition that causes her intense pain and the inability to walk for more than about five minutes at a time. Her handicapped van has a bed in back so she can lay down when she needs to. Yet when she steps out of her car she looks fairly normal by all measures, and passers-by regularly glare at her or outright challenge her about being handicapped.
Here, here!
I think the situations are more like this, which is the same situation my wife’s parents have (and don’t abuse the law). If a person has a disability that would grant them a placard, the placard is granted for the individual. However, it’s tied to a vehicle, and the person may not be in the vehicle.
If the handicapped individual is not in the vehicle, the vehicle should not park in the handicapped spot. But if they are, they should (rightfully) use the spots.
But if you just leave the placard up all the time and park in the spots regardless of who is in your vehicle, you’re a jerk and you’re abusing the placard.
Cops are checking to see who the placard is for and that the holder is a passenger or driver of the car at the time the placard was in use. They went to a popular running/hiking trail and found many people abusing placards. They aren’t grabbing people indiscriminately.
I have a friend in Philadelphia who has a handicapped daughter, so their van has plates. There have been times in parking lots and so forth when she does not have her daughter with her that the police have requested she use handicapped spaces because otherwise they might go unused. She always feels terrible about it.
It’s also like shooting fish in a barrel looking for abuse of the sticker at the unmarked (in blue) street parking for a jogging trail.
They deserve it. Its not entrapment. The sad thing is that the effort likely wasn’t to help people who need spaces to be left available, but to make local residents happy and to keep runners off “Their streets” while trying to use public trails.
They (the TV show) ARE grabbing people indiscriminately. They clearly show several seconds of footage of the neighbor going to a shaming website online where anybody can report people they think might not be handicapped. Website like that are dangerous because a casual observer has no idea if they are the rightful owner of the placard or if they have a handicap that isn’t readily visible.
You are correct. The officers however are perfectly police and fine in their behavior.
Again, I do sadly think this is all about the residents wanting people off their streets.
Absolutely. It’s always about the NIMBYs.
Here are some people at a NASCAR race trying to get free parking with borrowed handicap placards
Not in my backyard it isn’t. Here’s it’s all about the benjamins, baby.
didn’t watch, because video
But there are a lot of people with invisible disabilities that limit their ability to walk around, etc. that get harrassed for supposedly faking. And there are a lot of people with sometimes-visible disabilities who get harassed for being disabled. Frak this country.
I know such things exist, but I’d still be tickled to see handicapped plates on a motorcycle.
Read The Peripheral by William Gibson. The biggest bad-ass in that book would definitely qualify for handicapped motorcycle (three wheel in this case) plates.
Two persons at the gym I frequent had this happen to them. Perhaps both having multiple recent cross fit trophies on the dash board gave them away. It’s a mystery…
This is true, which is why you shouldn’t confront them as a citizen with no information, and leave it to law enforcement.
It could be both, you know. Maybe they are fine with legitimate handicap people parking there.
