quote:

Originally posted by PD:
Is this a battle you want to fight?

Nope. Like I said, I knew better. Lost my head for a moment

Just took my FIL and wife to the airport today. He has a handicap permit and gave me one of his placards. I only use it when he's in my vehicle.
Well, I parked in the handicap area. We walked into the terminal for them to check in. When I left, a local PD officer was in his vehicle and gave me the eye!
LOL. Nice enough guy as he didn't give chase!

I think those handicap plates look particularly nice on Corvettes.

This has happened more than once:

My delivery truck is a GMC 3500 with a 12 foot cargo cube. It is normally parked at the hangar, but when I have a day scheduled for a re-supply trip to my customers, I take it home with me the day before, so that I can get started from home at dark-thirty.

Frequently, I need to stop at a grocery store on the way home to grab something that we need. I am partially disabled, with supporting hardware installed in my thigh and hip bones after a fracture. I can walk, but my balance is not great and it's not easy to walk longer distances when carrying a bag of groceries, so I use a handicapped parking slot when I need to.

It happened again last week: a Parking Lot Nazi saw me park the truck, came up to me and loudly announced that the slot that I used, was for handicapped folks.

I was not in a good mood, so I told him to just call a fucking cop (the exact words that I used), and be sure to give my license plate number when he made the call, so that they could ticket the correct vehicle. I even offered him my pen, to write down the license number.

The look on his face was priceless when he walked to the back of my truck and saw the wheelchair symbol on the license plate.

I hope and pray to never have the need for one of these. I think it is human nature to wonder why someone has one.
Mike

I try not to make judgements. A buddy of mine literally broke his back. He was healing up and got a temp handicap pass. Came in to my office once to borrow some equipment and came literally skipping in. Shit got flung everywhere till I told the broken back story.

Also, I often drive my 95 year old mom to the grocery store. She's had a hip replacement 30 years ago that has degenerated and causes her extreme pain. She's had the handicap pass for many years and never use to use it unless the option was to walk a mile because there was no parking spots near. As time has gone on she uses it more, but she wants to leave the motorized carts for others and refuses to use them. So I use her sticker and park in the handicap spot to walk her into the store. Once she hooks up to a cart, shes OK on her own. Occasionally I'll run back out to get my phone or glasses.

That must look bad, but it's not.

I drive a 2012 Mustang with a handicap tag, so far no dirty looks. I have a heart condition and COPD, can't tell either by just looking at me.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
I think those handicap plates look particularly nice on Corvettes.

Saw a vette in a handicap spot at a store in Richmond. An elderly woman was giving the young man driving the car hell. He leaned back on the car and removed an artificial leg. Seeing the look on her face was priceless.

quote:

Can’t always judge a book by it’s cover.
No way to know if their permit was issued for a disablement that impedes walking, or if it’s due to some other medical issue, like requiring an oxygen bottle for something like COPD.

True! Having said that, I see these 20 somethings pulling into handicapped marked parking spots, jump out and run into the store. Or at the gym, do the same thing. And seeing it happen is not a sometime thing, either. Irritates the shit out of me, too, but nothing to be done about it.

My suggestion would be for the police to set up a roving patrol, in unmarked cars, to randomly pick a busy parking lot. Sit in their cars where they can observe the handicapped spots, and write tickets for every single person who parks there without legitimate excuse. Handing out $250+ tickets for violations would put a stop to it. Especially if the word got into the news.

My bitch is with those that drive around with them hanging in place on their mirror (here in Ohio anyway). That creates a huge blind spot. Take it down unless you're parked in a handicap spot.

An interesting comparison-

Right now, in Kentucky, our Governor is trying to force able bodied people on the free shit train to actually work 8 hours per week. Or volunteer. Or something to give them a skin in the game.

The backlash is epic. The teeth gnashing. Trotting Little Timmy out, who without SNAP wouldn't be able to eat. The number of people who condemn anyone who questions who needs free shit is large. The number of people who condemn anyone who questions why you see the blatant abuse of the SNAP system to buy junk food. SNAP cards being sold out for dope. SNAP cards that are used to buy high end food, and then it is sold for half price cash to buy dope. The fact that if I want gas station pizza, I have to have a job. They just have to "buy" the pizza cold, and then demand for it to be cooked. The teenage girls who whip out grandmommas EBT like a friggin AMEX platinum to buy the fountain drinks and junk food for their friends.

The thing you don't hear by actual SNAP recipients who bitch about the ones, even skeptical of the ones, who are abusing the SNAP system. You don't hear it. It is the constant bashing of anyone who dares to complain about the blatant abuse that you see.

The same arguments are made here. The same "I'm not going to judge, and anyone who does is a horrible person" type stuff.

Let's face it. Handicap tags are often abused by people that do not need them. (My personal favorite is the tweeker kids who drive grandma's car and park in the handicap spots because grandma has the hang tag, but according to many here, I can't draw an opinion) I don't have to be a medical doctor to see someone wheel up into handicap spot and then sprint into Walmart. I call bullshit. I am perfectly qualified to call bullshit on it. Let's face it, if you can sprint, you can walk a little further and give the handicap spot to someone that can't. Someone that legitimately needs that parking spot. This false flag idea that you do have to be "qualified" is insane. When I watch someone in line ahead of me pay for $150 worth of chips, soda, and frozen pizza on EBT, and then pay cash for three cartons of cigarettes, and then go out and get into a late model SUV......I don't have to be an accountant to figure that out.

The OP has a valid point, and I agree with him.

Insert any talking point. From the dying polar bears due to global warming to the crisis at the border. I see the same tactics used. And I don't have to be a veterinarian or a Border Patrol agent to see what is going on and call bullshit.

The two abuses that bother me:

1. The use of the permit by somebody other than the person for whom it was issued.
   
   
2. Sort of related to the previous, the disabled person sits in the car and waits, while the perfectly healthy son / daughter / grandkid jumps out and jogs into the store, Post Office, etc.

A young female did this while the elderly woman waited in the car, taking the last disabled slot at the Post Office. I parked further out, hobbled in with the aid of my cane, and asked her if she really needed to use that parking place.

She burst into tears and said that I had ruined her day.

"No, honey," I replied. "You ruined your own day."