Stupid doesn't count as a disability. Park somewhere else.

[saint]

over 100 stitches in his balls and they swelled up to grapefruit sized,

I'm Female, and even I squinched my legs together and owwwed. Poor guy!

[One-Fang]

Sighting today...

Standing in line to pay and I see this massive 4WD pull into the disabled spot. No, there's no placard in the window. The car park area is sparsely populated and there are plenty of other spaces. After a bit of a delay, the missus of the couple gets out of the passenger door and walks ... wait for it ... past at least three empty spaces to a shop two doors down from this space.

So they aren't entitled to the space, but it's not even the closest space to where they were going! What goes through some people's minds? I could see if it was the closest spot they're just being lazy and inconsiderate, but what is this? Some kind of deliberate attempt to prevent a genuinely disabled person from getting that spot? I mean, with the amount of empty spaces a genuinely disabled person would've had no trouble anyway, the other parks are near enough. So it achieves absolutely nothing.

I cannot fathom it.

[Tutorgal]

Not everyone who has a disability is in a wheelchair or has noticeable trouble walking. Unfortunately, many people assume that if you look ok, you must be some jerk who's illegally using a tag so you can park closer to the stores. And a good number of those people take it upon themselves to do cute things like scream at you, follow you around harassing you and calling you names, call the cops on you, or the cutest of them all: throw garbage.

I'm not disabled. But two of my dearest friends are/have been. One has fibromyalgia and it's very severe. She is in terrible pain most of the time. She walks normally, but walking is tremendously painful (so is just existing, but moving makes it hurt more). We go out quite a bit and I can't tell you how many times in the last 15 or so years we have been harassed. The other one had cancer and got a tag when she was going through chemo. She wore a wig. Chemo is exhausting. She was frequently given a hard time by people and was tremendously upset by it.

As for the girl you saw, there could have been a number of reasons for her parking there. It might have been the only handicapped spot left when she got there. Or she might have been dropping off someone with a wheelchair and couldn't just leave em at the front door. Where I live you are supposed to leave those spots free unless all the other handicapped spots are taken.

In any case folks, my public service announcement for the day is please, when you see someone with a valid tag parking in a handicapped spot, give them the benefit of the doubt.

[simpleyme]

I'm Female, and even I squinched my legs together and owwwed. Poor guy!

yes me too , my poor boy took it well he joked that he had started his period

after it happened he said "am I going to have to show a lot of people my junk" , my husband told him "o yea, a lot " I was told they cut the tear into a sorta s shape like a baseball as thats how you sew round things back together

its been over a week and he is doing quite well, he was able to go to the football game(as a spectator) but was unable to assist in household duties so I think he is almost back to normal

[aniwahya]

I am 24 and have three separate conditions that qualify me for my placard, none of which require a full time mobility aide (for now). Disabled but "able-looking" people do happen
Short of looking at someones medical records there is no way to tell if they are disabled or not.

I have trouble not being pissy with people who I think are using a disability related service with no disability, but then I just remind myself that sooner or later karma will catch up to them.

[mattm04]

beat me to it... when my grandma was still alive and I was driving her somewhere I'd park in the handicap space, get her wheelchair out of the back of the car, get her into her wheelchair, push her inside, then go back out to move the car... after all, I had already used the space for it's purpose, to get people in and out who use wheelchairs, and I can walk fine, so moving to a further space won't hurt me and will leave that space open for someone else who needs it for the wheelchair, then when she was done inside do it in reverse, pick up the car from the outer space and move it into one of the handicap spaces... I say used to, because I got so sick of people giving me dirty looks, and jeering and one person even went so far as to come up, push me into the car and ask what the fuck I was doing using the space, so I just left the car there the whole time, and if someone who needed the space more than me came along... oh well, they lost it because the general public is full of douchebags.

I had that happen to me when I had my grandmother in the car. I was driving, my mom was in the front passenger seat and GM(Grand Mother) was in the back. Now my car has tinted windows in the back and some guy was watching me until he saw GM get out.

[powerboy]

I hate it when people park on those yellow lines. Those lines mean that there isn't a space. That area is for people who need the extra room, for a wheelchair or whatever devise.

Ugh.

Exactly. I hate the same thing. Back when I was working as a cart guy at Walmart. I would see that all the time. I always wanted to call the cops. Once I saw a cop giving a guy that parked there a ticket. He came out then and yelled at the cop. I got called to do a carry out then, so I don't know what else happened.

[thehippie777]

Man I get sad when I have my mom in my car (she is disabled & has the card) and can park in those spaces. I am perfectly able to walk miles if need be, but she can barely walk with her walker lol I still feel weird even when she is with me.

[Greenday]

Outside the chemistry building (a.k.a. my home), we have four handicapped spots. I regularly see people parked in them with no handicapped cards hanging from their rearview mirrors. Campus security has really been on it though, ticketing them quite quickly.