Yeah, I guess it was impossible for the guy to walk twenty feet and punch you.
Oh, wait… no, it wasn’t.
I’m sorry if I come across as bitter. I’m not that way at all. This was not some isolated incident. It’s a truly EPIDEMIC problem. And this was not about me whatsoever. This was about sticking up for those who can’t stick up for themselves. Nobody else is. Those spaces are there for a real reason. Ppl depend on the availability of those spots in order to FUNCTION. And this place, especially, was one that catered to an older, disabled population, so it made the availability of those spots even more important. And this young man’s blatant, selfish, hostile disregard for all of that was an example of the attitude that is prevalent in our society. I COULD NOT just drive off. I could not.
I read the link provided by the OP. At his new gym, he repeated the block-in of another person. I’ll comment further once this thread is moved to The BBQ Pit.
You act like I was just sitting in a spot. In order for him to punch me, he’d have to get out and chase me inside the building. And I’m getting the feeling that you wish you’d been that guy so YOU could do the punching. :rolleyes:
From your link.
Patterson and Cody are correct.
Making yourself a cause célèbre may be a time honored tradition in this country. However, its true strength lies in the right place, right time and right cause. Rosa Parks didn’t just happen to be sitting on that bus one day. It was carefully planned and coordinated - right place, right time and right cause.
In this current political polarization time, you won’t get the support. You’ll probably hurt your cause, and not just for you. More so because you obstructed on your own. Two wrongs don’t make a right here.
Have you ever read any of our great debate threads? There is a high premium put on “right” around here. 
**brickbaron **- in SDMB parlance, you are playing real life junior mod. And that just isn’t cool. The fact that you’ve been doing this all over the place doesn’t make it better. It makes it obsessive and idiotic. Playing out the scenarios can lead to a few bad results for you, including
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a serious ass whipping, which I’m sorry to say some folks wouldn’t be too put off by your wheel chair status and just grab and flail at you.
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someone taking it up another notch by putting his car into reverse and smacking your car. Sure, assuming he’s insured, he’ll have to pay for it, but you are going to have to deal with the bozo to get your car repaired. How long will that take to get your car back?
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you or someone in the near vicinity getting injured if mr angry backs up and loses control.
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Mr. Angry pulls a gun out of his glove box, points it at you or your car.
What you should do.
- Take a picture of the license plate, and note date and time.
- If possible, park in another handicap spot and take your pictures at your leisure, and turn them in to the proper authorities.
- Take yourself out of the loop as much as possible. But if it is important to you, express your intent to follow through.
- Be careful who you blame. I had a temporary thing for my mirror after surgery and was sitting in my car trying to maneuver my way out of the car. An old man in the truck next to me started chewing me a new asshole about parking in his space (he was already parked in one), what a rude bastard I was, etc, etc. I took the abuse until I put the placard on my car, pulled my crutches out and said to him “don’t you feel like a jackass now?” His younger son who was hustling back to the car because he heard the commotion, came up to me an apologized to me. He didn’t have to, but it was nice of him nonetheless. I politely told him that if his father doesn’t shut his mouth, someone eventually will shut it for him.
Life is too short. Let the proper authorities handle it. That’s their job, not yours.
We were both in our cars. By “direct, person-to-person interaction” I meant interaction that had the possibility of escalating into a physical confrontation.
- A “serious ass-whipping” is not something that was even a possibility in this scenario.
- I was well aware of that risk, given the condition of his car, I weighed that risk and took it
- Well, again, I weighed the risk and found it miniscule. And there was no one in the vicinity.
- When would he have had a chance to do this?
And, you must have not read all the info very well before you posted here. I didn’t just go spouting off to this guy. Just the opposite. I encounter this kind of abuse every single day of my life. So im careful to begin any sort of dialogue I may engage a person in politely and courteously. It was only well after it was well established that he was there illegally that my demeanor changed. And the fact that I’ve done it elsewhere is just because I"VE HAD TO. I’ve had nowhere else to park and there have been cars taking up the handicap spots with no permit. So I did what I had to. But I appreciate your judgment of me. And, I WAS trying to let the proper authorities do there job. That is ALL i was doing.
That is inconsistent with your account and the Flint Journal’s, which describe some dialog before you entered the building. If there’s time to curse, there’s time to punch.
Nah. I probably would have ignored you completely, then fabricated some tenuous excuse about car trouble prompting my need to pull over immediately when some crazy wannabe vigilante took the law into his own hands. And if need be I’d report you for blocking the access aisle and he looks kinda crazy, officer, probably on steroids or something.
The dialogue took place as we were yelling thru car windows across parking spaces. The wide, big handicap spaces. And you’d definitely be someone who’d park like him tho. Your character comes shining through in all your posts.
You were yelling? Tsk, tsk… that’s an excellent way to escalate a situation.,
Oh, the irony.
I can understand why you got so pissed off and did what you did. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best thing you could have done, but the guy will probably think twice before doing it again. Now you should plan ahead what to do and what not to do the next time this happens.
Why would you want to go back to that gym? Can you find a better gym and organize a boycott of this one?
The article says he did, and pulled the same bit on another handicapped-spot moocher, although with a happier ending.
Ooh, I quit reading too soon. Thanks.
Yeah, because I make all these snide, derrogatory comments, right?
That’s part of the whole story; this gym is the only gym in the area that has the equipment, a UBE (upper body ergometer, or “arm-bike”) which allows me to do cardiovascular exercise. They have this because they are a “medically-based” fitness center that is a wing of the Hurley Hospital network in the city of Flint. So I can lift weights at any gym, but that was the only place I could do cardio.
And I HAD to do that. Like I said, the illegal parker in this instance was occupying the last handicap spot, leaving me nowhere to park. I can’t risk parking in a normal spot, it’s happened too many times where I’ve come back to my car only to find myself blocked out from being able to enter it. So, I parked behind the car, called the police, and waited. I did nothing wrong. I am not a bad guy.
Sure, do what you gotta do. Just don’t ever be under the impression you have some kind of immunity to consequences, minor or major.