I was speaking more of the mood of the boards here in general. If your position is generally that the law is the law, period, then my comment certainly doesn’t apply to you. I should have made that more clear – my error.
So you’re saying that in general the SDMB is hypocritical but you can’t think of any specific poster. Interesting stance.
Some police departments train and deputize volunteers who then have the legal authority to issue tickets. If the OP had that authority then it would be reasonable for him to park behind a car he was ticketing. In a ‘citizen’s arrest’ kind of sense I’m not sure it was so terribly wrong even not having that explicit authority.
But he’s not charged with a crime for carrying out vigilante justice, the big issue is over a private gym membership. They probably reserve their option to cancel at any time, for no reason at all. It might be a better use of time and effort to lobby the local police department to start up a volunteer ticketer program than trying to fight the gym.
Fair enough. My view is the law is the law up to a point. When you have a moral obligation to break the law is a tough question - Nazi Germany being an easy example of a definite yes, disputes over lawn care regulations being an easy no, and lots of history being a hell of lot trickier. It’s my opinion that this instance is also a clear no.
eta: as far as the instances in Wisconsin are concerned, I honestly haven’t put much thought into those - but in general, I don’t find that the current situation in the US requires any clear violations of the law.
Flint, eh? I didn’t feel sorry for you about the whole legs thing…
You both were in the wrong. Him for parking there in the first place, and you for acting like the police. As stated multiple times all you had the right to do was take down his info and report him. By blocking him in you just made the situation worse and further lengthened the time a handicapped person could not use the space.
A friend of mine got blocked in in a town owned public parking lot. She called the police. They said they couldn’t do anything about it.
It was a gravel lot without markings, but there was definetly an ‘order’ of how you where supposed to park.
In fact the same thing happend to me at my own wedding. But a few other people managed to move their cars so I could squeeze through (I was seriously pissed, It was not one of my guests that did this by the way). The worst part was there where plenty of other places not 50 feet away.
I’ve also seen this at large outdoor events where you park in a field. The early people are directed where to park, but then later assholes come in after the parking attendents are gone and block people in.
There’s a difference between protesting a state government attempt to destroy unions and whining “WAAAAAAAHHHHH! Someone parked in a handicapped spot! That only leaves me four to choose from! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
Think about it - you were pissed off (justifiably) because he parked in the handicapped spot. Then you had words with him because he wouldn’t pull out of the handicapped spot. So you blocked him so he couldn’t pull out of the handicapped spot. Does that make sense to you?
I know it’s irritating to see people break the rules and get away with it, but it’s not like Joseph Mengele living a quiet life in Argentina.
Take the guy’s info and report him to the gym. That way, he gets into trouble (ideally) instead of you.
Regards,
Shodan
I totally support what you did Jamie. Some fucks just won’t learn until confronted with the dickishness of his own behavior. Blocking him in gives him a taste of what its like to be powerless. I think the gym should have given you a year’s discount on your membership and sued the other guy for the money.
People get too worked up over some minor vigilante behavior. Its not like you went Batman on the guy and left him tied up and dangling from a lamp post. You simply blocked him in while you called security. Good job! 
You need to watch more Charles Bronson movies.
The guy who parked where he shouldn’t was a minor jerk, and his action had a small possibility of inconveniencing somebody, but as has been well established here it’s rare for there to be as many disabled people as disabled parking spots. Doesn’t make his action right, just makes it a fairly minor issue.
Blocking someone in is guaranteed to inconvenience them, and you had no right to do it. You are much more of a jerk than the guy who parked where he shouldn’t. Report him, get the cameras checked (they will have them), and get him fined. That’s the sum of what you are entitled to do, legally and morally.
I know you just love your gotcha games, but there need not be hypocrisy here. The OP broke the law as a means of protest, as did the union protesters (I guess, I wasn’t really following the story), as did Rosa Parks. Let all of the above face the consequences of their actions and maybe it will draw attention to and help correct what the protesters see as a larger injustice.
Well, he’s said several times there was more to the story, that it wasn’t just this incident. I can imagine past kerfuffles where he might arguably have been morally right each and every time, but the gym management just doesn’t want to deal with him any more.
In the second case, where **jamiemcgarry **says the guy took the last handicapped parking spot, I probably would have done the same damn thing. I don’t know why people are considering that to be jerkish. When there are other handicapped spots open, parkers can justify that they’re not causing any harm. Taking the very last one is inexcusable. Doing it at a gym where presumably they’re going to get in shape, while others are going for physical therapy, is ludicrous. It’s quite probable that **jamiemcgarry ** would have to leave if he couldn’t find a regular end spot with enough clearance on one side to maneuver his chair, or take up two spaces and hope nobody keys his van. Ticketing these guys is the only way to get through to them. I’d do exactly what he did, and if I got ticketed for it, I’d make sure I was in a lot more articles and news features.
Well, I’m on the side of jamiemcgarry in the case of the guy in the last handicapped spot (but probably not the first instance where there were plenty of spots available), but here goes:
Options:
[ul]
[li]You need larger numbers here. Organize other handicapped drivers to work with you.Talk with the police force about what can be done. Will they ticket based on cell phone photos by ordinary people? How about deputizing people? If not, how do they expect to enforce?[/li][li]Alert the local news stations to the problem and convincing them to drive around filming all the illegal parkers while the wheelchair guy is seen unable to park.[/li][li]Picket at locations where infractions often occur.[/li][li]Post photos on a website like they do with johns’ cars.[/li][li]The gym has some obligation to enforce its parking lot policies. Call them and alert them every time you see an infraction, and get all the other handicapped drivers to do it also.[/li][/ul]
I would go with this advice. The OP’s gym clearly has an interest in attacting handicapped, as well as able-bodied, members. It would seem they are be willing to punish behavior they don’t like. Maybe they will revoke the membership of those members who get a lot of complaints.
You’re completely ridiculous, and a hypocrite, to boot.
This is exactly what I thought when I read the OP. This guy has proved to have a pretty abrasive manner in his posts here, and I’m guessing he’s a bit like tbat in real life too. I find it very hard to believe that this is the first time he’s made waves at this gym, and they’re probably just done with dealing with him. Given that this is a gym attached to a hospital and apparently specializing in accessible equipment, I really doubt he was kicked out due to some kind of specific discrimination against the handicapped.
Even if you feel that you’re fighting the good fight, deliberately being an asshole is not often a good way to get people over to your side. The squeeky wheel gets the grease, but the squeekiest wheel gets replaced.
The guy parking in the handicapped space was wrong. The person blocking him in is also wrong. I can’t comment on the gym without more information.
My suggestion: Take pictures and submit to the police but also work on public humiliation. I would try to get the local TV station or newspaper to run a regular feature where they post pictures of people who park in handicapped spots illegally. At the very least, you can put them on the web and try to get the site mentioned in the media. Somebody who just gets mad at being directly confronted might actually change his ways to avoid friends, family, and coworkers seeing that he is a jerk.
The guy who parked in the handicapped spot was an asshole, but blocking him in was not the correct response. Sure, it didn’t escalate this time, but yelling over things, particularly when it relates to cars and moreso if one is pumped up from a work out with adrenaline, is just tempting the situation. A handicapped spot just isn’t worth getting in a fight over. The OP was absolutely in the wrong as well.
And they were also completely justified for revoking the OP’s membership. He admits there’s more to the situation, and he’s done the same at his new gym. He thinks he’s fighting the good fight, and they may even agree with his cause, but he’s a risk for liability and scaring off other members. Hell, I know of several people at my own gym who have had their memberships revoked for less.
First of all, I’m only “abrasive” in response to the posts that are snide or attacking in nature. I do not begin any discussion in that mindset. When I say “there is more to this story”, it does not include other incidences where my behavior has been called into question. The only reason I haven’t discussed the other, more pertinent issues pertaining to ADA violations is because they are not specifically relevant TO THIS THREAD and I don’t wish to get bogged down in yet another debate on a seperate matter within this same thread. But it involves the establishment (HHFC) “banning” a particular exercise, one which I had no alternative of which I could use to train those particular muscles, without then providing an adequate alternative in place of what they had taken from me. I had been a member at this gym for a decade. The manager, who was responsible for both the exercise “banning” and the gym-membership cancelling, had only been in that position for about a year (if that). I had been performing the exercise in question for years up to the point it was arbitrarily taken from me.