Without meaning to defend how the OP went about it, it’s worth pointing out that you do not, actually, get to park in a handicapped space because you have a handicapped parking permit.
You may park there if you display a handicapped parking permit (that you legally have).
I agree with jamiemcgarry as far as regarding it strange that the Parkers would go out of their way to avoid displaying the permit.
Well, actually, it’s issued so that proper law enforcement personnel know that you’re entitled to use the spot, and not for the benefit of nosy passers-by. Presumably had there been a peace officer or a patrol car visible, the placard would have been visible.
Based on the speech patterns quoted by the OP, it sounds like this may have occurred where poor people live, and where poor people live there is higher crime. An always-displayed handicapped placard would be an attractive target for some poor people who commit crimes, and so if this were such a neighborhood, I’d leave my placard in the glove compartment, too (with my GPS, sun glasses, etc.) unless it were absolutely necessary to display. Short of busybodies, this wasn’t a case where it was absolutely necessary to display.
It appears everyone here assumes the handicapped placard was issued to the older lady sitting in the car. It’s quite possible, however, that it was issued to younger lady who went inside. Not all qualifying medical issues are obvious to an observer.
I have a lot more sympathy for someone failing to display the placard (a violation of procedure, but not of the underlying intent of the rules) than for someone who pushes the issue ad nauseum – how many times did the OP say something? Especially after being told, then shown, that there was indeed a permit. You know that if a cop came along, the woman in the car would have shown the permit, been instructed to display it, and that would be it. The OP’s fanatic pursuit of the relatively minor issue of display is the nonsensical thing here.
Jamie, I will suggest that your quality of life would be much improved if you let go of the compulsion to try to enforce these rules the way YOU think they should be. Sometimes, when everyone else says you’re wrong it’s because you are indeed wrong. Think about it.
Why are you trying to enforce this unfair unjust rule that would fine someone with mobility difficulties who doesn’t have a permit while letting a perfectly healthy person with a permit park in those spots?
It seems like you are taking offense to her not following some arbitrary rules that someone set up and will force you to pay if you don’t comply instead of if she really should be using the spot.
If you wanted to make a case that she didn’t deserve to park there because she is not apparently disabled, we can go there, but that’s not what you are doing in the OP.
Nothing wrong with that at all. Jamie OTOH has a habit of going above and beyond.
Let’s see…
He confronted her.
He confronted her again.
He confronted the passenger.
He confronted the driver again in the store.
He never called the police.
And this was all after the driver made it known in a “violently hostile” way she had no interest in talking to him. On top of all that they were legal to park there. Now he’s not just getting up in arms about people illegally parking in handicapped spots, but now he’s arguing with people about proper placard placement. C’mon. You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack by the time you’re 40 if you don’t lose some of this stress. This is exactly the type of situation that had no impact on your life whatsoever. You need to look over, see them parked, get annoyed, then drive away and forget about it.
If you wish to take about the topic in a civil manner, you may do so here-if you wish to castigate the person who started this thread, take it to The BBQ Pit.
Are you a hall monitor, too?
…And if you wish to critique my moderating skills, do so in ATMB, not here.
Come on. It’s really quite different, and the fact that you don’t grasp this is at the root of your problem. Consider a driver’s license, a much more serious legal issue. You can be fined for not having it with while driving, but there’s a huge difference between not having your license with you and not having one at all. Likewise, while it may be a violation to not display the placard, any reasonable-minded person would not equate failure to display it with not having one to display.
No, I wrote a sentence about how something works in the UK and advised that I didn’t know how it works in the US.
Don’t make assumptions about what I do or don’t base my life on, please.
My WAG is that the comment was directed at the OP, not you. 
Actually, if your car is towed because you parked without displaying your permit, you are going to pay the fine. You are told that the placard has to be displayed when you receive it, otherwise it isn’t worth the cardboard it’s printed on.
Correct. (Never do I dare mess with the SDMB mods)
But that doesn’t really apply here anyways since the passenger was in the car displaying it to anyone* that asked about it. As for why they didn’t just hang it, anything we speculate is just that.
*anyone being at least Jamie, but I think it’s fair to assume if a cop rolled into the lot the passenger would have showed it to them as well.
Well, I’m a believer in the “Broken Windows” theory, which has it’s proponents either way.
Again, I admit I am assuming the permit was for the older passenger. But if the slang phrase the young lady used means what Rand Rover mentioned, it sounds to me like the young lady knew what she was doing was both wrong and illegal.
My friend at work told me this tale last week:
She was parking in a lot to take her 5 y.o. daughter to a movie. As she pulled in to the slot, a guy ran between the cars, jumped in front of her, and started shouting that he was holding this spot for his sister who was driving around to claim it.
While my friend contemplated this situation, the sister arrived and pulled in close on my friends bumper and effectively blocked my friend in- dude in front, car in back.
My friend, let’s call her Abbey, I guess, now became alarmed thinking maybe she was going to be robbed, or was dealing with ‘the crazy’, or something. She called the cops because now two people were yelling at her from the car behind her, and one guy in front. So she just sat there with the windows up and waited for help.
The cops arrive pretty quickly and the dude stated he was holding the spot with his person and further began claiming that Abbey had hit him with her car while trying to force her way into the parking spot and that his family- his sister and mother, were his witnesses.
The cops told him you can’t hold a spot like that and split everyone up to compare their stories. They did not believe the dude and his family. Abbey suggested the the cops check and see if there was a video surveillance of the lot to support her position. Then the mom and sister began yelling about how the are going to sue Abbey. The cops said if dude continued to claim he was injured, they would insist on calling an ambulance and sending him to the hospital. He did not want to do that.
The cops made everybody leave the lot and followed them to make sure they did it.
Abbey went to a different theater to take her daughter to the movie, but said the whole thing lasted about 45 minutes. She said the most perplexing thing was that the lot was not full and there was ample parking available.
THIS is a nonsensical parking experience!
Uglabba keyt hando mey sona jin farken toa, KALHOO! kaloii jeyal henra ritton tew felan twen poda messa broon vinder drex lin yorf permit.
What has that to do with the topic of this thread?
Sure, you’re subject to a fine for failure to display. You’re also subject to a fine for not having your driver’s license with you. But in both cases there’s a significant difference in the root of the violation as compared to not having a permit or license in the first place. A judge might forgive or reduce the fine for failure to display, but almost certainly would not for lacking the permit at all.
Ugh, this is my fault for clicking on this thread, but I knew when I saw the thread title + OP combo, my inner masochist would be able to revel in tales of Captain Handicapped pestering the shit out of everybody. Dude, why don’t you just leave people the fuck alone? Stop with your rent-a-cop shenanigans, roll your ass back home (silently), and let people live their lives without your schoolyard nagging. They had a permit, so back off, Barney Fife, and stop hassling them because their permit wasn’t displayed properly.
No. This is his pet cause, so he’s decided to make everyone else’s life hell because he’s mildly irritated by some procedural blemish of not displaying the placard in a manner he finds worthy.