# The Most Disgraceful Thing You've Ever Seen (Especially in Public) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297 "2013-03-18T21:01:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/181 "2013-12-04T19:50:30Z")
(I have bathed several cats.) I still don’t think “teenagers who didn’t pay bus fare” comes CLOSE to some of the shit people have posted here. Seriously, thinking that’s the worst thing in the world is … I dunno. Words fail me. ETA: just wandered over to the Pit. Holy sh-- words fail me again. Dude. Just … _dude_. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/182 "2013-12-04T20:01:53Z")
That’s why it’s called The Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/183 "2013-12-04T20:07:48Z")
Regarding the tattoo thing: I am definitely of several minds of it. First of all, you would be AMAZED at what people allow to be tattoed on their bodies. Go look at WTFTattoos or sites like that. Their friend says “I’m practicing to be an artist! Can I practice on you!” And these dumb fucks say “Sure!” And now they have some horrid design on their arm. But on the other hand, a 4 YO? I am amazed a 4 YO would stand still for one. But on the third hand, I think of the story I told in this very thread, about my dad getting a tattoo at 5! I can see him gritting his teeth and toughing it out. 4 seems a bit young but if daddy is all “You’re my tough boy, you’re a man, stick out the pain,” maybe the kid would do it. But tattoos hurt! I’ve had a tattoo and piercings both done and while I say the piercing hurts more (and takes longer to heal) that doesn’t mean the tattoo was a walk in the park. But it wasn’t awful either…it wasn’t so bad that I thought “never again”. I dunno. I feel like it could go either way. I’m inclined to believe him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/184 "2013-12-04T20:15:06Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Regarding the tattoo thing: > > I am definitely of several minds of it. First of all, you would be AMAZED at what people allow to be tattoed on their bodies. Go look at WTFTattoos or sites like that. Their friend says “I’m practicing to be an artist! Can I practice on you!” And these dumb fucks say “Sure!” And now they have some horrid design on their arm. > > But on the other hand, a 4 YO? I am amazed a 4 YO would stand still for one. > > But on the third hand, I think of the story I told in this very thread, about my dad getting a tattoo at 5! I can see him gritting his teeth and toughing it out. 4 seems a bit young but if daddy is all “You’re my tough boy, you’re a man, stick out the pain,” maybe the kid would do it. > > But tattoos hurt! I’ve had a tattoo and piercings both done and while I say the piercing hurts more (and takes longer to heal) that doesn’t mean the tattoo was a walk in the park. > > But it wasn’t awful either…it wasn’t so bad that I thought “never again”. > > I dunno. I feel like it could go either way. I’m inclined to believe him. Of course, I was guessing at age. So 5yo? Sure, even maybe 6. But the scabbing and welting is distinctive. And his father was a outlaw 1% biker (or so his vest said) , not just a normal Harley rider. Ifso, finding a source to do the work would not have been hard. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/185 "2013-12-04T21:07:37Z")
If I’m so inclined, I can take Metro to McPherson Square after work, a few blocks from the White House. There will be a half-dozen to a dozen homeless folks sheltering by the metro exit for warmth. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/186 "2013-12-04T21:08:36Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > Actually, it _did_ make me cry. I am at work and had to leave my desk and go into the bathroom so my colleagues wouldn’t see a 43 yo professional male sobbing at his desk. > > That is one of the saddest things I have read in a long time. ☹ It wrecked me at the time. Seeing my cousin’s face, totally helpless, while she looked at a daughter who couldn’t possibly understand? It was devastating. I have an infant and a three year old. Every morning, every single one, my three year old looks at his brother and tells him to wake up. “Wake up, Orwin! You awake? Oh, you awake, Orwin! You sleep good?” etc. And I just know, were I ever in that position, Jonathan would be doing exactly what my cousin’s daughter did. It’s so horrifying to think about. Just awful. Though I vowed that day never to go to a baby’s funeral ever, ever again. I’m entirely certain that would apply to my own kids. One in a lifetime is enough for me, thanks. My brother in law lost a baby, a not quite 3 month old son, last March. They aren’t local so it wasn’t a concern, but I wouldn’t have gone. My husband could have brought my condolences with him. Never, ever again. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/187 "2013-12-04T21:27:23Z")
Sadly interesting that there’s [a thread for you](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=709335), **Silver Fire**. ☹ Wait … an outlaw 1% biker dude … at a mall? Did I read that correctly? ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/188 "2013-12-04T21:31:43Z")
I didn’t see it. I was there, but I was around the corner of the building. I heard it. A man drove up to the reception building of the animals shelter where I volunteer. Dumped a litter of kittens into the street and [then ran them over.](http://www.news10.net/news/local/article/203000/2/Two-kittens-dead-six-survive-after-litter-is-run-over) ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/189 "2013-12-04T21:37:21Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > The first time I went to Walmart. A woman got those fake dracula teeth out of one of the vending machines in the lobby. She put them in her mouth and chased her toddler through the parking lot as he screamed “NO MOMMY! NOOOOO!”. Tears were streaming down his eyes as he crawled under a (luckily empty) car. She then knelt down next to the car and snarled to make him scream one more time as she grabbed him and pulled out from underneath. Clearly a monstrous parent scarring their child for life. I uh certainly didn’t make the same mistake with a gorilla mask(well sans parking lot).😛 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/190 "2013-12-04T22:10:39Z")
OMG, **Rhiannon**. The kittens in the linky pic look just like my Nikki. ☹ Why the \*fuck \*would someone go to the trouble to round 'em all up, drive all the way to the shelter, just to kill them at the doorstep? And **st. pauler** , if circumstances would have been just a wee bit different, you might have watched a toddler be run over right in front of his mother’s eyes. Jeebus. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/191 "2013-12-04T22:29:57Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > The first time I went to Walmart. A woman got those fake dracula teeth out of one of the vending machines in the lobby. She put them in her mouth and chased her toddler through the parking lot as he screamed “NO MOMMY! NOOOOO!”. Tears were streaming down his eyes as he crawled under a (luckily empty) car. She then knelt down next to the car and snarled to make him scream one more time as she grabbed him and pulled out from underneath. [Apparently, the kid ended up doing well for himself.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty6KE6rOlaI) ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/192 "2013-12-05T00:03:25Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > OMG, **Rhiannon**. The kittens in the linky pic look just like my Nikki. ☹ Why the \*fuck \*would someone go to the trouble to round 'em all up, drive all the way to the shelter, just to kill them at the doorstep? > > And **st. pauler** , if circumstances would have been just a wee bit different, you might have watched a toddler be run over right in front of his mother’s eyes. Jeebus. It baffled and horrified all of us. We see the aftermath of some pretty disgraceful and disturbing things, but we don’t usually see it happening. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/193 "2013-12-05T00:23:49Z")
> [@Silver\_Fire](#): > > It wrecked me at the time. Seeing my cousin’s face, totally helpless, while she looked at a daughter who couldn’t possibly understand? It was devastating. > > I have an infant and a three year old. Every morning, every single one, my three year old looks at his brother and tells him to wake up. “Wake up, Orwin! You awake? Oh, you awake, Orwin! You sleep good?” etc. And I just know, were I ever in that position, Jonathan would be doing exactly what my cousin’s daughter did. It’s so horrifying to think about. > > Just awful. > > Though I vowed that day never to go to a baby’s funeral ever, ever again. I’m entirely certain that would apply to my own kids. One in a lifetime is enough for me, thanks. My brother in law lost a baby, a not quite 3 month old son, last March. They aren’t local so it wasn’t a concern, but I wouldn’t have gone. My husband could have brought my condolences with him. Never, ever again. Last year, a former co-worker lost 2 of her 3 children in a car accident. ☹ The kids were 12 and 16, and another CW who’s still on Facebook with me posted, “I sure hope that I never again have to attend another kid’s visitation.” Some people wondered if she (ETA: the 16-year-old driver) was texting, and they knew she wasn’t because it was locked in the family’s safe; she had been grounded from her cell phone. It was a tragic accident. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/194 "2013-12-05T00:25:23Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I didn’t see it. I was there, but I was around the corner of the building. I heard it. > > A man drove up to the reception building of the animals shelter where I volunteer. Dumped a litter of kittens into the street and [then ran them over.](http://www.news10.net/news/local/article/203000/2/Two-kittens-dead-six-survive-after-litter-is-run-over) I’m a cat lover and that’s totally sickening. I’d think it was sickening if I wasn’t a cat lover. If he’s capable of something like that, in the parking lot of an animal shelter no less, what is he capable of doing to other people? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/195 "2013-12-05T01:30:02Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I didn’t see it. I was there, but I was around the corner of the building. I heard it. > > A man drove up to the reception building of the animals shelter where I volunteer. Dumped a litter of kittens into the street and [then ran them over.](http://www.news10.net/news/local/article/203000/2/Two-kittens-dead-six-survive-after-litter-is-run-over) That’s way beyond disgraceful…it’s sick. Depraved. One of the handful of people who should never be let loose in public, let alone behind the wheel of a car…:(:(☹ ---
**Author:** ![Doggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@Doggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doggo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/196 "2013-12-05T15:45:45Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > My little cousin hauled off and slapped his mom in the face once. While she sat there and sobbed quietly into her hands, he ran in circles, cheering and yelling. > > The thing is, the really really sad thing is, while the family lived with us (they were trying to come over from India) it was clear the boy was in desperate need and WANT of discipline. I’m not a parent but it’s quite clear to me that one of the chief reasons kids act out is to test their independence and still feel safe, i.e., mom is going to stop them/catch them after so far and not let them go any further. They’re just testing their boundaries. When they have no boundaries, they grow fearful and act out even more. > > I was only a few years older than this kid (maybe he was six and I was 12?) but he listened to me, and I yelled at him when he needed it, and was probably a little rough with him now and then (hey, I was barely out of childhood.) But whenever his dad tried to discipline him his mom would jump in saying “Oh, you beat him black and blue, he’s covered with bruises, he’s just being a kid”… > > which of course, leads to being slapped in the face by your own child. > > Huh. I would argue that leaving any creature out in the cold all day long - and I’m sorry, but freezing weather IS cold - is cruelty. I mean, sure, it depends on the dog, but even my Samoyed doggie wanted to eventually come in and curl up by the heater. Dogs are creatures of comfort, too, and I’d never leave a dog out all day in freezing weather. Samoyeds are the wooses of the Husky breeds then! My Greenland Malamutes stayed outside in MINUS 50 degrees C. I doubt if anyone with working Huskies brings them inside. If they ever got injured and needed a general anaesthetic while being treated I couldn’t leave them inside after the op as they would have overheated, so I left them outside in the snow to recover. Really tough mutts. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/197 "2013-12-05T17:14:38Z")
I came home once to find a female crackhead urinating straight down the middle of the driveway to my apartment building. Straight. Down. The. Middle. Pants down, squatting, junk out for all the world to see, stream of urine down the sloping driveway. At least her scuzzy boyfriend had the decency to urinate on the building beside our house. I have never seen a worse dirtbag than that. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/198 "2013-12-05T17:20:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I witnessed the reelection of Richard Nixon. LOL! I loved this reply. Short, and said a mouthful! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/199 "2013-12-05T17:34:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I witnessed the reelection of Richard Nixon. I felt that way about Reagan’s re-election too, although had Mondale won, we would have had Geraldine Ferraro as vice president, and in retrospect, choosing her as a running mate was probably as unwise a decision as “Caribou Barbie”. :dubious: And I was quite surprised, and not a little bit horrified, at how few remembered this, if they ever knew it at all. They assumed that Sarah Palin was the first female vice-presidential nominee on a major ticket. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297/200 "2013-12-05T18:22:58Z")
My top two: Coming around the corner at dusk and seeing three burly cops who had taped a man’s mouth shut and were taking turns punching him in the stomach. A young male who felt that a middle-aged man had cut in front of him and taken his parking slot (in a large public parking lot with plenty of other spaces). When the older man, a soft, flabby, gentle looking guy, got out of his car with his young son, the first guy jumped out of his own car and started screaming obscenities at him and challenging him to fight. The father drooped and said nothing and slunk away looking extremely ashamed, son in tow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disgraceful-thing-youve-ever-seen-especially-in-public/653297.md?page=11)