I wasn’t sure what to think of you confronting that girl, but when you put it that way, more power to you. The world is full of people who get trampled on due to the apathy or ignorance of others, and having these frank but respectful conversations is no different than confronting someone for say, using a racial epithet or otherwise perpetuating unjust conditions. Somebody has to speak up, and I say it’s good that you do.
I’m with Olives.
This reminds me of Starving Artist, in a way. Confronting injustice is nice and all, but do you have to be rude?! Well, yeah. Yeah, you do. Standing up to people doing the wrong thing is rude. That’s how injustice perpetuates itself.
A lot of people doing wrong aren’t just ignorant; they are malicious, and they (ab)use the social contract to get away with it. Someone has to stand up and say something! jamiemcgarry comes across as an asshole, but if you really read what he says, he’s pretty damn polite. He’s crossing a social line, but it has to be done, over and over, until finally the social line moves. It’s hard work, and I’m happy someone is doing it.
I’m confused by this, I have to say. So these people were being vigilant to see that the person using the spot was, in fact, disabled. Something you do, say you support, but here you are dissing them for their vigilance?
You’re a pretty hard guy to please, it seems. Shouldn’t they have been given a thumbs up, instead! Your disdain for them may insure, the next time, they won’t bother to care. Well done!
I can ALMOST understand this attitude in an area with the right demographics: at my local supermarket, the stork spaces are 100% full at all prime shopping hours, while the two dozen handicapped spots are at 33% capacity at most.
It’s not RIGHT, but it’s at least halfway understandable in an area with a lot of pregnant moms and not a lot of disabled folk.
Or, y’know, maybe there are lots of disabled people who don’t frequent that market - because there isn’t any available parking, 'cause Mom’s are using it with your justification. I’m just saying.
I agree with this.
Speaking as a guy who thinks it should be 100% legal for a guy with a placard and plate to mount a cowcatcher on the front of his van and push non-placarded cars out of handicapped spaces, handicapped spaces are just not used that much in my town.
There is no “vigilance” happening here; this is passive-aggressive, pre-judicial obnoxniousness. They saw me in my car and instantly assumed I didn’t belong in the handicapped space. I HOPE that next time they dont, in fact, “bother” themselves to make such judgment calls before even giving the person time to exit their vehicle or display their placard. And before someone plays a “gotcha” card by saying I do the same thing; I absolutely do not. Any time I have ever said anything to or confronted anyone about abusing handicap parking was after I had clear and obvious evidence of such abuse.
BTW, I saw this same girl, the girl “who couldn’t walk right” and supposedly needed to park in handicapped parking, at the gym today. She was running on a treadmill. So I guess she’s recovered nicely. :rolleyes:
Wait, did she have the 6-month red temporary placard or the permanent blue one?
Did you say hi to her today?
Darth Vader when he’s not wearing the helmet. 
Yes. She pretended like she didn’t hear me. And hey, my discussion with her worked. She wasn’t parked in handicapped parking today. And she had had a blue (permanent) placard on the day I first spoke to her. I highly highly suspect it was another person’s placard.
Entertaining update to the “girl who needed to park in handicap parking to go to the gym and run on the treadmill” story…
For those who aren’t familiar, last week at PlanetFitness I witnessed a young girl (18-19) park in handicap parking (with a blue, permanent placard) and jump out of her car and and go inside to work out. Her workout included running on a treadmill and she moved with absolutely no sign of any physical impairment. So I politely asked her what her disability was. She told me she had a broken leg. When I immediately looked down at her (uncasted) legs in confusion, she abruptly said, “a while back and I still am not walking right.” It was total bullshit because she was walking fine and walked into the gym unperturbed and even RAN on the effin TREADMILL just fine. When I asked her about this, she said, “well I wasn’t running or anything, i was just walking.”
Anyway, I asked her if she could please, in the future, leave those spots free for people who truly need them. As an aside note, she was clearly using someone else’s placard because it was blue (permanent) one. One is not issued a permanent disability placard for a broken leg. That is the red, temporary placard.
Well, my conversation with her worked because the next time I see this girl at PF, she is no longer using the handicap parking spots. Anyway, today I was there and I am at a machine and I see a middle aged woman walking quickly towards me. She was clearly coming for me, so I took my earbuds out of my ears to see what she wanted. “Don’t you EVER talk to my daughter again! I don’t want you saying a word to her! Don’t you ask her about her legs, don’t say a thing, little bitch!”
During this tirade, I am sitting in stunned silence at my machine. It didn’t take long for me to realize who this woman was, but to make a bit of a point I asked her “ma’am, who are you? Who is your daughter?” Her response, “figure it out, bitch.” And then she turned and walked out of the gym in a huff. A second later, a couple of staff members at PF approached me with surprised looks on their faces.
Apparently, this woman had just previously called up to the gym. This young girl, her daughter, had told her mom that I had been aggressively hitting on her and making unwanted advances and her mom called up to complain about me. The staff member who took the call told me it didn’t even make sense to him, and soon after she started complaining about me, she hung up the phone. A few minutes later, this mom unexpectedly just shows up at PF. She bypasses the staff at the frond desk and she makes a B-line straight for me (I’m not hard to pick out of a crowd). After she left, the staff, after hearing BOTH sides (including the sensical, realistic side) was sympathetic towards me and just said to let them know if I ever have any encounter with this girl or her mother again.
Hitting on her?! Seriously? :rolleyes:
When it comes to going to the gym, I’m not sure interacting with other people is the best idea for you.
I can completely understand, based on the decidedly one-sided nature of my gym-related posts, why one might reach that conclusion. But most people love me, trust me But there is nothing to say there, so you only hear the difficulties.
Who calls a man who looks like Jamie a bitch? That’s just weird, Jamie. Entertaining, but weird.
A Flint mom, that’s who. 
Good on you for using your tag privileges properly and honestly. Shame on the busybody for being, well, a busybody.
If anyone remembers one of my old threads (Your wife has a physical disability. You do not.) there recently was a happy ending to my own experiences with nonsense and jerkitude. The jerk’s manager, and then HR sat down with him and explained: “You, sir, are being an asshole. Stop parking in the handicapped spot. You don’t need it.”
He seems to be complying.
Holy cow, that was three years ago. He’s had a free ride all that time?
Well, about 2.5 years. Yeah.
This is also the guy that eats while standing at the urinal. I think he is missing some social filter that prevents the rest of us from acting like asshole animals.