Caregiving: disability parking and "parking nazis"

          Handicapped driver yield$ in ticket appeal

By Peter Gelzinis / Boston Herald / Photo by Matthew West

 

“… Renee explained how she’d been late for a prescribed physical therapy appointment … she forgot to pull her driver’s visor all the way down, so as to fully display her handicapped placard. …

    

…The Weymouth parking Nazis said “Nein” twice. “I found them to be a very snippy and arrogant bunch,” Renee said. “When I told them that my placard was in the visor, all they said was, ‘Well, you can’t expect a police officer to go looking for it.’…”

    

In search of some justice, if not common sense, Renee decided to take her case to court - Norfolk Superior to be precise.

 

“…If I wanted to go ahead and appeal my $100 parking ticket, the girl in the clerk’s office said the court would charge me $275 to file the appeal. … “And ma’am, one more thing I have to tell you,” she says to me, “even if you win, you won’t get the $275 back.”

 

“So, finally, I just sent the ticket in and said, ‘To hell with it, you win!’ ”

 

We’ve had a couple similar encounters with “parking Nazis” fortunately all of ours have ended happily though certainly time was involved in fighting the ticket.

 

One incident actually occurred while Patti sat in the vehicle with her wheelchair clearly in view. The disability placard was not hanging from the rear view mirror it was somehow on the dashboard. When I walked back to our vehicle, the officer even met me and strangely informed me with a grin that he “left me a $200 note” on my vehicle.

 

Weeks later in court the judge learning that all three citizens sitting in court that day in wheelchairs and their caregivers were there contesting tickets issued by this same officer not only voided all tickets but gave the officer a tongue lashing that had to leave marks.

 

It is a shame that common sense is not always associated with ‘power’.

 

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer

http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer

http://www.myspace.com/patrickleer

Tags: caregiving, disability parking, Weymouth MA, Peter Gelzinis, Renee Moffatt