PSA that should not be, but is, necessary. Some physically disabled people can stand and move

[whatthehey]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026803659

The rife knee-jerk assumptions that anyone who can leave a scooter is faking it, scamming SSDI, and not in need of any assistance belongs at the vilest most puerile shitfests of the internet like Youtube comments or 4chan and anyone posting or agreeing with it here should be ashamed.

I don't give a crap how much like scum the woman in the video acted, that's her problem and no reason to be just as scummy by assuming she is not in need of mobility assistance. Getting up, even attacking someone, does not require the same physical demands as walking around the acres of a Walmart bending and twisting to pick up goods. I can stand. I could, with laughable ineffectiveness, even attack someone, but I could not in a million years walk the aisles of a Walmart buying groceries.

My scooter use is limited to zoos and museums and I'm on no government benefits whatsoever (another clear and RW schoolboy at best-style bias - why assume her actions would be of any interest to any insurance or SSDI people - mine aren't?), but I see the scorn and the sniggering when I stand up, even though it's obvious to anyone with eyes that one side of me is useless. I'm lucky I have someone to shop for me, or I'd face this same ridicule (and no, don't try to pretend it's only her aggression that is being criticized and sneered at; the comments on the linked thread quite clearly state she should not have the scooter at all). Even if you all WERE doctors, there are hundreds of conditions you could not diagnose from a brief video that would warrant mobility assistance but still allow standing and moving around.

I'd ask that you walk a mile in my shoes, but I can't.

[Fumesucker]

1. Thank you for posting

[cali]

2. sorry, I am suspicious of her. And I am disabled

[cwydro]

3. I am suspicious too.

Jumping off a scooter and getting into a full-fledged smack down, wrestling match?

If she is on disability, I sure hope someone is looking into it.

[daredtowork]

19. It's not our place to be suspicious

She could have the scooter to rest for chronic fatigue issues rather than specific physical limitations.

In any case, it's up to her doctors to evaluate her condition, it's up to the Social Security Administration to review her condition (and they do so on a regular basis), and it's also up to the SSA to follow up on any accusations of fraud (which busybodies make at the drop of a pin).

The penchant of people to Judge Judy when they don't have the facts to go on just results in heaping up more bureaucracy around the SSI/SSDI program and making the lives of disabled people miserable.

[Mojorabbit]

21. I have MS but could have during an adrenaline surge gone toe to toe

I would have ended up bedbound for a week after though. I agree with the OP. Unless you have had to live it it is hard to step into another's shoes.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. But you missed the OP's point, apparently

Which was a reaction to the assumption by some that if a person uses a scooter they can't stand up or walk under their own power. It's just a variant of the busybody assumptions about people who park in the handicap spots yet have no visible disability.

[whatthehey]

12. May very well be a scammer. Don't really care though

The real issue is that we cannot know and should not assume that just because somebody can do X that they can also do Y unless Y is a subset of X.

If you can lift 50 lbs at the gym, you are an obvious scammer claiming disability that you cannot lift 20lbs at work, at a similar rate.

But standing up and attacking someone just means you can...stand up..and attack someone. What indication is there in that that you can walk the hundreds of yards of a typical Walmart, grabbing groceries of various weights sizes and shapes from various levels? That's not a subset of the former.

For all I know the woman could be perfectly capable of running a marathon then doing a full shift stacking shelves. For all the people know who are mocking her need for a scooter and assuming she is scamming disability, she could have terrible COPD that makes her collapse after 50', and make a comforrtable living in a sedentary job like I do. I'm not the one making the assumption either way. All we can safely assume is that she lets her temper get out of hand at times and has a violent streak. Plenty to criticize there without making assumptions about her medical state.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

4. I'm physically disabled and on SSDI

And you couldn't even tell what is wrong with me.

Doctors already diagnosed it. It's a condition I've had since birth.

[UglyGreed]

5. I posted the story

for three reasons 1) it is a shame people chose to watch, film and mock these women. 2) that a dirty look will spark others to start a fight. 3) that the child is learning that violence is perfectly acceptable. I don't give a crap that the woman was using a scooter, by her actions she may be just drunk and did not want to walk who the hell knows. SMH

[daredtowork]

18. You posted the VIDEO because it was a shame people to chose to watch? nt

[UglyGreed]

20. I know I enjoy

partaking in Schadenfreude, I'm a very evil person no wonder I suffer as I do.........

[AngryAmish]

7. The can get up and can throw punches

Losing the g n p on the ground, tho.

[LeftinOH]

8. Many big-box stores have motorized scooters available

for patrons to use. Most of the time, store management isn't going to scrutinize a customer's perceived disability. Therefore, just about anyone who wants to use one can do so. It is *very* possible that the scooter in the video belongs to the store. Even if it isn't store-owned scooter, plenty of people own them for their own use ..whether there's a disability involved or not (you don't need a certifiable disability to have one).

[HassleCat]

9. Not an issue

Why do people care if someone wants to ride around on a scooter? The bigger scam is disabled parking permits. In states with lax enforcement, there are doctors who specialize in getting disability tags for non-disabled clients. There are times when the disability parking spots are all taken by bogus vehicles, and people with real disabilities have to fight it out with everyone else. The law in most states says the disabled person must be present, so just having a permit on the vehicle is no good. I have seen people park in the disability spots, jump out of the car, and sprint up the stairs. If anyone questions them, they claim to be disabled.

[UglyGreed]

11. I waited for ten years

to get a permit because I always thought that there was someone who needed that spot more than I. My father in law got one when his wife was dying from cancer and continued to use it after she passed away. This is one of the many reasons I hate when people take advantage of systems that are there to help those in need. But of course I'm the big bad man who hates the disabled and makes up stories to promote my Fox News agenda.

[riqster]

10. A-MEN!

My handicap placard is because of my coronary insufficiencies, but those are of course largely invisible.

And do I get looks? Oh fuck yeah, I get looks. People think they can fucking diagnose disabled persons just by looking at us. Arrogant assholes....

[packman]

13. One of my character weakness is slots

and I see a whole lot of people in scooters at casinos. Really don't give a damn about how they spend their money, what grates me is when they park their chairs at one end of a chain of slots, get up and walk (with no apparent handicap) down a line of machines , sit there playing, then walk back to their scooters.

[JustAnotherGen]

14. This is a good post

[Spirochete]

15. Wel, she did walk into the store

so she can be on her feet for short walks and fist fights (though she wasn't on her feet very much in the fight)
Disabled doesn't mean paraplegic or anything. She just probably couldn't handle walking up and down the store aisles. That runs into a lot of walking. Therefore the cart. I don't think she was scamming anything. She could walk, as her raging attack proved, but could still be disabled, and unable to be on her feet for any length of time.


Hmmmm. My 5,000th post. it's only taken me 14 years and some change.

[daredtowork]

16. I've probably been making my mobility problems worse by not using assistive tech

I have mobility problems, but have not used a cane or brought up a wheel chair with my doctor because walking is the best thing for me --- and if I stop walking I'm pretty much doomed.

However, I have a pronounced limp from a sciatic nerve pinch in my back (unrelated to my other mobility problems) - this has probably never been able to heal properly because I continually re-injure it by walking around and making the injury bear weight.

I recently brought up the issue with a nurse and am considering finally asking my physical therapist about whether I should be using something. It might also be nice to signal to people that I am disabled for a change!

But if I did use a cane, walker, scooter, or whatever, I most certainly would only use it part of the time - when I felt I had to take weight off that sciatic nerve OR when I reached a toleration limit with the other problems I normally just suffer through: claudication, arthritis, peripheral neuropathy, a cyst in one knee, plantar fasciitis, and random cramps/muscle pain I get from the shifting around I do to deal with all the above. Yep, I've just been walking with all that for years because walking is good for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not in a hell of a lot of pain and significantly disabled.

[daredtowork]

17. Well, I tried to alert that OP

Jury fail - they didn't see what UglyGreed was up to. Probably missed the context of his last posts.

Now the other woman in the fight has claimed that it was about racism, so the story will probably have legs. Someone else has already reposted it. That will allow the stealth anti-SSI/SSDI point to be perpetuated.

If she has been fraudulently collecting benefits this will become another notorious cherry-picked anecdote that will become more important to the American taxpayer as a conveniently-referenced youtube symbol of "SSI/SSDI fraud" than a trillion dollars spent on an airplane.

***

Also reserving my judgment on whether the fight really did start over said racist remarks. Either woman might lie to justify what they did, and racist remarks as fight-starters are in the news right now as a result of he Texas Pool Party incident.