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If you do not have a disability, please do not ever park in a handicapped spot. Those who do are often privileged enough to lack the faintest idea of the difference they can make in the lives of disabled people.
Without close contact with a disabled person’s daily experience, some people do not gain full awareness of the struggles they face and how important it is for society in general to be respectful and mindful not to make life harder for them. This applies to leaving handicapped parking spots unoccupied for those who are going to need them the most.
This is what seems to be the problem in a new TikTok video, where a family visiting Belgium parked in a handicapped spot and got in trouble with the police for not carrying the required blue badge. However, as the TikTok user, Safia&Co, says in the footage, they have brought “the goods” with them, which should prove that they did not park in that spot without a valid reason.
“We literally have the goods here.”
It is true that too many people around the globe are in the habit of parking in handicapped spots without being legally eligible to. Therefore, it is important for the police to be on top of these violations to dissuade individuals from being so ignorantly selfish. But in this family’s case, although they have forgotten their blue badge, which they should not have, they have a legitimate reason for parking in the handicapped parking spot.
Safia, the girl in the car, has Down Syndrome, and as such, she is entitled to parking in handicapped spots. Usually, the criteria for being eligible to park in designated handicapped spots – even though it can change from region to region – are: to have a permanent motor disability with a degree of handicap of 60% or more, and intellectual disability of 60% or more, a permanent visual impairment of 95% or more, and finally, an oncological disease with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 60%. These are the exact requirements where I’m from, and they are more or less consistent, particularly within the European Union.
Safia would fall into the category of “an intellectual disability.” The family has the required badge, they simply forgot about it, meaning that Safia has been medically examined and deemed to possess a degree of disability that entitles her to handicapped parking spots.
However, as some comments point out, forgetting the badge should not be a willy-nilly excuse. Were I the officer in this case, I would let this infraction slide and allow the family to redeem their mistake, especially since they are in a foreign country. Still, I would also, if possible, leave a note in the system if they were to forget the badge again. Everyone makes mistakes and should be allowed to learn from them, but we cannot also minimize the importance of having the necessary documents to prove you are not stealing a handicapped spot from someone else who might genuinely need it.
There is another potential problem with this video that some Belgian netizens noted and took issue with: Local newspapers have reported that the family was stopped by police, not for parking incorrectly, but for having other unrelated pending tickets. Is there more to the story that is not being shared or did the newspaper report it incorrectly?
This TikTok may be missing some additional context but, regardless and hopefully, Safia still managed to enjoy her time in the country without encountering other setbacks.