ROBBING THE DISABLED
Able-bodied man threatens to shoot prosthetic user for parking space
AMEMBER of the disabled community in Jamaica recently dared to tell an able-bodied person that he had parked in a space reserved for her and other persons like herself. The man threatened to shoot her.
Sarah Newland-Martin, a double prosthetic user, who has dedicated her life to help transform the lives of at-risk boys at the Young Men’s Christian Association, recounted to The Gleaner her shock and dismay after she tried to persuade a man who had no disability that he was parking in an area reserved for persons like her.
“I remember once I parked at the BNS (Bank of Nova Scotia) in Liguanea and it was somebody who was not disabled parked at the disabled sign, and when I spoke with him, he said, ‘I’ll shoot you.’ That’s what he told me.
“I said, ‘This parking space is reserved for persons like myself.’ He said, ‘Don’t talk to me, I’ll shoot you,’ so I didn’t bother to have an argument with him. That’s how some persons behave.”
She is of the view that many Jamaicans do not respect the international access sign that clearly i ndicates that parking is reserved for persons with disabilities.
“They could never do it in the United States of America – US$600 or imprisonment,
whether it is private or non-private; they can’t park there,” Newland-Martin said.
She added that even persons with disabilities in the US who do not have a special parking sticker for the disabled cannot access reserved parking facilities.
Newland-Martin commended several businesses and owners of shopping plazas who erect disabledfriendly infrastructure to accommodate the disabled. However, she said that the security personnel in these areas suffer immense abuse by members of the public who show no regard for the disabled.
She argued that as persons get older, they may need the same facilities to help them to get in and out, “so respect it before you get to that point”.