why do people do things they know is wrong?

[tomf]

At a beach on a lake we like to go to there is a handicapped parking spot right next to the beach. People without handicapped passes sometimes park in the handicapped parking spot. My wife has a physical problem and has a handicapped pass. Yesterday when we got to the beach we saw a car parked in the handicapped spot with no handicapped pass. My wife asked people on the beach if they knew whose car that was. When she found the woman who parked there my wife told he that we would be happy to trade spots with her. The woman said that she did not know it was a handicapped spot, as the sigh was turned sideways. Obviously that is a bunch of junk as the woman had seen the sigh and one would know what it was. Anyone with a brain would check to see what the sign did say. Needless to say the woman was upset at being asked to move. After all we did her a favor as if the police had come it would be a big fine for parking there.

[tomf]

You are right for every creep there are a number of kind people, I do my best to be one of them.

[Sweyn]

People do wrong things because 1) they think they will get away with it, 2) they are entitled to special privileges, 3) they just don't care about anyone else.
The good thing is these people are in the minority. I hope that the nice people who offer to hold a door open for your wife, or smile, or have something kind or funny to say, vastly outnumber the contemptibles. And I hope that woman got stuck in the sand !

They are almost all the reasons. Another one is that a lot of adults are like small children. They push boundaries/test limits to find out what they can get away with doing.

It's true that there are still good, considerate people in the world. We should all try to be one of them.

[onlylobster]

Call it cognitive dissonance, neutralization or rationalization- either she is legitimately that stupid (never underestimate how stupid someone can be) or she has found a way to do what she knows is the wrong thing but still feel like a good moral person at the end of the day.

[imafan26]

Isn't it interesting how she made it seem that she was the one who was wronged.

However, I have to say a lot of times the parking passes are abused. People are using the parking pass when the handicapped person is not even in the car.

[digitS']

We have all seen atrocious behavior in the handicap parking. About the most extreme for me was a woman in an extended cab pickup who parked in the nearest space to the supermarket. The vehicle was long but there was lumber sticking out the back. Besides the parking space she claimed, without a permit, drivers had trouble getting past her vehicle.

The woman came out as I walked from the store. She seemed ablebodied and when she left her empty cart in the crosswalk, I told her she was "careless."

That's all. I believe that my point was emphasized because I was limping along with a cane but parked waaay out at the edge of the cars. Getting some morning exercise ...

Steve

[onlylobster]

Gotta be careful with those assumptions, I had a friend that had and upside-down and overturned heart deformity. He was't expected to be alive when I met him, but due to heart issue he tired easily and it affected his blood in some way. Otherwise he was young and the only thing that looked off was that he had blue lips from the heart condition. People used to give him flack about using the handicapped parking, but they could not tell just by looking at him that he had a pacemaker and a walk across the parking lot could potentially kill him!

[tomc]

Check with your state. In this world of cell-phone photos, many states can and will use a photo of the car in a handicapped space (without tags) as prima facea for issuing a ticket.

I know NH does...