Did you know this large person personally? Do you know for sure there is nothing wrong with this person other than his weight? Can you see his insides and know what his problem is? He may have a severe heart problem not caused by obesity. His problem may not allow him to exercise and then he gained weight. He may have a problem you don’t know about at all. I am handicapped in several different ways and I know people cannot see anything but my obesity. It probably makes them wonder how come I can park in the handicapped section. If I listed all my ailments that were not caused by obesity, you would be appalled that you even thought the way you do about the obese man. From here on in, miind your own business. By the way, I cannot exercise and my medicine makes me gain weight.

i have seen this before and have actually gone back to my car which was parked in a handicap spot then what that handicapped person would have been able to get because overweight people have doctors willing to give out handicap passes. And i had a legitimate handicap i had a biliary stint which is a tube that goes between your ribs into your liver which is extremely painful. I asked my mom to move the car so that the older handicap man could have our parking space and my mom just brought me one of those motorized carts. Not to be mean i know that there are many reasons that people are/become overweight causing more health problems but the main way to loose weight is to exercise.

Chances are great that the obese person has other handicaps that are not readily visible. Breathing problems and such.

There should be more handicapped parking available where you work.

Sound like work needs a few more handicapped parking spaces. It may not be the obese person’s fault. One of the handicapped people at your work needs to speak with management about getting more handicapped spaces.

Some people are on medications that keep them alive or make them able to work a regular job and some of those medications can result in weight gain and make it extremely difficult to lose weight or even stay the same weight.

If it was their own poor habits that caused it, they may have had a change of heart and may be having a hard time losing. By the way, I am a slim person speaking up for others.

break everybodys godam legs and we can all be handicapped….. no just kidding JUST KIDDING, i think that cyanne2 has hit the nail on the head.

It’s not a privilege but rather a polite accamodation. The obses guy should have to park way on the other side of the lot. Sounds like he needs the exercise.

Are you sure that the “fat guy” didn’t have a medical condition? Thyroid problems are known to cause obesity. Even if his weight problem was “self induced” (we used to call it suicide by fork) that might not be the condition that got him the handicapped parking permit (I’ll assume that he had a handicapped permit).

You see a “fat guy” parking in a handicapped spot. Maybe that fat guy also has heart problems, maybe he has extremely bad knees and ankles (caused by his weight?) and is not able to walk long distances.

It could even be that his weight is caused by thyroid problems, and he has heart and joint problems due to his weight. Bottom line, he has a permit to park in the handicapped space, it’s every bit as valid as any other handicapped parking permit.

Until the parking authority revokes his permit, he can park in those spaces whenever they are available, it’s his space as much as anyone’s!

Though I agree that many overweight to obese people need look no further than the mirror to see who’s truly to blame for their complications. This question is a little trickier.

There are people that are overweight due to conditions that aren’t within their control (i.e. thyroid conditions). Also, even if the person brought the weight gain on from bad habits, not to mention lack of consideration for themselves and those around them, doesn’t mean they don’t have true health conditions as a result. If the Dr. gave that person a Handicap tag to park there, I’m sure it was with good reason. On the other hand, if your company, the building, or the security/parking attendant (if any) felt sorry for the individual and/or tried to avoid a lawsuit from walking a particular distance… well, then that’s when it’s definitely wrong.

Obesity, in it’s self, is not a factor for most handicap parking laws, but it can be the result of, or lead to other disabilities that is within the scope of handicap parking laws. You seem to have a negative feeling or judgment toward overweight people, and in some cases you may be right on how they got in that state, however, if you look more deeply you may find other types of illnesses, bot mental and physical that led to their overweight problem. One should try to find more compassion in your heart on this issue.

I think it’s kind of funny how some people try to argue that some prior disability caused the fatness. My aunt has been confined to a wheelchair for 20 years and has never been overweight. I see these morbidly obese people roll out of their cars after parking in a handicapped spot and shake my head.