Hi Abled people! You know how intimidating it now feels to go out and do basic things you are legally allowed to do because ignorant jobsworths like narcing you to authorities and passive aggressively leaving notes chastising you etc?
WELCOME TO MY DISABLED WORLD.

Those "You've been out in your car, i'm calling the cops" notes are written by the same people who call the benefit fraud anon tipline on disabled people for existing in a way they decide invalidates their disability.

If you think this is a new cultural phenomenon brought about by lockdown, you are 100% wrong. So if this is new to you, and you feel threatened and intimidated, please know this was the same culture some of us exist in full time, and it will not end when the outbreak does.

What you are experiencing is the meeting of entitlement and empowerment. The ignorant jobsworths amongst us seek out ways of feeling empowered by negatively impacting a stranger's life whilst remaining unaccountable.

Its a vicarious thrill that never meets the first high, so they are driven to find new ways to get their kicks. Notes on blue badge cars in blue badge bays they've decided dont deserve one, reporting disabled people on PIP for things they dont even claim it for, etc etc

So now many of the disabled people are all trapped indoors full time, they have had find a fix because they are jonesing bad. Now you are fair game.
They'll time your walk or if you go out twice, or dont present are 'key worker'.
Horrible isnt it?

The fact that the police force are enthusiastically joining in and demonstrating how they are ignoring the actual guidelines and new rushed-thru laws influences this empowerment.

So when the jobsworth sees cops tackling people to the floor and threatening them over no infraction whatsoever, they see glittering prizes ahead. These are your friends, neighbours, family, colleagues. You might not know they do it, but they do.

You have my empathy for how horrible the fear is. The anxiety that every time you are obliged to go outside, you'll be watched like a hawk & judged. It sucks.
I have been made homeless, penniless, assaulted, threatened, been forced to account for my existence for decades.

There are of course other axis of marginalisation that make this a different experience across the diversity of disability and other oppression. I can only speak to my own experiences.

So what i hope you can take home from this experience, if its new to you, is to support disabled activists when they campaign to be treated as equal citizens. To be seen as human beings too. To revoke the power the jobsworths have been imbued with by government and press.

Another thing you can do whilst we are still in this chaotic limbo - NEVER share images taken to shame others for their perceived behaviour. There is literally no point and its 100% only ever creepy jobsworth types who go out to take these shots.

Taking photos of people without their consent is shitty and unboundaried to begin with. The fact they are in those same spaces they criticise others for being in should be enough to inform you they are a danger to you and everyone else.

By sharing the fruits of their bitterness and resentment that has led them to feel superior and others inferior, you are enabling their damage.

I know its a fools errand to try to combat decades of government policies of eugenics & scapegoating against disabled people by asking for empathy. So i wont, i am asking that if you are abled and are new to this experience, you now had a modicum of sympathy available to you ;)