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Many have been left shocked by a new viral video which shows a man with a prosthetic leg being questioned by a woman who doesn't believe he's disabled.
The incident occurred in the parking lot of a McDonald's in Australia. The man at the center of the incident, a TikToker who goes by the name pnuks, uploaded video of the incident to the platform shortly after it happened.
The woman interrogated pnuks over the disabled parking placard in his car because he didn't "look" disabled.
In the first of two videos, pnuks described the infuriating confrontation he had with the woman, who he called "the disability police."
As he held up his disabled parking placard, pnuks said the woman knocked on his car window and demanded to know if his disability placard was actually his because she couldn't see his disability.
Pnuks angrily directed a message to the camera we'd all do well to follow:
"It's not your business! It's not your business! ... Even if someone doesn't look old or doesn't 'look disabled enough,' if they have a [disabled parking placard] you shut your mouth, and you walk away...
"...The last thing you want to do is approach someone who you think doesn't look disabled and they walk out of the car and you realize, 'holy crap, he's got a leg missing!'... You look stupid! You look like a clown!"
And "like a clown" is pretty much exactly how the woman came off when pnuks confronted her in a follow-up TikTok video.
Walking up to her on his prosthetic leg, pnuks asked the woman why she interrogated him.
She explained the reason she asked is because she very badly needs access to disabled parking herself, and insisted she had "a right" to question him about it.
To which pnuks had the perfect response:
"There's a reason why we have the card, so that this doesn't happen. So you don't assume that someone isn't disabled enough. Don't ever do that again."
On social media, people were firmly on Team pnuks, including many other disabled people.
@Independent This guy is a legend— ℝ𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋2𝔾ℝ𝕆𝕎 (@ℝ𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋2𝔾ℝ𝕆𝕎)1615826817.0
@Pnuks Thank you! I’ve had dirty looks when using my placard. I’m tall, young looking, some days are better than ot… https://t.co/1T0HXq1ivE— Stonz-Bonz (@Stonz-Bonz)1615749091.0
@Independent Just like the saying “you don’t look disabled to me” disabled person: “well you don’t look stupid to me but there you go”— MaNoNaFeWmissioNs (@MaNoNaFeWmissioNs)1615826026.0
Things that weren’t in a Seinfeld episode but feel like they would have been in a Seinfeld episode https://t.co/air5eN9cg4— Mike Ciandella (@Mike Ciandella)1615844117.0
@TMZ I have a disability and get asked to prove it daily when I park. And I shouldn’t have to nobody should have to… https://t.co/aKuIDB5Lnj— Trisha McDonald (@Trisha McDonald)1615800991.0
Ya'll gon start minding the business that pays you!!! https://t.co/jiR7x65yrP— Megan Rivers (@Megan Rivers)1615800315.0
🤬So infuriating🤬 It’s people like this who give me anxiety! Don’t judge/question permit holders on their looks. Ju… https://t.co/ksIMDqxOo1— Carley Ruiz (@Carley Ruiz)1615791183.0
@sirena_tatuada/TikTok
@abymiau2/TikTok
@amynoble78/TikTok
pnuks's videos of the incident have been viewed more than 1.5 million times and generated more than 200,000 comments, many of them from other disabled people describing similar scenarios.
It's a great reminder to all of us to mind our business.