Episode 62: The Ableds Do Be Like That

TRANSCRIPT OF “THE ABLEDS DO BE LIKE THAT”

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MALE VO [00:03]
This is Bad Attitudes.

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LAURA [00:20]
Hello friends and strangers! Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes: An Uninspiring Podcast about Disability. I’m your host, Laura.

It’s getting hard to keep up with the shit the Ableds are throwing at us these days.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Jala Prendes. If you have some time, check out Jala’s podcast, Jala-Chan’s Place. She covers a variety of topics and has even mentioned yours truly a time or two. You can listen by going to jalachan.place or wherever you listen to podcasts. I’ll leave a direct link in the episode description.

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As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community but I am not the only voice.

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LAURA [02:04]
Before I get into the meat of the episode, a disclaimer: When I say “the Ableds” that does not include ALL non-disabled people. The Ableds are a specific subset of non-disabled people who behave like ableist assholes. Similar to how “the Straights” does not include ALL heterosexual people, but a particular subset thereof. All clear? Good.

On March 11, university student Carson Briere, son of Philadelphia Flyers’ interim GM Daniel Briere, was caught on security camera pushing a woman’s wheelchair (unoccupied at the time) down a flight of stairs in a bar. But not before giving it a test drive, of course. The chair was unoccupied because the owner of the chair had been carried downstairs to use the restroom.

The fact that we’re in 2023 and this person still can’t access an accessible bathroom in a bar is another can of worms I can’t handle opening right now.

Briere’s behavior is bad enough. Like, really fucking bad. The police are investigating. I don’t know what the charges would be. Assault? Destruction of property? It’s anyone’s guess. He has since issued an apology and is, of course, “deeply sorry.” Yeah, deeply sorry he got caught. His father and his university have also issued apologetic statements, but he won’t be facing any punishment from his school. Which is understandable. He wasn’t on school property, and it didn’t involve another student, so there’s not much recourse for the university.

No, what’s REALLY getting under my skin is the people trying to excuse Briere’s behavior.

I first heard about the incident on Instagram, and after reading just a couple of comments, I had to stop. I already have high blood pressure; I didn’t need my head to pop off.

One take seems to be that it’s excusable because the woman wasn’t in the wheelchair at the time. I’m sorry, what? Behavior is only bad if a person is immediately affected? There was a victim of this behavior, even if she wasn’t in the immediate vicinity. It’s definitely a plus that the woman wasn’t in her wheelchair at the time, but that doesn’t excuse his behavior. It doesn’t make what he did less offensive.

He sat in the wheelchair. He tried to push the wheelchair around. He acted like fucking Goldilocks and when the wheelchair wasn’t “just right,” he pushed it down a flight of stairs. And then just walked away. Why do I — why does anyone — have to explain why this behavior is inexcusable despite the fact that the owner of the chair was not using it at that exact moment? That was just luck.

Another comment I saw that really ramped up my rage was one saying that “wheelchairs are resilient.” If wheelchairs are so resilient, why do airlines damage an average of 29 a day?! Seriously, tell me you know nothing about wheelchairs without telling me you know nothing about wheelchairs.

But like the episode title says, the Ableds DO be like that. The Ableds DO think that throwing someone’s mobility aid down a flight of stairs is no big deal. They DO believe this kind of behavior is excusable.

What if that wheelchair were instead a baby stroller? Not a cheap one, but a fancy one with like a roof and shit. If Briere had thrown an empty baby stroller down a flight of stairs, do you think the Ableds would have had a problem with it?

OF COURSE THEY WOULD. “Those things are expensive!” “What if there was a baby in it?!” Because the Ableds have more respect for a non-existent baby stroller and hypothetical baby than they do for a real, live disabled woman and her mobility device.

Imagine going to the bathroom and coming back to find your wheelchair at the bottom of a flight of stairs. (All of this compounded by the indignity of the fact that you had to be carried to the bathroom because the bar you’re patronizing doesn’t have an accessible one.) I would already be in a rotten mood from having to be carried to and from the restroom, but to come back to THAT? I would be livid. I would be terrified. I would be overwhelmed by a myriad of emotion. I would almost certainly cry.

Wheelchairs are delicate machines. Yes, they go through some rough and tumble situations, but they aren’t designed to be tossed down stairs. They can also be finicky machines. You never quite know if something is going to go wrong. I had an axel on my chair break one time just rolling along a city sidewalk in good condition. I wasn’t even off-roading. So if that can happen while I’m simply minding my own business using my wheelchair for the exact purpose for which it is intended, what might happen when you put it through something it’s NOT designed for?

They’re not cheap either. Based on the information I have, that woman’s wheelchair was completely custom, and a custom wheelchair can have a sticker price comparable to a used car. They are not cheap.

And not to understate things, but they’re KIND of important. If this woman is unable to get to the restroom without being carried, then she likely relies on her wheelchair to get around all of the time. So this dumbass decided it would be a good idea to throw her entire source of mobility down some stairs.

Let me take a moment to iterate an important point for disabled people: Do not leave your mobility aids unattended. In no way am I suggesting that the wheelchair owner is to blame for Briere’s behavior, but what I AM saying is that people cannot be trusted. I know it’s an incredibly cynical way to look at the world, but you can’t trust anyone. You just can’t. When I was a teenager, a guy I grew up with had another friend who used a wheelchair. One day, he and his friends ran up to the convenience store and the wheelchair-using friend left his chair in the front yard. Do you think that chair was there when he came back? OF COURSE IT WASN’T. I don’t know if he ever even got his wheelchair back, but it just proves my point: You can’t trust people.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t good people in the world, because obviously there are. It just means that you have to be guarded and protect yourself, and realize that no one lives in Mayberry.

Now, I know someone is out there saying, “We wouldn’t even be talking about this if he didn’t have a name people recognized.” To which I say, well, duh. Of course we wouldn’t be talking about this if he was just Joe Asshole. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have HAPPENED. It just means nobody woud have cared enough to make it public knowledge. So, yeah, we’re only talking about what happened because the perpetrator has a name people recognize, but that’s the only way we can bring attention to this kind of behavior. Because make no mistake, people no one knows exist do shit like this every day.

I do not know what kind of consequences this kid should face, but he should face more than just public scrutiny. Will there be legal repercussions? We don’t have that information yet. Even if there are, how serious will they REALLY be? We can’t get fucking Brock Turner sent to prison for a rape witnesses SAW HIM commit, so even a wrist slap in this case will be a win. If he faces any consequences, they will likely be monetary. Probably paying for repairing or replacing the wheelchair. Except, let’s be real, he won’t pay any fine; his family will. This will blow over and what will his takeaway be? Keep an eye open for those pesky security cameras.

If you don’t believe that the Ableds hold no respect for the disabled community, I really hope this episode changes your mind. Not just what Briere did, but the absolute disregard the general public has for his behavior. A lot — not all, but a LOT — do not care. And they likely would not care even if the woman HAD been in her wheelchair at the time. To the Ableds, disabled people are disposable.

I’ll leave a link to the TMZ story about this incident in the episode description so you can check out the salacious details for yourself.

Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you in the next one.

[11:23]
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