Asshole Spotlight: Janice Eberle

Illegally parking in a handicapped spot is something that society as a whole frowns upon. The reasons for this should be obvious. A person with a disability would have trouble getting from the far end of the parking lot to their destination while a person without a disability should have no trouble walking the distance. To illegally park in a handicapped spot takes a special kind of disregard for others, and even the most hardened asshole would never admit to doing it, nor would they protest being ticketed for the act, as it would bring attention to the fact that they illegally parked in a handicapped spot to begin with.

Janice Eberle, however, is different from other people, though probably not in the way she likes to imagine. Slapped with a $300 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot in a Danvers, Massachusetts BJ's, she has decided to sue the town of Danvers.

Eberle attempted to have the ticket dismissed, claiming that when she parked her Mercedes SUV in the handicapped spot, it was raining heavily and she was only running into the store for a few moments. She also claims that she was handicapped that day due to a shoulder injury, and was on medication. When the parking clerk refused to dismiss the ticket, presumably laughing his or her butt off in the process, Eberle decided to sue.

It's difficult to begin listing everything that is wrong with Janice Eberle's complaint, but let me start with the fact that the fear of getting wet is never an excuse to park in a handicapped space illegally, even if it is just for a second. This is what umbrellas and raincoats are for.

A shoulder injury does not prevent a person from walking, though I would argue that driving around with one, especially while medicated, is probably worse than deciding one is entitled to a handicapped spot because of it. If she could manage to drive her vehicle with an injured shoulder and hopped up on pain killers, then walking from one end of a parking lot to another is the least of her issues. She should not have been on the road at all, and it's a shame she wasn't ticketed for driving while impaired. Regardless, she did not have a handicapped parking permit, so saying that she was handicapped that day, which is not how it works, is probably one of the most idiotic excuses I've ever read.

Tickets for illegally parking in handicapped zones are purposely pricey so that people are deterred from breaking that particular law. Denying the space to someone that actually needs it is a pretty crappy thing to do, and were the fines low, people would not care about having to pay them and might decide that the ticket was worth the convenience. Despite her overblown sense of entitlement, Eberle even admits that this is not something she will ever do again, which is exactly the point of the $300 fine.

It's bad enough that she felt she was so special that she could park in a handicapped spot illegally and get away with it, but to fight the fine with a lawsuit takes a special kind of asshole, and for this reason, the Asshole Spotlight shines brightly on Janice Eberle. Her callous disregard for others, and her attitude when faced with the legal consequences of her actions put her on a new level of asshole that defies all reason.