Walking badly back to my car tonight and two youngish lads (late teens/early twenties) shout "oi cripple don't you need a carer"
Having been in a good mood this did upset me, almost to the point of tears, which probably sounds ridiculous but for the first time in weeks I was actually having a fairly good day with my disability and that just brought it back to attention.
Anyway I was talking to a couple of friends (who are also disabled) and they thought this would class as a hate crime? I didn't think it would, since become disabled these encounters are the type of thing that unfortunately do happen in all situations like using my wheelchair and a stag do shouting across a shopping centre alright wheels give us a lift etc.... it annoys he hell out of me and some of the comments do upset me but I'd never really thought this could classify as a hate crime? The one example I can think of that probably was a hate crime involved work but that was dealt with separately
Listening to some of the hate crime reports on the radio yesterday was heartbreaking and did include physical intimidation and abuse of people but did include some verbal abuse which was over a prolonged period
AIBU? Should I take this kind of thing more seriously?
I know some people in the disablitly movement want to take back the word cripple (clearly the lads involved today didn't mean it in that way) but I really do hate being called that word