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DISABLED VET BATTLES UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO OVER

PARKING -- Vet claims he was harassed by parking attendant,

but witnesses and videotape tell a different story.

 

 

Story here... http://www.abqtrib.
com/news/2007/aug/03/joline-gu
tierrez-krueger-disabled-vet
-unm-draw-bat/

Story below:

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Disabled vet, UNM draw battle lines over parking

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger

James Morris, a fully disabled Army veteran, never suspected he would have to wage war against a University of New Mexico parking lot attendant — and then the university itself.

He never imagined that his shattered, screwed-on knees, his bad back and numb hand — collateral damage in the fight to keep America safe — would be called into question and that his need for a state-issued handicap parking placard would be challenged.

But this is a story with no easy answers and too many hurt feelings. It's about how we serve the disabled with honor, not humiliation, while protecting them against those jerks who try to take advantage of the situation.

Morris' latest war began two weeks ago when he decided to stop by UNM to pick up a class schedule. Maybe a cooking class. Something to help him reintegrate into society. Something to quell the post traumatic stress disorder he suffers. Something to keep his mind off what he saw, what he did "before, during and after Sept. 11, 2001," which he said he cannot speak of because of security issues.

The 28-year-old father of two said he parked in the Cornell Parking Structure, his handicap placard clearly displayed.

Aside from the placard, few might have known of his disabilities. He's young, wears football jerseys, and tries not to rely on the cane and walker he disdains.

"My whole thing is to appear as normal as possible," he said.

The parking attendant wanted proof the placard was his.

Morris pointed out his "Disabled Vet" license plate and showed the attendant his military ID, which lists him as disabled.

Not enough, the attendant said.

"I tell him, `What do you want from me?' I tell him he doesn't have the legal authority to check and I want him to call the police or campus security," he said. "He refuses. He won't give me back my placard. He won't open the gate to let me through."

The whole time, Morris said, the attendant was laughing.

Morris said he had to walk to the UNM Welcome Center for help. Shortly after he returned, he said the attendant left the booth and confronted Morris, yelling "Hit me, hit me, hit me."

Morris said he pulled off his shirt to defend himself but regained his bearings. He was allowed to leave without paying the $3 fee, but the battle was not over.

"I didn't want this to just float away," he said. "I need to make people aware of this issue."

So far, he has spent hours on the phone and in person with UNM parking administrators. He's spoken with members of UNM President David Schmidly's staff. He's written to U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Tom Udall and Gov. Bill Richardson. He's contacted local and national media. This week, he's hired a lawyer.

UNM officials say they don't know what more they can do to appease Morris.

They also said witnesses to the incident — and a videotape — tell a different tale.

Morris, they said, yelled obscenities at the attendant and threatened him with "Special Forces" prowess.

"He called (the parking attendant) every name in the book," said Steven Beffort, UNM associate vice president of business development and auxiliary enterprises.

Beffort said Morris also pressured UNM to pay him off with $1 million, plus $35,000 to a veterans' charity.

"I was certainly in no position to write checks like that," he said.

Morris counters that he only mentioned the hefty payout after Beffort insisted he name his price.

"The money is not about me attempting to extort or cash in on this," he said. "It is a statement that harassing disabled people is not acceptable."

The attendant was not fired.

"We took his side of the story," UNM Parking and Transportation Services Director Clovis Acosta said.

But what matters now, Acosta and Beffort said, is not who said or did what, but what can be done differently and better.

"We feel really badly that this happened," Beffort said. "But what we want now is to look for a solution."

UNM parking staff began asking for proof of placard ownership after an expos‚ by an Albuquerque TV station last year revealed that the use of phony placards was rampant on campus, he said.

The verification of choice is the Placard Holder Identification Card, a 1-inch sliver of paper on which the driver's name is handwritten. The card comes attached to the placard application.

Morris said he hadn't even realized he had such a card.

Beffort and Acosta agree that using the easily counterfeited card isn't the perfect solution.

"We're doing everything to make this campus as accommodating to the disabled as we can," said Acosta, a disabled veteran himself. "We're not trying to restrict access — we're trying to improve it."

Morris is not impressed.

"You don't protect my civil rights by trampling on my civil rights," he said.

Beyond a policy change and a monetary settlement, Morris is asking for a letter of apology from UNM to run in the Daily Lobo college newspaper throughout the first week of the fall semester.

But in a letter he received on July 31, Beffort denied his requests.

"While we sincerely regret how this experience of being asked to produce documentation greatly upset you, we do not find inappropriate conduct by the parking attendant," the letter reads.

It ends with a hope that Morris will still consider attending UNM.

He won't.

"When you break it down, that was seriously the most humiliating thing I have ever had to deal with because of a problem that I cannot change, have no control over and wish I didn't have to deal with anyway," he said. "UNM wants to say sorry and walk away as if it never happened, and when you continue to let that sort of thing happen, change never occurs."

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on, we can expect to see more disabled vets like Morris in our community. We should expect this issue to not go away quietly.

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Larry Scott  --