TikToker follows 'Karen' into McD's to show fake leg after she challenged his right to use handicap parking
An Australian TikTok user based in Sydney was confronted by a woman who believed that he did not look disabled enough to take up the disabled parking spot outside a McDonald's outlet. The man in question recorded the entire incident and shared it with his 158,000 followers on TikTok.
Paniora Nukunuku, a social worker, was challenged by the woman while he was still in the car. In the video footage, he can be heard saying, "Obviously you can't see my disability if I'm in the car, so please tell me why this old lady thought it would be a great idea to approach me and knock on my window and demand to know whether this is mine or not?"
Nukunuku captioned the video, "You are not the disability police," sharing how the lady asked him if the card that was on his windshield was really his disability card. Nukunuku is known to his followers for highlighting discrimination against disabled people. So, when he was challenged about his disability rights by the woman, he refused to let it go. He followed the woman into Mcdonald's and approached her to show her his fake leg to prove his disability.
The woman tried to explain and said she 'desperately needs it', and 'that there were times...' but before she could complete her sentence, the disabled TikToker interrupted her. He asked her, "Is it because I don't look disabled? Is it because I don't look old that you want to approach me?" This was shared in a follow-up video, which he captioned, "putting people in their place for having the audacity to question people's disabilities."
Nukunuku then asked the chain restaurant's employee for the security footage but they responded to him saying that they will not be handing such footage over unless it was requested by a law enforcement officer. When he tried to file a report with the police, his request to file a complaint was refused because the police deemed that the woman in question did not commit any crime. After that, Nukunuku took to his TikTok account to urge his followers and others to help him get his hands on the footage. Besides sharing the video on TikTok, he also cross-posted it on Instagram for more views.
Nukunuku said, "'This is why boomers suck," and added, "because for some reason old people are the only group of people that can be disabled people." However, many are confused as to why Nukunuku needs the footage in the first place and have commented on his Instagram video. One user, who goes by the handle @angiepamje, asked, "I'm confused as to why you need the footage?" and added "It's happened, you've reacted, we've learned from the lady's mistakes. Time to move on."
Nukunuku's quest on social media to assert his rights as a disabled person also attracted hate comments, which was the subject of another follow-up post. He shared the hate comments which he had received from users to seemed to believe that everything is fine since he is able to walk. One user tried to get Nukunuku to see things from the woman's perspective saying she was old and just "curious", but Nukunuku responded with, "being old is not an excuse to harass random disabled ppl. PERIOD."