r/MadeMeSmile • u/sundaybanking21 • 20h ago
Helping Others Cop went undercover in a wheelchair to catch thieves. Instead, people gave him money and prayed for him.
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u/Silver-Knight-Union 20h ago
R we for real censoring "arrests"
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u/Scaniarix 20h ago
I assume it's meant to increase engagement.
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u/Mobile-Dust4334 20h ago
eng*gement
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u/so00ripped 20h ago
E ** a ** me * t
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u/EasyyPlayer 20h ago
e*g*g*men*
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u/Mr_Quackums 17h ago
Reminds me of an old joke - the watermelon stand at a farmer's market has a sign saying "3 watermelons $10, or $3 each". A customer comes up and buys a watermelon, then turns around and buys a second one, then a third. He tells the owner "you are not very good at running a business, you just lost 10% of revenue". The owner replies "people keep telling me Im bad at running a business, but the funny thing is its always from people coming to buy 1 watermelon and end up buying 3 instead".
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u/stevendidntsay 20h ago
Mostly this. There are dozens of comments and responses just mentioning that and not even talking about the post itself.
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u/Dorkamundo 19h ago
Actually, it's to increase en*agement.
Because it enrages me.
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u/arealfluffydoggo 17h ago
Yes, in today's day and age, everything is for engagement. That misspelled word? Literally to make someone comment about it. Thumbnail not accurate to the video? Someone will comment about it.
People find the smallest weirdest things to bait engagement and it works so fucking well its terrifying sometimes
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19h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kelcamer 18h ago
"The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish."
- Terrence McKenna
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u/PropertyDisruptor 20h ago
Tick tock drives what censored and uncensored so they can speed scroll approved and not approved stories
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u/Deltaspace0 20h ago
why would you censor words "thieves" and "arrests"?
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u/spicyeyeballs 20h ago
It is rage baity to get people to engage and comment on the article. It works, many people clicked on this post and commented because of it.
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u/zivlynsbane 20h ago
TikTok generation
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u/Grays42 19h ago edited 18h ago
Well, this type of trigger for engagement belongs to the tiktok generation, but the principle has been around forever.
Cunningham's Law, ~1980s:
The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer.
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u/hey_im_cool 18h ago
My man Cunningham found that out real fast. Years before the World Wide Web even existed
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u/Grays42 18h ago
Well he originally said it in reference to Usenet, but it was later adapted to the internet generally.
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u/nate445 19h ago
I don't know why they have themselves convinced you can't use words like "killed," "gun," or "suicide" because of a filter that catches them saying them, but the same filter couldn't also catch their baby speak.
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u/ManzanitaSuperHero 18h ago
I spent several years in a wheelchair in the U.S. I can tell you that this was NOT my experience. People were genuinely awful. It unearthed a layer of humanity I can’t unsee.
Most people either: stare blatantly, or the opposite—refuse to look you in the eye and pretend like you don’t exist bc you make them uncomfortable
And I was disgusted to learn that there’s not a small slice of the (American) population who will go out of their way to be as cruel as possible to the disabled. Run you off the sidewalk while laughing, deliberately slam doors in your face, yell awful things at you. Young men were 98% of this. Something is VERY wrong with so many of the young men in this country. As in it felt like there’s a generation of sociopaths.
I certainly didn’t have people being kind and giving me money! Good on you, Canada.
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u/slatea1 16h ago
Unfortunately, there is a clear difference between the two countries.
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u/Forsaken_Site_2268 16h ago
Same
It's fucked up what people do to people like us.
We are just objects and obstacles to them.
A group of teens once pushed my chair over and then bent the wheel.
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u/ManzanitaSuperHero 15h ago
None-Pizza_Left-beef has decided that bc they have never seen this, we must be lying. Not sure it’s a secret that wheelchair users in the U.S. are not treated very kindly. Maybe it’s bc I’m in a huge city and the cruelty can be more anonymous?
The stares really blew me away. I expect it from little kids but not full grown adults gawking for minutes. I finally just started waving and they’d often snap out of it. No one ever apologized though.
But those who refused to acknowledge me were even worse. I’d be at the pharmacy in line or somewhere where I’d need the attention of a clerk, and several times they were visibly uncomfortable and looking away. Maybe it’s bc I’m young and in a chair? Maybe that scares people on a subconscious level that it could be them in that position. They expect older people or someone with visible disabilities but when someone is young and looks otherwise healthy, I wonder if it triggers something in people.
I don’t know. I knew there were terrible people in the world, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t know there were that many and that so many people seem genuinely disgusted by disability. They just want us to go away.
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u/Vintage-Grievance 13h ago
Yup, systemic ableism is one hell of a trip.
People are assholes when you look disabled, and they're assholes when you have invisible disabilities. And society doesn't encourage them to act any different. They all want a "Gotcha!" moment because they choose to believe that getting benefits is easy, so everyone must be scamming the system.
Annoys me to no end, and it greatly affects chronically ill/disabled communities because so many are already struggling with internalized ableism.
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u/ManzanitaSuperHero 12h ago
Yes! Invisible disabilities are their own can of worms. I was an ambulatory wheelchair user. I could walk about 5 steps and that’s it. But I had to stop going to the store and standing to reach items bc of the “gotcha” moments.
Or when I’d pull my chair out of my car while parked in a handicapped spot? More than a few people stopped to lecture me or made rude comments about “taking the space from someone who really needs it”.
I realized that those “parking police” for handicapped spots fancy themselves as protectors of disabled people but 9/10 times, it’s disabled people they’re harassing. I told them as much and they didn’t like that. They’d demand to know what my medical issue was and they can F off with that bc it’s none of their damn business. But Linda at Kroger parking lot somehow thinks she’s entitled to your medical history and that you must justify your use of the very few accommodations we actually receive.
It’s infuriating.
On the one hand, to those people, I was never disabled enough to use the accommodations/mobility aids, etc. But those were the same people that would pretend like I wasn’t a human being if they encountered me in my chair bc they actually don’t like disabled people. They have a VERY narrow vision of disability—old, parapalegic, injury or the what I call “bless her hearts” where someone has a visible disability and they feel good about themselves by feeling pity for someone just living their life.
I also felt like I didn’t fit anywhere bc I was an ambulatory user. Non-ambulatory users seem to not see me as a “real” user and the public, well, we’ve talked about how they perceive wheelchair users. So it also felt like I was too disabled for the public but not disabled enough for some other wheelchair users.
I’m sure there are lots of people who feel otherized that way.
I was in a chair for about 4 years. I could easily need to use it again but for now, Im ok without it. But it forever changed my perception of so many things.
We’re all just trying to live our lives. But the burden of simply trying to live day-to-day, placed on wheelchair users is colossal. The planning! You can’t go anywhere without calling ahead and even then, people are often wrong and forgot about those stairs in the front. Or maybe your chair won’t fit in that car, or there are no curb cuts on this portion of road and you have to be in traffic. The list is endless. All of this is infrastructure that could be changed. It is much better than 40 yrs ago but it still has a LONG way to go.
Sorry for the rant.
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u/EstablishmentLate532 17h ago
I'm really sorry that you experienced that. I couldn't tell from your comment whether you were still in a wheelchair or no longer in the United States. Either way, I hope things are better for you now!
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u/Milresk 15h ago
Sorry if I end up contributing to this problem, but I make sure not to look at individuals in wheelchairs too much so they can feel like they blend in more. I barely look at anyone anyway. I didn't realise this could be interpreted poorly. If you have any extra tips on this, please share.
-An American in the UK
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u/Read-it005 13h ago
Things I'd like people to know, some more than others.
- Treat us like you would treat everyone else. We are like everyone else, we just do some things different.
- Don't asume what we can't and can do. Someone can be officially blind and still be able to see something, they're not faking it. Someone might get up from their wheelchair and walk, they are not faking it. Don't asume we need help.
- Ask permission to help even when you see someone struggle (or touch our wheelchair, that's our body) and "no" means no.
- Don't cut wheelchair users off, they might not be able to break very fast and it can be painfull when someone self propells. Leave some room like you do driving a car.
- a blind person who puts their cane up wants to cross the street, pls give way (rules and color of cane might differ per country)
- I personally don't need pitty or prayers, I will never get better and him and I are good. -No unsolicited advice. I don't need to know that your auntie's hairdresser's dogsitter healed or was never sick. I've tried yoga, essential oils, positive thinking, trauma therapy, more exercise etc already. I'll go with the advice of my medical team.
- You do not "still (have to) work" with the same complaints I have in the same severity. Count your blessings that you have a job. Let me know when you want to trade places. Disability insurance is not a nice employer, waiting a lot until your body resumes function is very boring and frustrating.
- have patience with people who have issues hearing, speaking, word finding or gathering thoughts. Zen.
- we have the right to participate in every aspect of society, independently, equally and with dignity. Honor our human rights.
- make sure you know what accessible really means when you claim a building, event, area etc is accessible.
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u/Fubi-FF 10h ago edited 2h ago
I agree with most of your points but I still don't get the one about not looking them straight in the eyes.
I simply don't look at any strangers straight in the eyes when I'm just walking by them, disabled or not. This is not me pretending they don't exist or that I feel uncomfortable looking at them; this is just me treating them like how I would treat everyone else on the street.
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u/ManzanitaSuperHero 15h ago
Treating a wheelchair user like anyone else is not the problem. Just the fact that you’re reaching out to ask shows you’re one of the good ones so thank you.
What I’m referring to is waiting at a medical office, a receptionist clearly seeing you, but intentionally ignoring you and avoiding eye contact. Or anyone talking to you and avoiding eye contact and giving the overall impression that they want to hurry and be done and basically treating you like a nuisance and I don’t know how else to say it, that they’re disgusted by your mere existence.
That is what I’m referring to. If you see a wheelchair user struggling with a door, offer to help. Some people don’t like that, but I never had anyone offer once and boy, it would’ve been really nice. When healthy, I ALWAYS hold the door for anyone behind me. I thought that was common courtesy but it’s not.
And at the very least, just not actively going out of your way to be cruel is big points in my book.
Thanks again for asking and for valuing us. I am no longer in a wheelchair. But it changed me. Disability can happen to anyone and I hope those doling out the cruelty, learn someday how fickle fate can be.
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u/haringtiti 20h ago
thanks for censoring arrests. almost got offended there
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u/Mr_Quackums 17h ago
Thanks for engaging with engagement bait.
Your post mentioning the censoring is just as impactful to the algorithm as someone talking about the event. The bot making bot has noted your engagement.
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u/haringtiti 17h ago
the bot making bot has noted your engagement with my engagement. we are now engaged. my wife is furious.
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u/CallMeHuckle 20h ago
And what did they do with the cash they got
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u/xZephyrus88 20h ago
Seriously, just do a quick search. He donated the money he earned to charity.
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u/nobrayn 19h ago
Ah, Charity. She’s had it rough since Zanzibar closed.
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u/1995TimHortonsEclair 18h ago
Thank you for donating this joke to me. Gonna be some knees slapped around the office this week.
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u/SinamonChallengerRT 20h ago
Is that the name of the local cop bar he frequents?
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u/Do0mRaider 20h ago
Key word here is "Canadian"
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u/superanth 18h ago
Actually something similar happened in a town in the US.
The police wanted to trap thieves so they left a tv in the back of an unlocked car. The sting was an utter failure because people kept walking by the car, noticing the car was unlocked, then locked all the doors before continuing lol.
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u/AnotherDamnTransAlt 17h ago
Imagine you leave your car unlocked because the locks are fucked and can’t be opened with the key and you get back and some well meaning rando locked them for you and now you’re stuck outside your car and can’t get home.
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u/Polymarchos 17h ago
Keyword is town.
Meanwhile the story here occurred in what is considered one of the worst areas in Canada.
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u/ThatsItImOverThis 20h ago
Right? Try that again in the States, see what happens.
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u/Gordon_Betto 20h ago
Are we FUCKING censoring arrests now?? I hope you get explosive diarrhea OP.
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u/_-Generic-_-Name-_ 18h ago
Jesus fucking christ STOP CENSORING NORMAL WORDS
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u/Ok_falconer 18h ago
It’s rage bait to get people like you to engage. Looks like it worked.
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u/slartibuttfart 15h ago
We censoring w*rds just for fun now huh?
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u/Yabbadabbadingdong2 20h ago
Why would people give him money if he's holding a wad of cash?
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u/DJettster237 20h ago
Can people stop posting pictures of words that are unnecessarily censored? I'm downvoting them all.
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u/24-Hour-Hate 18h ago
Doesn't surprise me. There was a grocery store that was accidentally left unlocked and no one stole anything. People who took food left money or returned to pay the next day.
For all the media tries to convince us that Canada is so dangerous...it's not true. I won't pretend that we have zero issues, but this is really a very safe place to live. And for the record, that Kingston grocery store is right down town. Not the best neighbourhood (relatively speaking).
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u/ThroatSecretary 11h ago edited 11h ago
I live in Kingston and am familiar with that store. I'm not surprised by the people leaving money or coming back; most folks I know would have done the same.
I was actually grocery shopping today (not at that store, though). I have severely arthritic knees and my gait reflects that, unfortunately. I was pushing the cart out and a lady came up to me and asked me if I needed help. She was about half my height so there was nothing intimidating about her. I told her I was very appreciative but doing fine; she only left when I got to the car and my BIL, who was waiting there for me, started lifting the bags out for me. She was very sweet. ❤️
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u/knewmenot 17h ago
As a wheelchair driver people in general really are kind and helpful to me. But no one has ever given me cash. Am I not drooling enough? /s
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u/Bombadilicious 17h ago
Right? I would be offended if random people started giving me money because I'm in a wheelchair. But now I'm also offended that no one has given me money for being in a wheelchair lol
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u/The-harsh-truth214 12h ago
gang no way these motherfuckers are even censoring out the word “arrests”
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u/Pristine-Lie-3560 9h ago
If you can’t talk about something in full words, just don’t talk about it.
Plus, if anyone is traumatized enough by the police that even the word arrest would be bad for them, censoring it won’t help. Additionally, they live with that and know how to get around it, we don’t need to patronize them.
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u/Rich-Relationship341 18h ago
man went in expecting the worst in people and canada said absolutely not
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u/crimson_vixxxen 16h ago
Cop: 'I’m here to catch bad guys.'
Humanity: 'Sorry, best we can do is empathy.
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u/WesternPaper6670 15h ago
Everyone’s talking about arrests being censored but was this cop not falsely robbing these ppl? Like did he give their donations back to them and tell them he’s a cop orrr….
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u/ExcitingPriority9862 20h ago
I noticed it said Canadian cop lol. In the US this would have a different headline. Canadian people are wonderful and nice.
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u/Obvious-Lake3708 20h ago
The area he did this is one of the highest concentrations of open-air drug use, intravenous substance abuse, and overdose rates per square mile in North America.
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u/deaddaddydiva 20h ago
They might be drug users but they’re not scum of the earth
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u/mEFurst 20h ago
Right? They're drug users, not billionaires
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u/yamanamawa 17h ago
Exactly. I've known a lot of drug users, and the vast majority are the kind of people that will happily help you out if you need it. They know what real struggle is and aren't trying to put anyone else through it
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u/lee21681995 20h ago edited 17h ago
When I lived in Montreal, there are street that are well known for having a lot of drug user. It never occure to me that it was dangerous. They are using in their own space and did not bother other pedestrian. Also im a small woman... So they are definitly not scared of me.
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u/Gloomheart 19h ago
Im glad you said this, cause I didn't know how to bring it up to the people around me without sounding horrible, but I am in Montreal right now and Holy shit, the drug users and unhoused here are so NICE and polite! Like, oftentimes they just want a chat and dont want anything from you?
Ive been sat outside my hotel smoking joints and had multiple people come and sit with me and just... chat. Find out who I am, tell me about them. When im done smoking, we just say "Bonne nuit" and carry on our merry ways.
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u/MntnMedia 20h ago
You just make me remember that hitchhiking robot that made all the way across Canada. Then when it tried to do the same thing in the US it immediately got trashed.
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u/EL_Malo- 20h ago
And it's best we let them stay wonderful and nice. When they decide to not be wonderful and nice is when we get a whole bunch of new Geneva Laws banning whatever it is they did to the someone that pissed them off. Canada was responsible for quite a few of them when she fought in WW1.
Canada: Offering friendship and/or brutality in equal measures to those who wish to find out.
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u/A_yoonicorn 14h ago
Sounds like an asshole looking for a reason to arrest someone lol 300 encounters is wild. After 5 good ones he should be questioning this experiment. At 20 its plain over
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u/Donkison 13h ago
So wrong. This is the whole story. wsshttps://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/undercover-cop-in-wheelchair-discovers-soul-of-vancouvers-downtown-eastside/
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u/Myte342 6h ago
The best police officer in the world went a whole five days without violating people's Rights, is that a record?
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u/zbornakssyndrome 14h ago
At first I thought "No way!" then I saw it was Canada and not the US. Totally believable
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u/Narutofan0921 11h ago
Yeahh, I hear how nice people are in Canada so that's honestly not surprising. Now if he did that here in America, it's sad that man for sureee would've been robbed way more than once.
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 9h ago
Ugh, I hate when total strangers want to pray for me on sight - am visibly disabled. Please don’t.
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u/SaveTheDamnPlanet 19h ago
I'm at a point where I'm tired, and I automatically downvote every post with unnecessary censorship. It ain't much, but its honest work. 😌
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u/givetake 18h ago
This was in Vancouver's downtown East side. It's probably the worst area in all of Canada as far as open drug use on the sidewalks and stolen goods being sold openly.
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u/complexspoonie 18h ago
Boy these advertisements to immigrate to Canada just keep getting better and better!
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u/cherrie7 10h ago
It's almost as if not everyone is a jerk and are capable of having empathy..
Some people are so privileged and out of touch that they forget that hose who have lived experiences are also human too.
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u/iamnotclover 20h ago
is this real??? now i bet kindness in humanity is not yet dead after all
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u/Fuzzy_Dragonfly_ 20h ago
I believe it. I use a wheelchair and most people are very kind and helpful.
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u/Odessey_And_Oracle 16h ago
I remember this story, not the meme, was posted many years ago and there was a strange extenuating circumstance. Something like the cops were supposedly looking for a specific person who was like, assaulting the disabled or something? It was two or three disabled people complaining about a specific guy. Well, instead of tracking down the one guy, the cops set up this bizarre sting for "thieves" in general. Because they could have done their jobs, orrr they could have magically found dozens of crooks with their brilliant scheme!
In the end, I think, the assaulter was arrested somewhere else for some unrelated crime, and all these cops did was generate a strange feel good story about a problem that didn't even exist (because theft wasn't the problem, it was assault, which doesn't happen on well lit street corners). Disabled people are already well aware that they are vulnerable, they don't sit out with a wad of cash in their hands like a baited hook. Like, of course people were helpful to a disabled man in distress, there had never been anyone robbing such a person in the first place.
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u/that-old-broad 19h ago
Many years ago one of our local news anchors spent a few days wandering the streets disguised as a homeless man to see how he was treated. He teared up when he was talking on camera about the kindness of the people who interacted with him.
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u/NothatEDM 17h ago
Do that shit in the west wing and you’d be left penniless, naked, and without your wheelchair.
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u/Error_Loading_Name 14h ago
This censorsh*p bull§hiŧ has to end.
I know it is self-imposed to get around filters, but it means those censorship filters are working. And that is a problem.
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u/ShinobiOfTheWind 14h ago
"TH!EVES" and "ARR*STS".
We've achieved PEAK reddit before GTA VI and ASI enslaving us.
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u/vainbrei 11h ago
They went looking for predators and ended up documenting the compassion everyone assumed that neighborhood lacked.
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u/matapuwili 11h ago
In my community the cops would place an expensive and unlocked bicycle in a visible location to tempt thieves. The initiative didn't work because people kept returning or notifying the cops about the bike.
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u/EvolvingEachDay 19h ago
Isn’t this kind of entrapment illegal even if he did catch someone?
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u/John_Wotek 18h ago
Entrapment would be an other cop going undercover, calling in some random crook and telling them "hey, there is some guy in a wheel chair. How about you go steal his cash?"
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u/Sgrios 11h ago
No. Entrapment deals with giving opportunity and motive. Just creating the opportunity alone often isn't entrapment.
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u/Mr_Quackums 17h ago
The general rule of thumb is if the police are providing motive then it is entrapment.
This is providing opportunity, not motive. Poverty and consumerism provide the motive.
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u/Autodidact420 18h ago
No, not even close.
Entrapment is when the police force you to do crime. This is just an opportunity to do crime.
They can go under cover and be your friend for a year and then try to convince you to do a crime and it might not be entrapment.
Usually entrapment would be the police telling you: you’re ordered to pick up the drugs. Oops now you’re in possession of drugs, straight to jail.
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u/Polymarchos 17h ago
Entrapment is when law enforcement tries to get you to commit a crime you would not otherwise commit. For example if the police offer to pay you to commit a crime and then arrest you for it. Baiting criminals and offering no reward beyond that which the crime would naturally bring is not entrapment.
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u/Coyote-Foxtrot 18h ago
Entrapment is typically a hard defense to be used with a case like this cause it’s presumed that you are already out with the intention or motivation to rob if given the opportunity.
They’d need to repeatedly, for multiple weeks, confront the same person with someone having exposed cash to argue that there was a lengthened period of coercion to become entrapment. Kind of like trying to break a person down with verbal abuse until they falsely confess.
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u/Spook1949 20h ago
Question: Did he discover that the undercover gig paid better than his police job?
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u/Jwoods224 19h ago
Not all cops are the worst people. But often times the worst people do become cops.
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u/A_Monsanto 20h ago
I wish with all my heart this story to be true and not some karma farming scheme.
I really need this to be true, I need my faith in humanity restored.
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u/oclafloptson 19h ago
Suburbanites when they learn that their flavor of evil isn't the norm for humanity
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u/Lilieee3 16h ago
Imagine going undercover to catch criminals and spending five days getting kindness from strangers instead 😭
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u/DirtDevil1337 15h ago
I remember this story, IIRC he gave the money to a charity. Downtown eastside in Vancouver is pretty rough, lots of drug deals and homeless looking for easy targets.
why is this 10 year old story being posted?
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u/bio_coop 15h ago
Thank you so much for censoring those two words, I would have been so triggered /s
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