Mayor Disguised As A Disabled Person In Social Experiment To Unveil Treatment By Social Services

Aug 22, 2019

Those of us who live in cities might need to guiltily admit that we aren't always the most compassionate to the downtrodden.

For many of us, we pass by dozens if not hundreds of disabled and homeless people during our morning commutes. While we know that many among us are suffering, we don't have the time or the resources to personally do anything.

One Mexican mayor decided that he wanted to be a true leader. Carlos Tena, mayor of the town of Cuauhtémoc, went undercover as a homeless man in a wheelchair. He obscured his appearance with a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses. Mayor Tena was inspired to do this after receiving complaints from the local citizenry that the homeless and disabled weren't being properly cared for by local agencies. 

“I was planning it for about two months,” he told Milenio, according to Mexico News Daily. “I decided to do it because I didn’t know who to believe, the citizens or my co-workers.”

Mayor Tena then began to wheel himself throughout town, stopping at all of the major agencies meant to help the downtrodden. As Mayor Tena went from agency to agency, he was shocked by the treatment he received.

He was denied a free meal that someone in his situation should have been entitled to and ignored by all the government workers he encountered.

Mayor Tena's final stop was his own office, where he asked to speak to the mayor. After being told that the mayor wasn't in, he requested to speak to the next in command. The mayor's support staff dismissed him and told him to leave. At that point, Mayor Tena stood up and angrily took off his disguise. Following the ordeal, Mayor Tena called for a meeting to describe his experience and express his disappointment. 

“I’m upset with the people who are working there and are getting paid a salary, that they treat the citizens poorly,” he said. “I made it very clear to them, I told them that I didn’t want to hear about them mistreating someone again.”

Mayor Tena is now implementing sweeping positive changes that will ensure that no needy person is ever treated the way he was treated while in disguise ever again. 

We think that more leaders and politicians should behave like Mayor Tena. He is the very definition of a public servant. Show this story to as many people as possible and perhaps we can inspire our leaders to behave more like this brave mayor.

Have you ever experienced or witnessed such behavior by the social services towards somebody who is disabled? Let us know in the comments below.