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Főoldal / Albumok / Las Vegas, fall 1994 26
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PHOTO: A man and two women AHCA members walk down the sidewalk. The man looks at the ground, one woman looks straight ahead and one looks with concern to her right where the police barricades keep back the crowd of ADAPT protesters.
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Two APTA delegates, Herbert and Jerry, one smiling and one with a puzzled look, walk along a sidewalk, with a couple of other delegates hidden behind them. At the edge of the sidewalk a police barrier is strung and behind the barrier a huge crowd of ADAPT members are protesting. The ADAPT flag flies above the crowd.
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PHOTO Tom Olin: A young woman [Julie Farrar] in a manual wheelchair holds a small child in her lap. Farrar is yelling and has a large poster taped across her lap and her child (who is snoozing). The poster reads "Mom and Dad can't have sex in the nursing home." Someone is standing behind them.
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Metro LAS VEGAS SUN 3A a Friday, October 7, 1994 [Image] Woman (Earnestine Taylor) raises her power fist and mouth open in a yell. She is wearing numerous ADAPT power fist buttons. [Image caption] ERNESTINE TAYLOR, above, says she "fought like hell" to get out of nursing homes where she was placed after a stroke Now she lives on her own. [Image] [Image caption] Mike Eakin, right, 32, suffers from muscular dystrophy and lives at home with his parents. He fears ending up in a nursing home. [Headline] ADAPT plans protest at Hawaii convention [Subheading] Disabled rights group to fight for funds By Bob Shemeligian LAS VEGAS SUN This year's American Health Care Association convention in Las Vegas is over, but thoughts of next year's convention -scheduled for Hawaii - is already in the minds of hundreds of disabled demonstrators. "We'll be there (in Hawaii)," said Scott Heinzman of American Disabled for Attendant Program Today (ADAPT), who-like hundreds of other protesters-wore a lei around his neck Thursday afternoon. "ADAPT will be there," Heinzman said at a protest at the Las Vegas Convention Center. "If we have to hold fundraisers all year to pay for our trip, we'll do it." Mike Auberger, founder of the Denver-based disabled rights group, promised that many members of ADAPT will make the trip to Hawaii. "You can put up barricades, and those don't stop us," he said. "You can try for a restraining order, and that doesn't stop us. So 3,000 miles of water isn't going to stop us." Susan White, the mother of a child with a disability, said, "If I have to scrape tin cans off the ground, or auction things off, I'll be there in Hawaii. Sooner or later, AHCA will get the message." The message that ADAPT has been hammering home during several Las Vegas demonstrations is that the group wants AHCA to support a resolution calling for the reallocation of Medicaid funds from nursing homes to home care for the disabled. Officials of AHCA, a trade association representing nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, argue that the demonstrators are barking up the wrong tree. Instead of going after nursing home funds, which are already limited, AHCA officials say, ADAPT should work with MICA and lobby Congress for national health care reform. "We believe additional re-sources need to be made available," said Dave Kyllo, AHCA spokesman. But Auberger contends that it's unrealistic to expect Congress to come up with more money for long-term care, and it's up to the nursing home industry to change. On Thursday afternoon, nearly 300 disabled demonstrators sealed off every access to the Las Vegas Convention Center. "We've symbolically declared the Convention Center to be a nursing home to send a message to AHCA," said ADAPT member Robert Kafka. Metro Police officers physically removed 165 protesters from roadways and from entrances to the Convention Center. And again, for the third day in a row, scores of demonstrators were arrested, charged with unlawful assembly, and processed at a nearby temporary detention facility. But, it seems, nothing that AHCA officials say will change the opinions of the demonstrators - many of whom have spent long years in nursing homes. Claude Holcomb, a 34-year-old demonstrator, who suffers from cerebral palsy, said he spent more than a third of his lire in a nursing home in New Britain, Conn. Speaking to a reporter by pointing to letters on a board one at a time, Holcomb said, "I was in a nursing home for 13 years. I've been out 11 years. I never want to go back." Diane Coleman, who like Holcomb and most of the other demonstrators is confined to a wheelchair, said she lives in Tennessee, a state that is ranked second from the bottom in terms of funding for home care services for the disabled. "In the South, African-Americans had to use separate drinking fountains, separate rest rooms and separate restaurants," Coleman said. "We're forced into separate places to live. It's the ultimate form of segregation." Earlier a Metro Police official estimated the cost to police the demonstrations would top $100,000. Auberger suggested that local officials "go after AHCA" for the money. "The average nursing home makes a net profit of $670,000 a year," Auberger said "They (MICA members) are staying at the (Las Vegas) Hilton, and we're staying four, five, six to a room at the Union Plaza." AHCA officials dispute these figures. They say that the nursing home industry profit margin normally runs at 2 or 3 percent. [Image] ADAPT Marchers head up to the Hilton Hotel. This was AHCA's main hotel. The last person has a sign on the back of their chair that reads "I'd rather be in jail than die in a nursing home." A man, Zak Zakarewsky, walks beside. Caption reads: ADAPT members head for food and gaming at the Las Vegas Hilton after the protests. They had to leave their pickets behind. [Image] ADAPT MEMBERS head for food and gaming at the Las Vegas Hilton after the protests. They had to leave their pickets behind. PHOTOS BY STEVE MARCUS / STAFF
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ADAPT protesters stand in a parking lot, several are pulled up to the police barricades in the foreground and above their heads the ADAPT flag with the stars arranged as a wheelchair flies overhead. Brian Shea is holding a poster that reads "AHCA can't beat ADAPT's full house."
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[Headline] Protesters test mettle of conference-goers By Bob Shemeligian LAS VEGAS SUN [Image] [Image caption] The first protesters break through barricades Tuesday and into the Las Vegas Convention Center. Frank McNeal, left, of Denver carries a sign which sums up many of the protesters' desires. BY BRAD TALBUTT / STAFF Organizers of a national disabled rights group planned more local demonstrations against nursing homes today. But it will be hard for them to top their Tuesday afternoon actions at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 300 members of American Disabled for Attendant Program, many in wheelchairs, shouted at nursing home representatives from behind barricades and 44 were arrested as they tried to enter the convention center to press their demands. The demonstrators also hung a wheelchair from a cross in front of the convention center. "We're being crucified daily by AHCA," demonstrator George Zakarewsky of Philadelphia said as he helped raise the wheelchair. Zakarewsky was referring to the American Health Care Association, a trade association representing 11,000 nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. More than 4,000 AHCA representatives are attending meetings and seminars at the convention center this week. Many of the trade association members are staying at the Las Vegas Hilton. The protesters carried placards that stated: "Don't Gamble with Our Lives," "Nursing Homes - No Dice" and "You Can't Have Sex in a Nursing Home " Many of them chanted: "AHCA, AHCA, cut the crap. Time to face ADAPT." ADAPT members say they bear no grudges against the Hilton, the convention center or the Tag Vegas community. They say they are here to protest the "incarceration" of disabled Americans in nursing homes. ADAPT wants Congress to redirect 25 percent of $23 billion in nursing home funds to home care for the disabled. Activists argue that more than 1.6 million disabled Americans are being cared for in nursing homes, many against their will, and that this shift in funding is more practical and more humane. "AHCA would like you to believe that the nursing home industry is a 'care' industry," said ADAPT member Mark Johnson of Atlanta. "In reality, they represent corporate giants that profit off the needs of people with disabilities and their families at the expense of lives." Johnson said if AHCA would support the demonstrators' position on the reallocation of nursing home funds, the protests would stop. But Dave Kyllo, AHCA spokesman, said the association cannot and will not support that position. "We believe the issue of expanded home care for the disabled should be addressed through national health-care reform," Kyllo said. Kyllo said the demonstrators delayed some AHCA members on their way to seminars and caused other disruptions, but most trade members carried on. "It's been a long day," Kyllo said. The same was true for 120 Metro Police and Nevada Highway Patrol officers who were on the scene to direct traffic and curtail illegal acts by the protesters. Scores of Metro officers escorted protesters from the convention center to buses equipped with wheelchair lifts. The protesters who were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing were processed at a temporary facility within a quarter mile of the convention center. Metro Lt. Carl Fruge said some officers suffered bruised shins trying to grapple with protesters in electric wheelchairs. "These chairs are so powerful, they could actually break legs," Fruge said. Police officials said they are not happy with the manner in which they are being treated by the protesters. "When we met with ADAPT officials, we pleaded with them to give us an idea of when we would be needed, to handle staff changes on our side, and to keep the costs down for taxpayers, but they have failed to do so," Fruge said. ADAPT officials and members say their cause is a crucial one, and the Las Vegas community should bear with them. "The big issue is that nursing homes have a sugar daddy in Medicaid," ADAPT member Scott Heincman said. "Nursing homes are prison. They tell you when to eat, when to go to bed. They suck dry the human spirit." "I'd rather die than go back to a nursing home," said Monique Alexander, who has spent all but three of her 24 years in one. Lajuina Votaw of ADAPT said she once worked in a nursing home as a private duty nurse. "I've seen things from the other side of the fence," said Votaw, who is confined to a wheelchair. "There are people lying there in their own urine. They need to be changed. They lie there so long, they get chilled and sometimes they die I know what goes on in nursing homes."
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PHOTO: A mass of ADAPT people in a parking lot with many vans behind them. A line of people is emerging from the group and heading off, single file, to an action.
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MM REPORT PHOTOS by Alex Reininger: PHOTO 1 (background for the print article) shows two police officers holding back a black wheelchair activist's [George Roberts] motorized wheelchair. Roberts' face is grimacing behind his sunglasses and his arm is clenched on his joystick. His front end is tipped in the air and he has a poster across his legs that reads "Nursing homes = Jail." Behind him to the right is a group of two other police officers holding back in a wheelie another motorized wheelchair near some cars. Behind to the left, disability photographer Tom Olin is raising his camera. PHOTO 2: (inset next to the text) a photograph of a man (Clayton Jones) in a manual wheelchair with his neck kriptonite locked to a door. There are two posters taped to the glass door, above his head. One reads "Cadillac Care? NO! Independence YES!!" The other reads "$30,000/yr in a nursing home vs. $8,000/yr for at-home services." [Image] [Headline] The New Civil Rights [Subheading] The Americans With Disabilities Act has unlocked the door, now it's time to open it By Joseph P. Shapiro Photos by Alon Reininger The California breeze blew exceptionally warm that fall day in 1962 as Ed Roberts, as postpolio quadriplegic, was lifted out of his wheelchair, carried up a mountain of steps, and situated in Room 201 of Cal Hall at the University of California Berkeley. "It was a perfect day, a wonderful day, and exceptional day," says Roberts. "It was the first day of class, the first day of my freedom, and the first day of my life as a self-sufficient person." That same school semester Jame Meredith, escorted to class by U.S. marshals, integrated the University of Mississippi. "We both had to sue to get into school," notes Roberts. "The only difference: I didn't need soldiers
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PHOTO 1 by Jeff Scheid, Review Journal: Two police officers in a group of five lift a small woman [Spitfire] in pink sweatpants and a headband up from the street to her wheelchair. Someone with a camera is filming in the background. Caption reads: Las Vegas police carry away Eileen "Spitfire" Sabel of Philiadelphia, one of 180 protesters cited Wednesday for blocking Paradise Road. PHOTO 2 by Clint Karlsen, Review Journal: A man [John Hoffman] with no legs and only a short arm and finger, in a motorized wheelchair, lifts his arm in front of the ADAPT flag. This is like an American flag with stars arranged as a person in a wheelchair. Two people are holding the flag so it is fully spread out and a woman in a wheelchair is carrying it. Hoffman is wearing an ADAPT or Perish tshirt, goggles and a camo hat. Caption reads: John Hoffman of Austin, Texas, takes part in the demonstration to urge that more money be directed to help disabled people live on their own. [Headline] Disabled-rights group protest blocks Paradise Road travel [Subheading] Police cite 180 people near the convention center while a district judge issues a restraining order. By Jan Greene Review-Journal In a second day of high-profile protesting, a disabled-rights group Wednesday closed down Paradise Road near the Las Vegas Hilton for a few hours, prompting police to cite 180 demonstrators for assembling unlawfully. The protesters, many being arrested for the second time in two days, went along peacefully with Metropolitan Police Department officers specially trained to deal with people in wheelchairs. Meanwhile, a District Court judge granted a temporary restraining order barring the protesters from repeating Tuesday's actions at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where 76 people were cited for trespassing after they stormed the doors of an American Health Care Association meeting. That association, which represents nursing homes, is regularly the target of protests by ADAPT, Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. ADAPT wants 25 percent of the federal funding that now goes to nursing homes for long-term care of the elderly and disabled to go toward services such as personal attendants that would allow those people to live on their own. The nursing home association agrees there should be more money for home care, but that it shouldn't be shifted from nursing homes. This is the fifth annual confrontation between the two groups, but the first time the health care association has sought a court order restricting the protests. Wednesday's temporary order, signed by District Judge Nancy Becker, is a civil order prohibiting demonstrators from trespassing on the convention center areas being leased by the association, or from banging on doors or obstructing access to the convention. Today is the last day of the meeting. Association Vice President Linda Keegan said the order was obtained to ensure conventioneers' safety and avoid disruption, but allows ADAPT to demonstrate in a special area set aside in the convention center parking lot. Asked how the order could actually be used to stop or punish protesters, Keegan said she wasn't sure. The order says anyone violating it can be found in contempt of court. ADAPT regularly uses tactics that result in their members' citation or arrest to draw attention to their cause, which is to give people the opportunity to live away from nursing homes if they want. In Wednesday's protest, about 250 people, many in wheelchairs, assembled at the intersection of Paradise Road and Riviera Boulevard. Around noon, they moved into the street and blocked it. After about an hour of chanting and noisemaking, the Nevada Highway Patrol gave the word that the assembly was illegal because it was blocking a state thoroughfare. They gave people five minutes to disperse and then Las Vegas police moved in and methodically began arresting people. A total of 180 people were cited. Of those, 72 were cited in the street and 108 were actually arrested and taken to a temporary detention center before being processed and released. The event closed Paradise Road until about 3 p.m.
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[Headline] Protesters stick Metro with expense Bob Shemeligian LAS VEGAS SUN [Image] PHOTO by Benjamin Rusnak/Special to the Sun: A line of protesters span a broad street with palm trees on one side and large white buildings on the other. You can see signs for the Sahara and Cesar's Palace. The protesters, mostly in wheelchairs, have their fists raised and two have posters that read "Don't make me leave my home" and "my life is not for sale." Wynelle Carson, Kirstin ___ and Laura ____ are the three women on the right side of the line. Behind the protesters you can see a cluster of police officers. Two other PHOTOS by Benjamin Rusnak/Special to the Sun: One is the head of a man [AHCA's Willging] and the other is of the back of a manual wheelchair with a pink poster taped on it that reads "Are You Next?" Down the street a little from the wheelchair is a large group of police officers walking toward the wheelchair. Caption reads: Dr. Paul Willging, left, -executive vice president of AHCA, speaks Wednesday. Metro officers arrest ADAPT protesters while the sign on Billy "the Kid" Montalbo's [sic, should be Montalvo] wheelchair asks who will be next to have to move into a nursing home. Ironically, Montalbo [sic] was next to be arrested. One hundred thousand dollars. That's what Metro Police Lt. Fruge estimates it will the taxpayers for police officers to curtail illegal actions of disabled demonstrators who were protesting this week against nursing homes. At the latest protest Wednesday afternoon, nearly 300 members of American Disabled Attendant Program Today, in wheelchairs, blocked Paradise Road at Riviera Boulevard for three hours. The demonstrators staged protest in front of the Las Vegas Hilton, where more than 4,000 representatives of American Health Care Association, a nursing home group, are staying this week. The association, which represents 11,000 nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, is conducting its annual convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center. [Article continues] Metro officers arrested 108 demonstrators and transported them to a temporary detention center for processing. They were charged with unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor. In addition, 72 demonstrators were cited at the scene. Fruge estimated that over- [text cuts off] -strations and to charter six vehicles with wheelchair lifts to transport demonstrators who have been placed under arrest will top $100,000. "We try to be as fiscally responsible as possible, but we're in a Catch-22," Fruge said. "We cannot strip the field of demonstrations and be able to respond to emergency and trouble calls every day of the week, every hour of the day." Fruge said the department doesn't have contingency funds to cover the costs of policing the demonstrations. Questions about funding, he said, are "going to have to be decided by the city, county and the Metro Police Fiscal Affairs Committee." Police officials were happy about one thing Wednesday: There were no reported injuries or violent incidents at the protest. "I know we left a wake of frustrated motorists in our path, but what else could we have done?" Fruge asked. A few Metro officers suffered bruised shins during protests Tuesday. Some law officers, including federal ones, have said ADAPT members sharpen parts of their wheelchairs to inflict injuries. But Carolyn Long, ADAPT's Dallas organizer, said the group subscribes to nonviolent protest and that members do not sharpen parts of their wheelchairs. She said members do not intentionally throw themselves from their chairs. At the Las Vegas Hilton, ADAPT members taped to poles several signs stating "Fort Hilton." "We've renamed the hotel 'Fort Hilton,' " said Mike Auberger, founder of the Denver-based disabled rights group. "This is an appropriate place to hold our protest. AHCA can't travel through, and it's no different than the plight of a disabled person who is confined to a nursing home." Quinn Brisben, an ADAPT member from Chicago, said he walks with difficulty every day, and so he decided to help make it more difficult for AHCA members to walk on the day of the protest. "They make it inconvenient for us and we're making it inconvenient for them," he said. Brisben also has a bone to pick with the Las Vegas community "Las Vegas has absolutely no public benches, which afford people who walk with difficulty, as I do, a place to rest." ADAPT wants Congress to redirect 25 percent of $23 billion in nursing home funds to home care for the disabled. Sam Ackerman, a Chicago resident who volunteers his time to attend to the needs of disabled people in wheelchairs, said the issue behind the protest is dignity. "For me, this is part of the human rights struggle across the planet," Ackerman said. Diana Webster of Austin, Texas, asked, "I don't understand why AHCA doesn't let people with disabilities live in their own homes." Standing in front of the Hilton watching the protest was Paul Willging, AHCA executive vice president. Willging said AHCA does not prevent disabled people from living at home. Regarding the ADAPT charge that many disabled people across the nation are being cared for in nursing homes against their will. Willging said: "We would call that statement a lie. Federal and state laws are fairly explicit. You can't hold a person in a nursing home against his will." Winging said AHCA has been trying to negotiate with ADAPT to prevent the demonstrations, but the negotiations broke down Monday when ADAPT officials refused to budge on their demand that AHCA support a resolution calling for the redirection of 25 percent of nursing home funds to home care. "I think the leaders of ADAPT are doing a disservice to the disabled," Winging said. "Instead of being here, pushing a cause that's not achievable, we could be together in Congress lobbying for adequate funds to support long-term care (at home and in nursing homes)." But Auberger, as he was being arrested, shouted that Willging is being unrealistic when he talks about lobbying Congress: for more money for long-tern care. And Cassie James, a 38-year old ADAPT member who is forced to straddle a wheelchair facing downward because of scoliosis, said she understands why AHCA doesn't want to support ADAPT's resolution to voluntarily give up 25 percent of nursing home funds. [Headline] Groups agree on problem, not solution By Bob Shemeligian LAS VEGAS SUN Ironically, the American Health Care Association and the disabled rights group demonstrating at the AHCA convention here say they support the same thing: more funding for home care for the disabled. But it is the means to achieve this goal that AHCA and American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today do not agree on. ADAPT wants Congress to redirect 25 percent of $23 billion in nursing home funds to home care for the disabled. Activists argue that more than 1.6 million disabled Americans are being cared for in nursing homes against their will, and that this shift in funding is more practical and more humane. But officials of AHCA, a trade organization representing nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, argue that most nursing homes don't have enough money as it is to make ends meet. "We believe it's wrong to take money from one needy group and give it to another," Dave Kyllo, spokesman for AHCA, said this week. "We believe the resources are available to take care of the needs of the elderly and the disabled." Kyllo and Paul Winging, AHCA executive vice president, said AHCA supports national health-care reform, and so should members of ADAPT. But ADAPT members charge it's unrealistic to expect Congress to come up with more money for long-term health care. "We know and they (AHCA) know that new tax dollars to support health care is not going to happen," said Mike Auberger ADAPT national organizer. Auberger also said the profit margin it the majority of nursing homes in the nation increased by at least 10 percent from 1994 to 1993. ADAPT members say it's more cost-efficient and more dignified to care foi the disabled in their homes. They point out that trained attendants rather than more expensive nurses, car assist the disabled with many of the thing those who are not handicapped take foi granted. "If we stay at home, and receive visit: from attendants, they help us with feeding dressing and toilet," said Bob Kafka, as ADAPT member who lives in Houston. VOL 45 / NO. 109 LAS VEGAS SUN P.M. STREET THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1994 / 50 CENTS
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[Headline] Demonstrations cost taxpayers $100,000 [Subheading] Police ring up overtime patrolling the convention center, where the disabled have held several protests. By Jan Greene Review-Journal 6B Las Vegas Review-Journal/Friday, October 7, 1994 [Image] PHOTO by Jeff Scheld/Review-Journal: A police officer in a tan uniform wearing medical exam gloves and large belt with radio, plastic handcuff-ties, regular hand-cuffs, and other equipment, pushes a man in a manual wheelchair down the street in a long line of single file wheelchairs. Behind them is a long line of cars driving in the opposite direction. [Image caption] A Las Vegas police officer escorts one of about 165 disability rights activists arrested Thursday for blocking entrances to the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the protesters demonstrated against a nursing home trade group. Jeff Scheid/Review-Journal While disabled protesters spent a third day being taken away by police this time for blocking entrances to the Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot on Thursday — officials were tallying the cost to taxpayers of their demonstrations at $100,000. Thursday's protest resulted in about 165 demonstrators being removed and cited for creating a public nuisance by having an unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor. The group, Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, has been protesting the annual convention of the American Health Care Association, a nursing home group. ADAPT wants a quarter of the federal funds that go toward nursing homes shifted to independent living arrangements for the disabled. Part of ADAPT's strategy for gaining attention to the cause is appearing at the nursing home group's meetings, making a lot of noise and getting its members arrested. Local taxpayers will pay for that strategy to the tune of about $100,000, according to Las Vegas police Lt Carl Fruge. He said most of that cost is from overtime for officers called in to keep the peace and cite dozens of people in wheelchairs. About half the approximately 120 officers involved were pulled from regular duty elsewhere in the valley. The Metropolitan Police Department also spent taxpayer money to rent specially equipped buses, to get special equipment, to train officers and to have? a helicopter circle overhead for surveillance. The Nevada Highway Patrol also assigned 10 troopers to help divert traffic but didn't incur any overtime because the officers were switched from high-accident risk areas they normally patrol, said trooper Steve Harney. ADAPT organizers said the cost was minimal compared with the money spent on nursing homes, some of whose residents could live more cheaply with some help on their own. National organizer Mike Auberger said people wouldn't question the cost if the group were protesting, for example, the Ku Klux Klan. "We didn't come here because we wanted to raise hell for Las Vegans," Auberger said. "The reason we're here is the AHCA. Let them pay for it." Fruge noted the Culinary union has voluntarily paid the overtime costs for police officers responding to union protests at, for example, the Frontier and MGM Grand hotels. Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Jim Arnold confirmed the union pays those costs to avoid being "a burden on the community." Still, Arnold didn't want to criticize ADAPT. "They've got to do what they feel is right to get their point across," Arnold said. Everyone has a right to demonstrate." Overall, Fruge said the experience has been a good one for Las Vegas police officers, 120 of whom received special training in dealing with the disabled. Similar training will be made a part of the department's police academy curriculum, he said. Also, he said, the Police Department was able to prove it can handle a disturbance at the convention center. "The message is, 'This is a safe place to hold your convention,'" Fruge said. ADAPT leaders were also happy with the week. "Now people in Las Vegas understand the issue," Auberger said. "The value of that is very important."