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ADAPT (444)
The Dally Sparks Tribune Monday, April 10, 1989 - Vol. 77, No. 236 © 1989 Sparks Tribune Co. 25 cents [Headline] Protesters, police clash at Nugget One demonstrator hurt; 7 in jail begin a hunger strike By Steve Timko - Tribune Staff Seven handicapped-rights advocates sent to the Washoe County jail Sunday night by Sparks Municipal Court Judge Don Gladstone are staging a hunger strike until they are free from jail. And one member of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) that protested at John Ascuaga's Nugget Sunday said her knee was broken when a Nugget security officer accidentally hit her leg with a door. Approximately 75 ADAPT members paraded down B Street and converged on the Nugget to protest the American Public Transit Association (APTA) meeting that is continuing through Sunday. The transit association opposes installation of wheelchair lifts on new public buses and the disabled group sought a meeting with its leaders inside the casino to discuss the issue. Nugget employees stood inside the casino doors, refusing to allow access to the ADAPT members. In response, the ADAPT members, most of them in wheelchairs, blocked the entrances to the hotel casino. Meeting organizers said they would meet at 1 p.m. today at Western Village Casino to consider what form of protest, if any, the group should stage today. "We‘ll definitely be taking an action, but we'll be discussing what we're going to do," organizer Stephanie Thomas said. Forty-nine people were arrested Sunday and seven were sent to jail. ADAPT leaders said this morning at the Washoe County jail that the seven being held were staging a hunger strike. Five of the seven pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges during their arraignment Sunday night in Sparks Municipal Court for refusing to give information that would allow them to be released on their own recognizance. They have trials set for next Monday. One was cited for contempt of court by Gladstone and sentenced to two days in jail and another was sent to jail until he pays his fine. ADAPT member Beverly Furnice, a cerebral palsy victim, said this morning she is finished protesting after her knee was broken Sunday. Furnice was in her wheelchair near the southeast door on the 11th Street side of the building when a security officer hit her leg, she said. She knew immediately it was broken, Furnice said. “It hurt. I hollered, ‘It hurt my leg. It hurt my leg,'" Furnice said. She went to Sparks Family Hospital where they bandaged her leg, she said. "l'm sorry to hear that," Nugget spokesman Parley Johnson said. “We made every possible effort to ensure the safety of all involved," Johnson said. “However, if we have someone trying to get in, ...and we're trying to get the doors closed, what can I say? The person (trying to get in) is contributing to the problem. "We could not allow the group to come in and disrupt our business and cause problems with our customers," the Nugget spokesman said. “And we have every right to do this." ADAPT protesters are staying at Western Village and took their protest down B Street to the Nugget about 3 p.m. Sparks police made some preliminary arrests and by 5 p.m. all of the ADAPT protesters had moved away from the casino doors. But then at 5:07 p.m.,a phalanx of about a dozen in wheelchairs charged down Nugget Avenue between interstate 80 and the Nugget parking lot and the doors were again barricaded. Just about every Nugget entrance seemed to be blocked at one point or another. ADAPT protester Harlan Hahn of Santa Monica,Calif., was talking to a reporter when Pam Fyock of San Luis Obispo, Calif., who is also confined to a wheelchair, scolded him and other protestors as she left the Nugget. “Just arrest them and haul their ass off," Fyock said of protesters. “They're inconveniencing all of us." After Fyock's comments, however, a transportation association member from Denver said he supported the protestors in their efforts to require more handicapped access to public transportation. “Based on my experience. we don't have problems providing access to the handicapped," said Kevin Sampson of the Denver Regional Transportation Department. “In Chicago, they have hardly any (handicapped access). In Denver, we have almost 600. What the hell is wrong with Chicago?" Sampson said. Hahn, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, compared the handicapped protests to the civil rights protests by the blacks in the 1950s and 1960s against being forced to sit in the back of the bus. "Sparks is the site of a civil rights struggle that began with the Montgomery Boycott," Hahn said. ADAPT protest organizer Stephanie Adams said the Sparks protest has been a little rougher than protests in other cities, citing Furnice's broken knee as one example. "They don't usually handcuff us" when they are arrested, Adams said. Protesters were also pushed and kicked as they tried to enter doors, she said. “Having people serve time for a first offense is not typical," she added. This was the seventh straight year the disabled group had staged a protest at a meeting of the transit group. PHOTO 1 (above) by Joanne Haskin: An African American protester [ET, Ernest Taylor] in a manual wheelchair is bent double on his lap, grimacing, as police officers on each side hold his arms behind his back. PHOTO 2 (right) by Joanne Haskin: A police officer holds a bull horn to his mouth, and a clip board in front of him. Behind him the scene is crowded with several other policemen's heads. All are wearing caps with the Sparks police star logo on the front, and the officer in front has the leaf insignia on the brim. Caption reads: Protest arrests — Sparks police handcuff an unidentified protester (above), one of 49 people arrested Sunday afternoon when members of a handicapped rights group attempted to block the entrances to John Ascuaga's Nugget. The group was protesting the policies of the a public transportation group holding a convention at the Nugget. More than two dozen Sparks police officers, aided by the Nugget's security staff, attempted to maintain order during the demonstration.
ADAPT (454)
The Daily Sparks Tribune Friday, April 14, 1989 [Headline] Last of protestors freed from jail The last of the handicapped demonstrators were released from jail Thursday night and both sides of the five-day confrontation said they accomplished everything they set out to do. Municipal Court Judge Don Gladstone said he is pleased with the Sparks Police Department's and the court's performance during the confrontation in which members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) were arrested 72 times for acts of civil disobedience on B Street. The Colorado-based ADAPT came to town to protest a convention held by the American Public Transit Association (APTA) held at the Nugget earlier this week. APTA represents public transit authorities across the country and it is against the federal government forcing those authorities to install wheelchair lifts on all their buses. ADAPT co-founder Mike Auberger said his group accomplished what it wanted to do in Sparks -— make life difficult for APTA conventioneers and raise public awareness for handicapped issues. “Like I said before we even came here, not everybody is going to like what we do but when we leave everybody will have an opinion,” Auberger said. “I can change opinions but creating opinions is the hardest thing to do. "Most people are so busy in their own lives that they don't have time to be very creative and to make that happen." Thursday night Judge Gladstone released the remaining 30 ADAPT members who were serving jail time for such things as blocking fire exits at the Nugget and for obstructing police officers. Their fines ranged from $10 to $600. Wednesday afternoon, the city attorney’s office worked out an agreement with the group's attorney to allow the protesters to leave jail if they paid $100 towards their fines and agreed to pay the remainder after they go home. The protestors also had the option of staying in jail and working off their fines at $25 a day. Thursday night, however, Gladstone dropped the minimum payment to $50 and lectured the protesters. “I told them they need to review their leadership," Gladstone said in an interview this morning. "Society changes. Methods used in the past to get a message across aren't necessarily valid today.” Gladstone said the Sparks Police Department did a good job of handling the demonstrators after they were arrested. The court also made the point that “regardless of your race, color or creed you are held accountable in Sparks for your crimes." “I think the city and the jail facility will be a model to the country for the reasoned handling of a major demonstration by a group that required extraordinary medical care," Gladstone said. Auberger agreed that Sparks Police treated the protestors with care. “I believe they worked very hard at trying not to harm anyone," Auberger said. “There was a real intent on their part to be as professional as possible." However, Auberger said he believes the police over reacted and arrested the protestors for petty things. “I suppose that’s because you need a strong police force to keep the gambling in control," Auberger said. “But that (show of force) gets carried out into a lot of situations that have nothing to do with casinos. "Unfortunately, that relays to tourists the image of a really heavy hand." Auberger also accused the Nugget security force of reacting violently to the demonstrators. One protester suffered a broken knee when a casino security guard pushed a door against her knee. “If we had been in Reno, it would've been a different set of circumstances," Auberger said. “We would've been dealing with corporations instead of an individual (John Ascuaga). “(The Reno casinos) have a corporate image to protect. l think they would be less likely to do the kinds of things (the Nugget) did."
ADAPT (458)
This article is continued in photo 451, but the text of the entire article is included here for ease of reading. The Handicapped Coloradan May 1989 VOL. 11, NO. 11 Boxed text in masthead: If you use a wheelchair and ever tried — or wanted -- to board an accessible bus in Detroit between Nov. 10, 1984, and the present, you owe it to yourself to read Justin Ravitz‘s story on p. 3. Photo: Man, in a dark suit standing against a white background with his hands in his pockets. He has dark hair and large eye glasses, a firm thoughtful look on his face. Caption reads: Mayor Pena tells UMTA officials they have a “moral obligation" to put lifts on buses. [Headline] Court grants transit rehearing In the wake of an often ugly battle with police, hotel security guards and the courts in Reno, wheelchair activists are heading for Philadelphia where the U.S. Court of Appeals has agreed to vacate its Feb. 13 decision to require all new buses purchased with federal funds to be equipped with wheelchair lifts. The case will now be heard by the entire 13-member court rather than the three judges who originally handed down the decision on a 2-l vote. The rehearing was requested by the Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice. Six disabled leaders had met with President Bush in an attempt to persuade him to call off the appeal. Bush didn't give them an answer at the time, said Wade Blank, one of the founders of the radical American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), "but it's obvious the President has no intention of taking our side." So when the court convenes at 10 a.m. May 15, scores of wheelchair demonstrators will be outside chanting, "We will ride," the battle-cry of the six-year old movement. At press time, demonstrators were planning on arriving in Philadelphia on May 12 and demonstrating in front of the Justice Department there, up to but not including being arrested. "That will come later," Blank said. On Saturday, demonstrators are expected to attempt to board city buses, crawling onto them if necessary, and to otherwise disrupt service until Philadelphia transit officials sign an agreement promising to provide accessible service. Then on Sunday, the day before court opens, demonstrators will don Revolutionary War uniforms and march from Independence Hall to the federal courthouse, led by fife and drum. The movement is at a crossroads, Blank said, pointing out that many of his fellow activists are afraid that the court will reverse its pro-accessibility vote when its decision is made known, 30 to 90 days from now. Many of those activists are reluctant to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court if they lose in the Court of Appeals, arguing that the high court has a conservative majority, “We might have to wait 20 years before we get a liberal court," Blank said. "Better we find out where we stand with the court right now and then decide on a course of action." ADAPT has had plenty of experience with conservative judges in recent weeks, according to Blank, who said he broke down and cried at the treatment wheelchair defendants received in the Sparks courtroom of judge Don Gladstone. Gladstone told demonstrators that their mass arrests had "tarnished" their cause and suggested that the group needed "new leadership." Blank said Gladstone's courtroom was a zoo. "He locked the doors and screamed at us." Gladstone wasn't the only person in Reno and Sparks who was upset with ADAPT, which was there to protest at a regional meeting of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) as they have done in 16 other cities over the latter group's refusal to endorse mandatory accessibility for all transit systems in the country. The police weren’t very happy, either. Some 72 demonstrators were arrested during the 5-day-long protest, with about half of that number going to jail. City officials estimated that the protest cost local taxpayers at least $116,000. Police estimated their costs of controlling the group at $79,275, while the sheriff's department, which runs the Washoe County jail, placed its costs at about $34,164. Gladstone said municipal court costs will run about $3,000. But it wasn't just the money that bothered city and county officials. "While (the police) are out there handling these individuals and you cal 911, the response times change dramatically,” said Sparks Municipal Court judge Andy Cray. Police Lt. Tony Zamboni said, "We understand these people have certain rights, but they also don't have the right to obstruct other citizens." Sheriff Vince Swinney agreed with Zamboni and also seemed a bit miffed that the media were playing up the plight of the demonstrators. "Somebody should realize this is what these people want to do," he said. "if they were treated like royalty, they wouldn't be happy. And the media is playing it up 100 percent. I really think that we who have been here and will continue to be here deserve some credibility." ADAPT organizer Mike Auberger, 34, of Denver, said that the Washoe County jail was not prepared to deal with housing 30 disabled prisoners, although sheriffs department officials disagreed, saying that extra doctors and nurses were on duty. Twenty-two of the jailed demonstrators staged a hunger strike, including one woman who was warned by a doctor that she would ultimately go into seizures if she participated in the fast. Another demonstrator, Diane Coleman, an attorney from Los Angeles, was taken from the jail at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning when she started vomiting. Coleman was taken to the Washoe Medical Center where she was given liquids intravenously for dehydration. Headline for part 2 of article: Reno protest turns ugly as judge lectures ADAPT ”Get new leaders. ” Blank said that three or four demonstrators had to be hospitalized when they returned home because of inadequate care received at the jail. For example, Auberger was not allowed to empty his leg bag and he went into hyper reflex, according to Blank. “His blood pressure shot up to 300 and nearly blew his head off," Blank said. Unable to place a call to fellow ADAPT members in Sparks, Auberger was forced to call his parents in Indiana to see about getting help. Ultimately, Auberger had to bail himself out of jail in order to get medical treatment. “That's when the police began telling other jailed demonstrators that their leaders were bailing out on them," Blank said. Demonstrators also complained that the police in Reno and Sparks were rougher than the ones they had dealt with in other cities, pointing out that more of them were actually handcuffed than was usually the case. Most of the demonstrations took place outside the Nugget Casino and Hotel, which was serving as APTA's convention headquarters. Some 700 delegates were staying there. Demonstrators attempted to block all the entrances to the hotel to show APTA delegates what it is like not to have access to public institutions, buildings and buses. One demonstrator, Beverly Furnice, said her knee was broken when a Nugget security guard hit her leg as she was wheeling up to the door on the southeast side of the hotel. Nugget spokesperson Parley Johnson said he was sorry to hear about Furnice. “We made every possible effort to ensure the safety of all involved," he said. "However, if we have someone trying to get in, and we're trying to get the doors closed, what can I say? The person (trying to get in) is contributing to the problem. "We could not allow the group to come in and disrupt our business and cause problems with our customers. And we have every right to do this." Judge Gladstone several times commented on how well the hotel staff and police handled the situation. “He's just a front man for the casinos," Blank commented. On the other hand, demonstrators had nothing but praise for Reno's Citifare public transit system, which has already made a commitment toward a 100 percent lift-equipped bus system. All Citifare buses bought since 1984 have lifts, and the system expects its nonaccessible buses to be phased out by 1996. "We're not fighting Reno or any other city," Auberger said. “We're fighting APTA." Less than three weeks later, demonstrators were doing just that again, this time in Denver, where ADAPT was founded in 1983, Some 30 demonstrators were arrested as they protested outside the Radisson Hotel, where the Urban Mass Transit Association (UMTA) was holding a national transportation conference. The next day, April 25, 40 demonstrators, 30 of them in wheelchairs, were forcibly removed from the Federal Building at 9th and Stout by federal officers. Demonstrators were protesting word that the Department of Transportation, of which UMTA is part, had decided to appeal the Court of Appeals decision. "We are tried of winning lawsuits and never getting them implemented," said protester Maureen O'Rourke. UMTA‘s Alfred A. DelliBovi disagreed with the original court decision, saying his agency supports letting each transit provider decide how to handle disabled riders. Earlier Mayor Federico Pena met with ADAPT and reiterated his strong support for their goals, a statement he repeated when he met later with UMTA officials. Pena was responsible for forcing APTA officials to allow ADAPT to address its national convention in Denver in 1983. That is the only time ADAPT members have been allowed inside an APTA convention.