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Home / Albums / Tag Mark Ball 2
- ADAPT (156)
Rocky Mountain News Tues. Oct. 2, 1984 Denver, Colo. PHOTO (AP LASER PHOTO): A protester in a manual wheelchair and a puffy coat (Renata Conrad), screams as police force her arms behind her back. One uniformed officer stands behind her forcing her forward. One stands in front, his arms stretched in front. The third stands watching with his notebook in his hand and his pen or maybe a cigarette in his mouth. Caption reads: Washington police restrain wheelchair-bound women during protest at transit conference. [Headline] Disabled Denverites held at D.C. protest By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Fourteen wailing handicapped protesters, including some from Denver, were arrested here Monday when they used their wheelchairs, crutches and limp bodies to briefly blockade a national meeting of transit executives. Among those arrested were Mike Auberger, Bob Conrad, Mark Ball and Glen Damen, all of Denver. Richard Male of Denver, an able-bodied demonstrator, also was arrested, as were nine other protesters from New York, Texas, Illinois and Connecticut. The 14 were among more than 35 people who converged on the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association at the Washington Convention Center. They were fined $50 apiece for blocking a public building. ADAPT, a Denver-based militant handicapped rights group, raised an estimated $30,000 this year to send the protesters to Washington and to train disabled groups nationwide in political demonstration and lobbying techniques. Two of the protesters who were arrested and fined were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released. "The police got pretty physical,“ said ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank of Denver. "We had been causing civil disobedience all week. We expected it (the arrests) to happen. It was just a matter of when." Monday's arrests capped a year of growing tension between handicapped activists and transit officials over the issue of accessibility to the handicapped. “This is not something that we are especially proud of,"said ADAPT member Mark Johnson, as he pounded on the plexiglass door of the convention center with a wooden crutch. "We are here because there has been a resistance to us," said Johnson, who ran unsuccessfully for the RTD Board of Directors in 1980. Johnson said ADAPT is demanding that the transit convention vote to make all public transit systems accessible to the handicapped, that those systems only purchase buses equipped with wheelchair lifts, and that the Federal Government reinstate a regulation mandating accessibility. Convention officials said the demonstrators delayed their program for a few minutes, but caused no damage. Last year, RTD hosted the annual transit convention. Although handicapped activists picketed the meeting, their protests were less forceful. In addition, the protesters last year were allowed to address the convention, a privilege refused them this year. "They requested a slot, but we already had everything filled," convention spokesman Albert Engelken said. "There have been some problems. They (protesters) have been pretty aggressive." The demonstrators suddenly appeared at 10 a.m, just as hundreds of transit executives arrived at the convention center on a convoy of shuttle buses from their hotels. Washington police tried to block the advancing wheelchairs. However, they quickly became entangled with the front line of handicapped men and women and were outflanked by the rest of the demonstrators. Chanting "we will ride. it's our right," the protesters wedged their wheelchairs between the doors of the convention center. Many of them threw themselves out of their chairs and sprawled on the sidewalk to block the doors. Monday's demonstration was the third in a series of protests organized by ADAPT. On Thursday, a dozen protesters blocked seven Washington Metro buses in front of the White House during the evening rush hour. On Sunday, another contingent blocked a chartered bus carrying the spouses of 50 transit executives who were touring the nation's capital. After being trapped for an hour, the spouses finally crawled over the crippled protesters to get to their hotel. The protest overshadowed the speeches to the packed convention by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole and New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Dole abandoned much of her highly partisan prepared speech, choosing instead to repeat the Reagan administration's compromise offer for accessible public transit. "Transit authorities receiving federal funds would be required to make at least half of their peak hour bus fleet accessible, provide para-transit for special services or offer some combination of these options," Dole said. Both sides are cool to the proposal. Transit executives complain it will cost too much considering that only 5 percent of the country's transit passengers are disabled. Many disabled groups, meanwhile, reject Dole's offer because they say it endorses separate but equal service. - ADAPT (176)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS 10-17-83 PHOTO, STAFF PHOTO BY STEVE GROER: A short white man (Mark Ball) with a big afro and tinted, round glasses stands almost hidden, behind a podium with a large RTD on the front. Behind him are rows of other people, (all men), some in suits and ties, some with long hair. Caption reads: Mark Hall [sic] of Atlantis Community addresses RTD board at public hearing on agency's budget. [Headline] Handicapped complain to RTD More than 1,000 handicapped Denver bus riders cannot visit the Boulder Mall and other distant destinations by public transportation because the buses used by the Regional Transportation District on those routes cannot accommodate their wheelchairs, representatives for the handicapped told RTD on Tuesday. "It's a very touchy subject with disabled persons who feel trapped within the metropolitan area," Mark Ball told RTD directors during a public budget hearing. The hearing was the public's chance to discuss the agency's budget before it is adopted by the directors. Only a handful of people attended the 30-minute hearing. 'You’re going to have to come up with an over-the-road bus with a (wheelchair) lift," he said. “Boulder isn't very far for you, but I wouldn't want to do it in an electric wheelchair. Half asked the board to require that all new vehicles be equipped with lifts and other features for handicapped riders. In the past year, RTD mechanics have worked to improve the design of wheelchair lifts fitted to some buses used on busy Denver routes, officials said. But RTD assistant general manager Mike Smith said "there is not a high-degree of interest" on the part of bus manufacturers to mass-produce an over-the-road vehicle with lifts, extra-wide aisles and low ground clearance suitable for handicapped riders. The sensitive subject of handicapped access to public transportation will be raised again next week when representatives of ADAPT, a handicapped-rights group, will address the national convention of the American Public Transit Association at the Denver Hilton.