4A LAS VEGAS SUN

LAS VEGAS SUN
P.M. STREET
Wednesday, October 5, 1994

[Headline] AHCA tries to prevent protests
By Bill Gang
LAS VEGAS SUN

Having been besieged by ADAPT at its last three conventions, the American Health Care Association sought a temporary restraining order to limit this year's demonstrations.

But District Judge Bill Maupin declined to issue any court orders, stating that Metro Police should have an opportunity to control any illicit activity.

Maupin left the door open, however, to a court order if continuing confrontations require more intervention than Metro can muster.

AHCA asked the court to prohibit ADAPT "from interfering with AHCA's business or trespassing" at the Las Vegas Convention Center for its 45th annual convention and exposition that ends Thursday.

In an affidavit that accompanied the lawsuit, AHCA Chief Financial Officer David Long detailed how the ADAPT disruptions began with 75 protesters at the 1991 convention in Orlando, Fla., grew to 200 at the 1992 San Francisco gathering and reached 250 at the Nashville, Tenn., convention in 1993.

Demonstrators, Long stated, "stormed hotel doors in their wheelchairs, occupied and refused to leave private property and blocked entrances."

He said AHCA has had trouble negotiating contracts for future conventions and attracting conventioneers because of ADAPT's persistence.

The affidavit indicated that 5,000 AHCA members registered for the Las Vegas convention, filling 1,790 of the Hilton's 2,800 rooms.

Long added that AHCA spent $85,000 bringing Lee Iacocca and Dan Quayle to speak at the convention and $185,000 for Kenny Rogers to entertain.

[Image] Through the bars of a police barricade you see a man [Alfredo Juarez] holding his arms out and giving the thumbs down sign. He is chanting and wearing a T-shirt that reads Personal Attendants Now on an outline of the United States. Behind him you can see more protesters.
[Image caption] ALFREDO JUAREZ of El Paso,
PHOTOS BY BRAD TALBUTT / STAFF
Texas, chants, "Down with the AHCA."

[Headline] PROTEST
Continued from 1A
[This article continues from. Image 885. Please refer back to 885 for full text]

[Image] Seen from inside the vehicle, four police officers stand on either side of a person in a scooter-wheelchair backing onto a lift. Two cameramen are filming the scene.
[Image caption] POLICE LOAD a protester into a specially equipped CAT bus.

[Headline] Federal officers required
to curtail demonstration
By Rachael Conlin
LAS VEGAS SUN

Eleven federal police officers are stationed outside the Foley Federal Building this week to provide additional security in the wake of protests by ADAPT.

The U.S. Marshals Service requested additional officers after it learned that ADAPT members planned to include the Foley Federal Building as a protest site. Members have been known to sharpen the metal parts of their wheelchairs and ram into police officers, and throw themselves from wheelchairs and then sue.

The 11 officers brought in from San Francisco and Los Angeles are part of the
U S. Federal Protection Service. There are no federal police officers based permanently in Las Vegas.

In 1987, about a dozen San Francisco police officers were injured when demonstrators rammed their wheelchairs into their legs, said District Commander Michael Jentoft of the protection service.

"And the group has gotten more militant since then," he added.

A few Metro Police officers suffered bruised shins during altercations with activists Tuesday, according to a spokesman.

ADAPT was founded in the 1970s and was instrumental in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires equal access to disabled people, Jentoft said.

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Tuesday 16 July 2013

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Friday 13 September 2019

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