THE Montgomery Journal
The daily newspaper of Montgomery County, Md.
Thursday, May 18, 1995

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[Image caption] Demonstrators that blocked Route 29 for more than four hours are arrested by county police officers yesterday. Katherine Frey/Journal

[Headline] Nearly 100 arrested in health care protest
By TOM BERSON
Journal staff writer

Police arrested about 100 disabled people, many in wheelchairs, yesterday after an all-day protest that blocked dozens of people in-side a nursing home provider's headquarters in Silver Spring and tied up traffic on Columbia Pike for hours.

Police charged the protesters with trespassing and disorderly conduct after some members of the group Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today encircled a Manor Care Inc. building and blocked all entrances and exits, while others lined up across Columbia Pike.

It was the largest county police action of the year, but the number of protesters wasn't the only difficulty in clearing the scene. It took hours for police to figure out how to arrest so many people in wheelchairs.

Police had to drag and carry some of the protesters, who chanted, "We'd rather go to jail than die in a nursing home."

"We really don't want to arrest them," police spokesman Sgt. Prank W. Young said yesterday afternoon.

Group members said they had come from 28 states to meet with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in search of more Medicare funding for in-home attendant care programs.

When Gingrich refused to meet with them, they decided to ask Manor Care executives to sign a letter endorsing their proposal, which calls for diverting some Medicare funding for nursing homes.

"So much of the budget goes for nursing homes and not much money goes for in-home attendant services," Nate Butler, 43, of Baltimore, said. "The reason we're here is Manor Care is a major player in nursing homes."

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[Image caption] Brenda Hanna (right) of Topeka, Kans., and Shirley Klein of Charleston, W.Va., protest Medicare's funding formula. Jeff Taylor, Journal

Manor Care is the fourth largest nursing home provider in the United States, according to company spokesman Gregory Miller.

The protesters arrived at Route 29 about 11 a.m. to block traffic until they could get a meeting with Manor Care executives, said protester Bob Liston, 43, of Michigan.

Ten protesters met with Stewart Bainum Jr., chairman of the board and CEO of Manor Care Inc. for about a half-hour at noon.

Bainum said that the meeting went well and that there was agreement on several issues, although he did not endorse the letter.

"The nursing home of today is not the same as it was years ago," Bainum said. There is now much more of a focus on rehabilitation," he said.

"Over 80 percent of our patients go back home and lead productive lives for decades to come," he said.

Bainum said his company was sympathetic to the protesters and offered to lobby with the group for more overall Medicare funding.

Liston said he wasn't satisfied.

"We didn't get diddly," he said.

The group moved from the street to the doors of Manor Care. The protesters did not allow employees to enter or exit the building for hours, although some were able to squeeze out through the doors with the help of police officers.

Vicki Dobinski, a fiscal coordinator from Silver Spring, was able to get out, but then realized she had left her car keys inside.

"I don't disagree with the people or the cause," she said. "But not being able to get into my office, I'm a bit frustrated."

Valerie Williams, a graphic design-er from Silver Spring, also said she had nothing against the protesters. "They have every right to be angry and be upset and stand up for their rights," she said.

Some people stuck in the building were there for a health fair, and didn't work for Manor Care. One of them, Kandy Hirsch, a massage therapist, said she fell down struggling to get out and lost a $40 piece of her massage chair in the crowd.

"I don't have any gripe with their politics," she said. "I just have an appointment I'm going to be late for."

As the day went on, Manor Care officials began to complain that some people needed to get out to pick up their kids from day care, but the protesters wouldn't budge.

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[Image caption] Mary Hither (right) of Philadelphia and Elaine Kolb (second from right) of West Haven, Conn., voice disapproval of Medicare's funding formula. Jeff Taylor/Journal

"Whenever you're in a 'war' situation, and you take prisoners of war, you don't ask what they do," said George Wolf, 43, of Kansas.

Another protester likened the plight of the disabled to blacks be-fore the Civil Rights Act.

"We suffer from segregation just the way any black person did," said Lucy Gwin, 52, of New York, citing high numbers of disabled people who are unemployed or "shuttled off to a home in the woods."

While protesters chanted slogans outside the doors of Manor Care, others remained on Columbia Pike where they waved signs at passing cars until the road was closed at about 3:30 p.m.

The road closing backed up traffic for miles. One neighbor said she sympathized with the protesters' message, but said they were defeating their own cause by angering motorists.

"The traffic is unbelievable," said Margaret Kerr of Silver Spring. "This is a monumental disgrace. I told one of the protesters, 'I'm all for your cause, but I think you're alienating an awful lot of people."

More than 50 police officers were called in from all five districts. More than a dozen officers who had been taking a civil disobedience training class at the police academy at the time also were called in.

Traffic was blocked at University Avenue and the cloverleaf for New Hampshire Avenue as arrests began at 4 p.m. and continued through rush hour.

Students at five county schools were kept in class for an extra 30 minutes because buses were held up in the traffic, said Carolyn Reed, county schools bus operations manager.

Police spokeswoman Ann Evans described the logistics of cleaning up the scene as "a nightmare."

Police borrowed transport vehicles for the disabled from Ride-On and other county agencies to trans-port the protesters to the Silver Spring Armory, where they were to be given citations for trespassing and released. Others were processed at buildings and streets near the scene.

Because the effort was time-consuming and diverted manpower from regular beats, police didn't arrest anyone who left peacefully. Young said.

ایجاد شده در

سه شنبه 16 جولای 2013

فرستاده شده در

جمعه 13 سپتامبر 2019

آلبوم‌ها

• Baltimore - Washington DC, Spring 1995

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