[Headline] ADAPT: Demonstrators continue protests

Jon Allen, a spokesman for Romer-Sensky, confirmed that the director had agreed to meet Tuesday afternoon. By that time, however, police vans were on their way.

"At that point it became a law enforcement issue, not an agency policy matter," Allen said. Allen said Romer-Sensky is still willing to meet with ADAPT members.

The demonstrators pleaded with the officers not to make arrests because a meeting had been planned. But the officer in charge told them he had received orders to clear the building entrance and arrest those who didn't leave.

"We were negotiating in good faith, and then the (officer) took it in his own hands and said there wasn't going to be a meeting," said Mark Mankins, a protester from Riverside in the Miami Valley.

Those arrested were taken to the R-Reynoldsburg Ohio State Fairgrounds, cited with criminal trespassing and released a few hours later.

Scott Milburn, Taft's press secretary, said the protesters have had a standing offer to meet with state officials since last Friday.

Milburn said the state is considering billing ADAPT for damages during the demonstrations. Those include two broken doors, a carpet in Taft's office and security costs.

The protesters still want to meet with Taft and with the House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg.

[pulled quote] "We were negotiating in good faith, and then the (officer) took it in his own hands and said there wasn't going to be a meeting."
--Mark Mankins
A protester form Riverside

[text resumes]
They want David-hearings on proposed legislation that would allow use of Medicaid money for home care rather than requiring the disabled to live in nursing homes.

Milburn said the demonstrations have now put any possible meeting between Taft and ADAPT on the "back burner."

Nearly 90 percent of Medicaid long-term care dollars are spent on nursing homes, with the rest being spent on home-based care, ADAPT officials said.

Despite a past bias towards institutional care, Ohio has been pursuing development of home- and community-based care for disabled people, Milburn said.

Bob Kafka, a national ADAPT organizer, said that by blocking access to the Rhodes Tower, members were declaring that the building was a "nursing home" for a. day.

"So they can feel for one day what people in nursing homes and institutions feel every day," he said. Kafka said the group has used similar tactics in other cities.

The protesters are likely to target another state building today.

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Четвртак 18 Јул 2013

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Петак 6 Децембар 2019

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2013:07:18 11:24:09

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