Toledo Blade 11/3/99

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[image caption] ASSOCIATED PRESS State troopers remove a man from his wheelchair during a protest in Columbus.

[headline] Arrests mark 2nd day of protests in Columbus

BY JAMES DREW BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS As state troopers arrested Bob Kafka, lifting him from his wheelchair into a van for those with disabilities, he shouted over and over "You're making a big mistake."

A half-hour earlier, Mr. Kafka, a national organizer for American Disabled for Attendant Pro-grams Today, had used a bull-horn to announce that Jacqui Romer-Sensky, director of the state Department of Human Services, had agreed to meet with ADAPT members.

It was a victory for the disability rights activists. For the second consecutive day, they had blocked access to a state office building here, banging on the glass doors and chanting slogans.

But the victory was only temporary.

At 3:29 p.m., after warning the disabled activists to stop blocking the James A. Rhodes Tower, the arrests began, as snow swirled around Statehouse Square. Troopers wheeled and carried the activists into vans along Broad Street.

The Highway Patrol cited 97 protesters for criminal trespass, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. They were processed at a state building and released, said Sgt. Gary Lewis, a patrol spokesman.

ADAPT members "from across the nation are protesting that the majority of federal and state funds for long-term care of the disabled flows to nursing homes and other institutions.

Scott Milburn, the governor's press secretary, said ADAPT members called Ms. Romer-Sensky and offered to leave the entrance to the Rhodes Tower if she would meet with them.

[pulled quote] Protesters were cited twice yesterday for criminal trespass

[text resumes] Ms. Romer-Sensky agreed, but ADAPT members did not halt their demonstration and time ran out as vans arrived to take away those who were arrested, Mr. Milburn said.

"We have 4,000 state workers in this building, and we have to get them out safely. The issue is safety and access. Any talk about meetings is secondary," he said.

Yesterday, security was tight at the Riffe Center, a state office building where 118 disabled activists were cited early yesterday for first-degree criminal trespassing,. State troopers took action after activists occupied the floors where the governor and House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson (R., Reynoldsburg) have their offices.

Yesterday, about 100 ADAPT members moved their protest to the other huge state office building on Statehouse Square, the Rhodes Tower.

Toledoan Mike Eakin was among the protesters in wheel-chairs who blocked the building's main entrance.

He said Governor Taft was making excuses to avoid meeting with ADAPT. Mr. Milburn said the governor had disarmed the group by offering late last week to meet, but ADAPT declined.

State troopers stood inside the Rhodes Tower yesterday afternoon to enforce a temporary restraining order that the governor's office received from a Franklin County judge.

The order said ADAPT members could not obstruct public access to state office buildings or interfere with the operation of state government.

A half-hour before the arrests, about 10 state troopers sprinted around the side of the Rhodes Tower and grabbed -a large wooden cross that one of the protesters held. "We were putting up our cross; I guess they don't like religion," said Frank Crall, an ADAPT member from Denver.

But Mr. Milburn said state troopers took the item because of suspicion it could have been used as a "battering ram."

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Thursday 18 July 2013

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Friday 6 December 2019

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