[image]
[image caption] Members of ADAPT, a disability-rights activist group, take over the 14th floor lobby in the Riffe Center. About 200 members protested on two floors of the building yesterday, seeking a meeting with the governor and criticizing Ohio's funding of community-based services for the disabled. Grace Beahm/Dispatch

[Headline] Daylong protest turns into standoff

[Subheading] Disability-rights activists came to support a bill that would give more independent-living options.

By Matthew Marx, Connie A. Higgins and Kevin Kidder
Dispatch Staff Reporters

State troopers early this morning continued to clear the Riffe Center of most of the hundreds of members of a national disability-rights activist group that occupied portions of the building throughout the day.

As of about 12:50 a.m., 41 protesters had been charged with one count each of criminal trespassing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

None of those charged was taken to jail. All were ordered to appear Monday in Franklin County Municipal Court.

Everyone charged is from out of state and a member of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, an activist group with chapters in 39 states.

Several dozen protesters, most in wheelchairs, were removed--carried, wheeled or pushed--from the building. One man fell from his wheelchair and appeared to shake until picked up. Information about him wasn't available, though paramedics weren't called.

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[image] Larry Biondi of Chicago handcuffed himself to a door in the building during the protest.

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Troopers wore surgucal masks, rubber gloves, and goggles as they dealt wuth the crowd. Sgt. Gary Lewis of the State Highway Patrol said the gear was worn because some of the protesters had urinated on the floors.

Some of the protesters said they weren't allowed to use restrooms, which Lewis sais was untrue. "There was nothing that prohibited their access to use any of the public restrooms."

As troopers cleared people from the building early this morning, it marked about the 15th hour that the protesters had been in portions of the Riffe Center.

At one point yesterday, more than 450 protesters lined the State Street entrance of the Riffe Center, 77 S. High St., and positioned themselves in the lobbies of two floors.

It started at about 9:30 a.m., when the group asked for a meeting with Gov. Bob Taft.

"We came here today in good faith, and we plan to stay here as long as it takes," said Mike Oxford, a member of the activist group.

But Lewis told the group that members would be charged when the building closed for the day.

"The building closes at 6 p.m., and as of 6:01 they'll be trespassing and arrests will be made," Lewis said of the protesters.

The group's organizers said they are in Columbus to support House Bill 215--legislation that would give people with disabilities more independent living options.

They are expected to be in town through Thursday for a national conference at the Hyatt on Capitol Square.

The state obtained a temporary restraining order late last night that restricts the protesters' access to all state buildings, Taft spokesman Scott Milburn said.

"We need to keep these buildings open so the people of Ohio can conduct their business," he said.

The order keeps activists from blocking access to state buildings and allows five at a time to protest on the 14th and 30th floors of the Riffe Center.

Hundreds of the protesters had gathered on those floors because the office of Ohio House Speaker JoAnn Davidson is on the 14th floor and Taft's office is on the 30th.

"We would like to sit down with Gov. Taft and explain the importance of what it means to live in your own home and what freedom and dignity it gives to people when they have control of their lives, opposed to someone else," said Mike Auberger, a co-founder of the organization based in Denver.

He said that Ohio is one of the 10 worst states in regard to spending dollars on community-based services for the disabled.

Auberger also said that Ohio and other states force those with disabilities to live in nursing homes or state institutions by pouring state and federal funding into those institutions.

"Ohio spends 89 cents on institutional services such as nursing homes and state institutions and 11 cents per person on community-based services," he said.

State officials countered, saying that from 1992 to 1998, the number of people receiving home and community care grew by 200 percent and that the number of people in nursing homes grew by only 6 percent.

Milburn said the governor sent a letter to the organization last week to welcome it to Columbus.

Taft was interested in talking to members of the group, but a hectic schedule this week is making that difficult, Milburn said.

"We're going through significant lengths to arrange his schedule so he can meet with them sometime this week," he said.

The protesters chanted and held signs that read: "Real Choice, Real Freedom" and "Taft wants to keep us locked up, why?"

State workers maneuvered through wheelchairs at doors and elevators that blocked the way. At one point, security officials directed people to use the stairs.

Lewis said more than 40 troopers were on hand.

He said the Riffe Center also received a bomb threat at about 1 p.m., but the patrol's canine unit found nothing.

He said the building was not evacuated, but state officials allowed some workers to leave at 3 p.m.

Bertha Coward drove from Washington, D.C., with her quadriplegic son, Bobby, who yesterday was holed up on the 30th floor.

"I'm all ready with the bail money. I've got it right here," she said of expecting his arrest.

The two attended a protest this summer on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.

"I don't mind him being arrested, as long as it's for a cause," she said.

Coward said she had thought yesterday's protest would produce a compromise quickly. "I thought we'd be here for an hour. All we wanted was a little meeting."

Toledo native Roh Ford, clad in his red group T-shirt, stood outside the Riffe Center lobby.

"It's our whole lives being affected," he said. "But obviously, they haven't scheduled a meeting."

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Thursday 18 July 2013

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Friday 6 December 2019

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