[Title] 97 arrested at hotel
Photos by Nina Alexandrenko, staff: Four police officers, two in uniform and two plain clothes, carry a man (Frank Lozano) by his arms and legs, away from a large columned building (Opryland hotel). All you see is Frank's head and shoulders because he is in a lying position.

[Caption reads:] Metro police Officers Don Adcox and Terry Maracle carry ADAPT demonstrator Frank Lozano of Las Cruces, N.M.. from the Opryland Hotel.

[Second photo] Two people in wheelchairs sit facing away in aisles leading to doors. They are touching hands through a barrier, and in front of Cathy is what looks like chains.

[Caption reads] Protesters Cathy Bruce, left, and Doug Chastain shake hands after stopping Opryland Hotel security officers and Metro police from moving them away from the hotel entrance.

Second title: Rights group for disabled leads protest
By TIMOTHY CORNELL and TINI TRAN, Staff Writers

A police helicopter buzzed over the Opryland Hotel, roads to it were closed and more than 130 officers surrounded hundreds of shouting, spitting, chanting demonstrators yesterday calling attention to the need for in-home health care for the disabled.

Ninety-seven demonstrators, many in wheelchairs and all members of Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, ADAPT, were arrested for criminal trespass alter they stormed the hotel in frustration when a
scheduled meeting with American Health Care Association officials fell through. The association is holding its 44th annual convention, involving about 4,000 participants, at the hotel.

Protesters rushed the hotel's front entrance while a team of off-duty Metro police officers frantically tried to chain the doors. About 14 angry demonstrators in wheelchairs made it inside, struggling with police and cursing at guests.

Some jumped out of their chairs and tried to slide on the ground to get inside the doors. One protester, who was not in a wheelchair, jumped on detective Stan Marlar's back as he tried to chain the doors.

Marlar quickly removed the man, said Capt. Henry Rogers, who directed off-duty officers inside the hotel. The protester then ran away and was not caught, Rogers said.

AHCA officials had originally agreed to meet with the protesters at the Ramada Inn across from the Opryland Hotel yesterday afternoon, but they backed off, after encountering demonstrators in the Ramadas parking lot.

"It probably would have gotten into a chanting, shouting thing in the parking lot," said Claudia Askew, spokeswoman for AHCA. "I think they came here to protest."

When they heard they were not going to meet, the protesters moved to the Opryland Hotel.

Demonstrators were trying to reach the AHCA's convention area inside the hotel, but none did, police said.

Instead, they were systematically arrested, booked, and hauled off in buses equipped to handle wheelchairs by police and Opryland security guards. One demonstrator, Quinten Williams of Detroit, was taken to a hospital after a scuffle with police.

The arrested protesters were taken to a Corrections Corporation of America building off Harding Place, which was set up as a makeshift night court. Bond was set at $1,000-$1,500. Demonstrators said before the attests they intended to make bail and be released.

An additional 150 protesters gathered at the hotel's driveway entrance, blocking traffic into the area.

Several demonstrators threatened a similar protest at tonight's Country Music Association Awards at the Opry House.

"It shouldn't be comfortable for any hotel to have" AHCA people, said Michael Auberger, co-founder of ADAPT. "Business can't go on as usual. We're saying we won't let this continue without disruption. With the CMA tomorrow, its certainly the way to put the message out to them."

Metro police and Opryland security said they would keep officers on the grounds to prevent protests from happening again. Opryland officials also obtained a temporary restraining order against the group last night.

Opryland spokesman Tom Adkisson said he felt both the hotel's and the city's reputation were damaged by the protests:

"Nashville doesn't deserve a black eye for this incident. We offered them options, and they didn't avail themselves of It. This whole situation Is regrettable, uncomfort- [type is cut off in this scanned image]"

[text continues] now go to nursing homes to be reallocated for in-home healthcare needs. AHCA agrees with the concept of more in-home care, but doesn't want to take Medicaid funds from nursing-home patients to do it.

"It's just a few simple things we're asking for. It's disgusting," said ADAPT members Irene Norwood of Chicago.

The demonstrators had come from across the country to protest at the AHCA convention. Many of them have experience from other demonstrations.

"We know that getting arrested is a possibility. Every who [text is cut off in this scanned image]

was canceled. When the protest ended, 97 ADAPT members had been arrested.

The protest exploded after AHCA rescheduled a 3 p.m. meeting with ADAPT representatives to 3:45 p.m. and moved it from the Opryland Hotel across the road to the Music Valley Ramada Inn. Then the health care association's president and vice president were substituted for the executive committee and ADAPT was forbidden to bring the 50 members it wanted--one from each state. The group instead was limited to six representatives.

"This is us bending over backwards to accommodate you," Auberger told AHCA spokeswoman Claudia Askew. "If the issue was important to you, you'd get the executive committee over here and meet with us in the parking lot.

"You lied to us," he said, adding there would be no meeting so long as AHCA remained inflexible.

Askew countered that the disabled-rights activists really just wanted to protest and that her group wanted the meeting. And, she added, there were no lies.

"It, unfortunately, may have appeared that way," she said, "but we didn't lie to them."

But ADAPT believed they did. Group members waited in the Ramada Inn parking lot until 4 p.m., hoping Askew would get the AHCA's executive committee to meet with them. She didn't.

"It doesn't look like there's go- ing to be a meeting here," Auberger said. "If there's no meeting here, we're going to go make a meeting."

And at 4 p.m., the wheelchairs rolled, spilling out onto Music Valley Drive and crossing McGavock Pike at the entrance to the Opryland Hotel. Opryland security personnel waited in the driveway, determined to stop any wayward protesters from entering the property.

The mass of protesters, most rolling, some walking, split at hotel driveway, some going left, some going right, lining up in what appeared to be the beginning of a peaceful, lawful protest.

But then a huge group rushed from the center and charged the Opryland Hotel.

[Subheading] Protester hurt
Quentin Williams, 38, of Detroit was at the front of the group. His effort was stopped when an unidentified Opryland security guard from the hotel, tossed him from his wheelchair, causing his head to hit the pavement.

Williams lay on the pavement, blood pouring from the side of his head, while Opryland security guards chased other protesters. Bystanders helped Williams back into his chair, and he was transported to Memorial Hospital to be treated for lacerations to the head.

Despite guards' efforts, almost 100 protesters reached the front of the building. Security staff managed to close the doors — one was broken down in the process — and keep most of the protesters outside. Chains went up, doors were locked, and huge buses were parked at the entrance to the hotel, essentially barricading the place.

"We wouldn't be here if they weren't here," Auberger said, referring to AHCA.

At the front door, protesters chanted and refused to leave.

"We didn't come here to beat up on Nashville. But we're not going to let them do business as usual. Their convention is not going to be fun," Auberger said.

Metro police, after complaints from the hotel, took over. Each protester was asked to leave and, if the protester refused, was arrested. Police used techniques learned in the classroom last week to subdue the protesters without a
single injury, said Don Aaron, Metro police spokesman. No police officers were injured, either.

Those arrested were loaded onto buses and taken to the Metro Detention Facility at DeBerry, where they were booked. All were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing.

Banner Staff Writer Steve Cavendish contributed to this report.

[Subheading] Few pleased with security

For all of Opryland's efforts to keep protesters away from its guests weren't too pleased.

"I expect to see tanks and armored cars out there next," said Frank Linden, a nursing home director from York, Pa.

"They're coming out here with helicopters and paddy wagons, and, find for what?" he asked. "Where are they going to go? Don't they have a right to say what they want to say?"

Linda Lippiatt, another nursing home association member from York, said the protesters had some valid points to make and that more people should be cared for at home.

But the protesters' complaint should not be with the
association, she said:

"It's all part of a lousy health-care system. It's a problem, and not just for them."
Another guest, Jim Hawkins, from Dayton, Ohio, said he had wanted to go outside to hear what the protesters had to say, but was blocked by Opryland security guards:

"They won't even let us hear them. This is just outrageous."
--TIMOTHY CORNELL

Created on

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Posted on

Tuesday 4 February 2020

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