The Daily Sparks Tribune:

Thursday, March 23, 1989 - Vol. 77. No. 224 @ 1989 Sparks Tribune Co

[Headline] Protesters plan to disrupt convention

By Faith Bremner
Tribune Staff

A national handicapped rights group says it will take over downtown Sparks next month and commit acts of civil disobedience to draw public attention to handicapped accessible public transportation.

But American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation's (ADAPT) specific target will be the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) convention at John Ascuaga's Nugget April 9-13.

In 1980, APTA successfully lobbied the federal government to drop a requirement that all public transportation systems that receive federal funds must purchase buses with wheelchair lifts, ADAPT co-founder Mike Auberger said. APTA represents about 450 transit authorities in the United States and Canada, including Citifare which is hosting the convention.

"Everything we do will be centered around transportation,” Auberger said in a telephone interview this morning from ADAPT's Denver, Colo. headquarters. “That's the only reason “we're coming to Sparks; We‘re not coming to the city just to inconvenience Sparks.”

Auberger said he expected about 150 ADAPT members from all over the country to show up during the convention and do things like chain themselves to city buses and block the entrances to the Nugget.

Sparks Police Department spokesman Tony Zamboni said the department is aware of the convention and of ADAPT's plans to protest. He said Sparks Police are in contact with other police agencies around the country that have dealt with the group.

"We are here to provide a service and we will protect these person's first amendment rights as well as anyone else‘s," Zamboni said. "We are prepared for the outcome of any situation such as this.“

Sue Hyde, marketing manager for the Regional Transportation Commission which oversees the Citifare operations, said her agency does not plan to change its operations during the convention.

Seventy percent of Citifare‘s buses are already equipped with wheelchair lifts and plans to purchase more, she said. Most of the buses that come into downtown Sparks have the lifts, but some of them don’t, she said.

“I don't think Citifare should have any problems," Hyde said. "If they block our buses they would be hurting their constituency." Since it was founded six years ago, ADAPT members have experienced 1,000 arrests — all at APTA conventions, Auberger said. "It‘s a varied group, we're all very experienced." Auberger said.

"The majority of the people have gone to jail a number of times and stayed in jail for a week at a time. "This is not a group that's afraid of the police. These people are willing to go to jail to make a point."

The point to all the demonstrations, Auberger said, is to make life difficult and inaccessible to the APTA conventioneers, just like it is for people in wheelchairs who can't get onto buses.

The organization also uses its demonstrations to make the public think about handicapped access to public transportation, Auberger said, even if the public reacts negatively to ADAPT's methods.

"(The public) doesn't have to like what we do or support what we do but it‘s important for them to think about the issue,“ Auberger said.

It‘s not easy to arrest someone in a wheelchair, Auberger admits. "We've had cases where people were taken out of their wheelchairs and their chairs were left behind" Auberger said. “If the police don't have a van with a lift, they sometimes lift the chairs right into the paddy wagons.

"The motorized wheelchairs can weight up to 300 pounds. It's not an easy process."

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Tags

ADAPT - American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, APTA - American Public Transit Association, arrest, Citifare Transit, Mike Auberger, motorized wheelchairs, police, protests

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