The Dally Sparks Tribune
Monday, April 10, 1989 - Vol. 77, No. 236 © 1989 Sparks Tribune Co.
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[Headline] Protesters, police clash at Nugget
One demonstrator hurt; 7 in jail begin a hunger strike

By Steve Timko -
Tribune Staff

Seven handicapped-rights advocates sent to the Washoe County jail Sunday night by Sparks Municipal Court Judge Don Gladstone are staging a hunger strike until they are free from jail.

And one member of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) that protested at John Ascuaga's Nugget Sunday said her knee was broken when a Nugget security officer accidentally hit her leg with a door.

Approximately 75 ADAPT members paraded down B Street and converged on the Nugget to protest the American Public Transit Association (APTA) meeting that is continuing through Sunday.

The transit association opposes installation of wheelchair lifts on new public buses and the disabled group sought a meeting with its leaders inside the casino to discuss the issue.

Nugget employees stood inside the casino doors, refusing to allow access to the ADAPT members. In response, the ADAPT members, most of them in wheelchairs, blocked the entrances to the hotel casino.

Meeting organizers said they would meet at 1 p.m. today at Western Village Casino to consider what form of protest, if any, the group should stage today.

"We‘ll definitely be taking an action, but we'll be discussing what we're going to do," organizer Stephanie Thomas said.

Forty-nine people were arrested Sunday and seven were sent to jail. ADAPT leaders said this morning at the Washoe County jail that the seven being held were staging a hunger strike.

Five of the seven pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges during their arraignment Sunday night in Sparks Municipal Court for refusing to give information that would allow them to be released on their own recognizance. They have trials set for next Monday.

One was cited for contempt of court by Gladstone and sentenced to two days in jail and another was sent to jail until he pays his fine.

ADAPT member Beverly Furnice, a cerebral palsy victim, said this morning she is finished protesting after her knee was broken Sunday. Furnice was in her wheelchair near the southeast door on the 11th Street side of the building when a security officer hit her leg, she said. She knew immediately it was broken, Furnice said.

“It hurt. I hollered, ‘It hurt my leg. It hurt my leg,'" Furnice said. She went to Sparks Family Hospital where they bandaged her leg, she said.

"l'm sorry to hear that," Nugget spokesman Parley Johnson said.

“We made every possible effort to ensure the safety of all involved," Johnson said. “However, if we have someone trying to get in, ...and we're trying to get the doors closed, what can I say? The person (trying to get in) is contributing to the problem.

"We could not allow the group to come in and disrupt our business and cause problems with our customers," the Nugget spokesman said. “And we have every right to do this."

ADAPT protesters are staying at Western Village and took their protest down B Street to the Nugget about 3 p.m.

Sparks police made some preliminary arrests and by 5 p.m. all of the ADAPT protesters had moved away from the casino doors.

But then at 5:07 p.m.,a phalanx of about a dozen in wheelchairs charged down Nugget Avenue between interstate 80 and the Nugget parking lot and the doors were again barricaded.

Just about every Nugget entrance seemed to be blocked at one point or another.

ADAPT protester Harlan Hahn of Santa Monica,Calif., was talking to a reporter when Pam Fyock of San Luis Obispo, Calif., who is also confined to a wheelchair, scolded him and other protestors as she left the Nugget.

“Just arrest them and haul their ass off," Fyock said of protesters. “They're inconveniencing all of us."

After Fyock's comments, however, a transportation association member from Denver said he supported the protestors in their efforts to require more handicapped access to public transportation.

“Based on my experience. we don't have problems providing access to the handicapped," said Kevin Sampson of the Denver Regional Transportation Department.

“In Chicago, they have hardly any (handicapped access). In Denver, we have almost 600. What the hell is wrong with Chicago?" Sampson said.

Hahn, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, compared the handicapped protests to the civil rights protests by the blacks in the 1950s and 1960s against being forced to sit in the back of the bus.

"Sparks is the site of a civil rights struggle that began with the Montgomery Boycott," Hahn said.

ADAPT protest organizer Stephanie Adams said the Sparks protest has been a little rougher than protests in other cities, citing Furnice's broken knee as one example.

"They don't usually handcuff us" when they are arrested, Adams said. Protesters were also pushed and kicked as they tried to enter doors, she said.

“Having people serve time for a first offense is not typical," she added.

This was the seventh straight year the disabled group had staged a protest at a meeting of the transit group.

PHOTO 1 (above) by Joanne Haskin: An African American protester [ET, Ernest Taylor] in a manual wheelchair is bent double on his lap, grimacing, as police officers on each side hold his arms behind his back.
PHOTO 2 (right) by Joanne Haskin: A police officer holds a bull horn to his mouth, and a clip board in front of him. Behind him the scene is crowded with several other policemen's heads. All are wearing caps with the Sparks police star logo on the front, and the officer in front has the leaf insignia on the brim.

Caption reads:
Protest arrests — Sparks police handcuff an unidentified protester (above), one of 49 people arrested Sunday afternoon when members of a handicapped rights group attempted to block the entrances to John Ascuaga's Nugget. The group was protesting the policies of the a public transportation group holding a convention at the Nugget. More than two dozen Sparks police officers, aided by the Nugget's security staff, attempted to maintain order during the demonstration.

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Tags

3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, APTA - American Public Transit Association, Beverly Furnice, blockade, broken leg, civil rights, confined, CP victim, Denver RTD, ET Ernest Taylor, handcuffed, Harlan Hahn, hunger strike, jail, Nugget Casino, security guards, Stephanie Thomas, Washoe County

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