The Cincinnati Post Tuesday May 20 -

Photo by Lawrence A. Lambert/The Cincinnati Post: A man (Jim Parker) in a big straw hat and a manual wheelchair sits holding a wooden structure on his feet. Beside him, on his left, a man with dark hair and a dark beard (Frank Lozano) kneels, attaching a folded manual wheelchair to the crossed wood. To his left, another man (Bob Conrad) in a power chair a jacket and an ADAPT shirt, with the access symbol and an equal sign in the wheel, points at what Frank is doing and looks off to his right. Over Bob's right shoulder you can see Bobby Simpson and an African American woman (Gwen Hubbard?) up against some police barriers; the woman is talking with someone. To their right and over Frank's head you can see another man in a wheelchair watching as a woman stands beside him. Over Jim's shoulder you can see another protester in a wheelchair. In the background is the cavernous black of the hotel entrance which is blocked by metal barricades and guarded by police.
caption reads: Three members of a national group protesting lack of access to public transportation prepare to lift a cross bearing a wheelchair into place today in from of the Westin Hotel as part of a demonstration. The three are Jim Parker, left, Frank Lozano and Bob Conrad.

Title: Activists ordered to leave
3 protesters awaiting trial
By Edwin: Blackwell, Post staff reporter

Three wheelchair-bound activists were ordered by a judge today to get out of town until their trials or face being jailed on disorderly conduct charges.

“This is ludicrous and unconstitutional," said Robert Kafka of Austin, Texas, one of the three. "We got on a public bus and so he is throwing us out of town."

The order came after a night when 15 other members or American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation pitted their wheelchairs against the steel frames of buses in a protest over the rights of the handicapped to public transportation.

The protesters rolled their wheelchairs into the paths of buses traveling 40 mph on Kings Island Drive in Warren County and carrying conferees of the American Public Transit Association to a reception. No one was injured in the protest, and no one was arrested.

Kafka and two other activists, George Cooper of Dallas and Michael Auberger of Denver, were arrested earlier Monday during a demonstration in front of the Westin Hotel, where the transit association conferees are meeting this week, and the U.S. Courthouse.

Kafka and Cooper were arrested on trespassing charges after they boarded a Queen City Metro bus that stopped at the boarding plaza in front of the Courthouse. Auberger was arrested for grabbing a wheel of the same bus.

They appeared in Hamilton County Municipal Court today and were told by Judge David Albanese to leave Cincinnati today or forfeit their $3000 bonds. A pre-trial hearing was set for June 26.

The three contended the order violated their constitutional rights to free speech but said they will abide by it. They are staying in a motel in Newport, Ky. They said they will discuss possible federal civil rights court action with their attorney, Joni Veddern Wilkens of Reading.

"I can’t believe it; this is America," Cooper said. “When you invoke law like it was west of the Pecos, before Texas even became a state . .. get out of town by sundown ... it's scary, it's frightening. I feel it's a basic infringement of my freedom to travel as an American citizen."

Cooper, a U.S. Air Force Korean Wax veteran, said it was the first time in ADAPT protests in half a dozen cities that any of its members had been ordered out of town. He said it was the first time they had ever faced actual barricades, as they did in front at the Westin Hotel Monday.

“I thought I came from the most conservative city in the country, Dallas," Cooper said. "We just can't believe this."

During Monday night's protest near the College Football Hall of Fame, Warren County police moved the ADAPT members from in front of the buses but made no arrests. Police had set up barricades by the hall earlier, but that didn't keep the protesters from roiling their wheelchairs onto the roadway.

“I remember flashing in my mind that these might be the first deaths of the civil rights movement of the handicapped," said the Rev. Wade Blank of Denver, Colo., co-founder of ADAPT. “Although I trained them, it just told me how serious it is to these people."

Members of the Denver based group say their action shows how far they are willing to go. The protesters want the transit officials to change their national policy on accessibility and Queen City Metro to have wheelchair lifts on all new buses.

Today ADAPT members continued to demonstrate in front of the Westin Hotel by hanging a wheelchair from a 10-foot-tall wooden cross to signify “the way APTA is crucifying disabled people."

Eleven Cincinnati police officers, including Chief Lawrence Whalen, watched but made no arrests as they guarded the hotel atrium and entrance from some protesters chanting “We will ride. Access is a civil right." Wade Blank said no further attempts to block buses will be made because the group does not want to inconvenience Cincinnati riders.

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Tags

ADAPT - American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, APTA reception, banned from the city, blocking buses, Bob Conrad, Bob Kafka, Bobby Simpson, College Football Hall of Fame, disability rights movement, Frank Lozano, free speech, George Cooper, Gwen Hubbard, Jim Parker, Joni Wilkens, Judge Albanese, lifts on all NEW buses, Mike Auberger, police barricades, public transit, Wade Blank, We will ride, wheelchair, wheelchair bound, wooden cross

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