THE DETROIT NEWS / Tuesday, Oct. 7, 1986

Title: Wheelchairs block city buses
[This article is continued in ADAPT 279, but the entire text of the article is included here for easier reading.]

News Photo by Lynn Owens: View of a downtown city street. A bus fills most of the frame. In front of the bus two police officers stand on either side of a woman (Cathy Thomas?) in a motorized wheelchair. They are trying to pull her up the curb backwards. A man by the entrance to the bus stands watching.
Caption reads: Detroit police arrest a wheelchair-bound woman after she blocked the passage of a city bus

Title: Handicapped protest leads to 18 arrests
By Robert Ourlian, News Staff Writer

Wheelchair-bound demonstrators Monday flung themselves onto the steps of city buses and rolled in front of downtown traffic, to protest what they called the lack of public transportation for handicapped people.

At least 18 were arrested by specially trained police after efforts failed to keep the streets clear. But dozens of others were ignored.

"This town is crazy" said Bill Bolte of Los Angeles, one of the protesters. “You can’t get arrested here."

Bolte was one of several demonstrators who rolled up to a parked bus near Kennedy Square, dragged himself out of his wheelchair and wriggled up the bus steps.

The demonstrators, members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, conducted organized disruption actions throughout downtown Monday in a second day of protests aimed at a Detroit convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA).

The group, which traditionally stages protests in conjunction with APTA conventions, has showed up since 1982 in Los Angeles, Washington and Cincinnati. Members plan to remain in Detroit through Thursday. Monday’s demonstration began in the morning, when about 50 handicapped protesters jammed the hall outside Mayor Coleman A. Young's City-County Building office and chanted.

“We are here to express our outrage that a leader like Coleman Young of the civil rights movement would invite an organization (the APTA) that discriminates against disabled people into this city and, in fact, speak to them," said Bob Kafka of Austin, Tex. “Like speaking to the Ku Klux Klan would offend black people, well, speaking to APTA offends all disabled people.”

Some demonstrators were blocked from building elevators by security guards under the supervision of a dozen Detroit police officers. At least one elevator was shut off.

The demonstrators remained in the 11th floor hallway for more than an hour, finally leaving after being threatened with arrest. Two men met briefly with Fred Martin, Young's chief executive assistant.

(Please see Protest/4A; continued From page 1A Protest Wheelchairs block buses)

NEWS PHOTO / W. LYNN OWENS: Two lanes of a downtown city street are blocked by about six ADAPT folks blocking two buses. From right to left front to back the ADAPT folks are Mark Johnson, Rick James, possibly Bobby Simpson, possibly Jane Jackson? (wearing a hood, hard to see), Cathy Thomas, and one other behind her. Everyone is wearing warm jackets. The bus in the center of the street has an access symbol on the front, by the door. Rick and Cathy and the last person are sitting right up against the middle of the bus. On the sidewalk someone is standing with her chin on her palm. The street is otherwise empty.
Caption reads: Members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) block buses.

[return to article]

“Martin told us we were welcome to ride the city’s transit system,” said Michael Auberger of Denver, as fellow protester Arthur Campbell of Louisville confronted police while boarding a bus.

“We took him at his word and this is what happened,” Auberger said.

“It's obvious his word is worth nothing in this city.”

Demonstrations were staged throughout Sunday in Detroit and Dearborn, as protesters jeered APTA delegates at the Westin Hotel, rallied at Hart Plaza and paraded through downtown streets. Later, they traveled to Greenfield Village to try to block a scheduled visit by conventioneers.

Police escorts managed to sneak buses carrying delegates in and out through side entrances.

The protesters sparked debate last week, when city officials rescinded their parade permit on police recommendations. Later, civil rights figure Rosa Parks, famed for her role in instigating the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., withdrew from a planned news conference on behalf of the handicapped protesters.

THE 18 arrested protesters were arraigned Monday on disorderly conduct charges before 36th District Judge Adam Shakoor, who released each on $100 personal bond with the stipulation that they avoid arrest until their preliminary examinations, which he scheduled for Oct. 24.

Detroit Police Inspector Jerry Soli said the charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to 60 days in jail.

The arrested protesters were carefully directed to specially equipped vans provided by the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority and driven to Detroit Police headquarters for booking and lockup.

Soli said police faced no special problems during the arrests other than the obvious — the transport of a disabled person.

One veteran officer lamented that the situation is “going to make us look bad no matter what we do.

“Here we are locking up a bunch of crippled folks with no arms an legs. How do you think it looks?”

(News staff writers Bruce Alpert, Mike Martindale and Richard Chin contributed to this report.)

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Monday 31 July 2017

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• Detroit, Fall 1986

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1997

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