[Image]
[Image caption] Police arrest Edith Harris, of Hartford, Conn., after she blocked and then hung onto the open door of a bus when it stopped on Woodward next to the City-County Building. UP Press

[Headline] 17 handicappers face charges after protest

By Jim Finkelstein
Free Press Staff Writer
10/7/86

Police arrested 17 handicappers Monday as the wheelchair users protested for the second day to get the attention of a transit convention meeting downtown.

About 85 protesters rallied outside Mayor Young's office Monday morning for wheelchair-accessible public transit, a protest they have brought to several past conventions of the American Public Transit Association.

Then the members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public transportation (ADAPT) tried to board city buses downtown to demonstrate the lack of lift equipment on several buses.

Police said the 17 were charged with disorderly conduct. Sixteen of the 17 were released on $100 personal bond. One protester was held because she would not give police her name or other information, according to ADAPT member Glenn Horton, 46, of Dallas.

An Oct. 24 hearing date was set.

Police said wheelchair users who were arrested were put on a van with an electronic lift and taken to police headquarters downtown. SEMTA spokesman Mike Niemann said SEMTA agreed to lend police a lift-equipped van, but he was uncertain whether police took the offer.

The bus-boarding protest ended around 2:30 p.m. after the arrests, said Molly Blank, an ADAPT spokeswoman.

She said the demonstrators were arrested for crawling onto the buses, blocking their doors or blocking the buses' paths.

[Image]
[Image caption] Keynote speaker Ed Bradley of CBS News said that after investigating ADAPT and its tactics, he decided he couldn't support the group.

[text continues] The protesters were meeting at the Day's Inn hotel Monday afternoon to decide their next move, said Blank.

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[image caption] Protesters in wheelchairs are arrested by police after they blocked a bus on Woodward near Larned in Detroit. UP Photo

[text continues] ADAPT members who lined downtown bus stops Monday, trying to board Detroit Department of Transportation buses, said they came from around the country to win wheelchair accessibility on public transit systems.

Free Press Staff Writer John Castine contributed to this report.

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Monday 31 July 2017

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