[Headline] ADAPT Pushing Detroit Forward
By Beverly Safford

On October 6, 1986, an active, disciplined and effective civil rights movement came to town. Members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) arrived in Detroit to protest and demonstrate against the inaccessibility of public transportation for the disabled. Their primary target of protest and demonstration is the American Public Transit Authority (APTA) which was having a convention in Detroit over the weekend of October 6-8, 1986.

APTA is a trade organization with a history of being a door closer to the civil rights of the disabled: APTA, in a dispute with the Caner Administration rules requiring city transit systems to equip up to one halt of their buses with wheelchair lifts, took the Department of Transportation to Court over its rules implementing the non-discrimination provisions of the Rehabilitation Act. The Court held for AMA's position of a "local option" — hitting local transit systems decide what is "best" for the disabled people in their communities.

[Subheading] Detroit's Transit History

In Detroit, public transportation has historically bee' dewed as the enemy of the auto industry. Accordingly a conscious or unconscious decision has been made that its "besi" for Detroit's disabled community not to consort with the enemy.

Public transportation tar the disabled is all but non-existent in this community. We have seen or heard of the stories of the disabled crawling up the steps of city buses because there isn't a wheelchair lift or it doesn't work. While Denver and all of California require all new buses to be wheelchair accessible, Mayor Young proudly asserts that GE the 100 new Detroit buses, 20 are accessible to the disabled. He fails to mention that the City is unwilling or unable to repair the lifts that have become non-functional.

Mayor Young, through an aide, suggested that the ADAPT members try out the new buses. The ADAPT members allege they could find no buses in Downtown Detroit that could accommodate the disabled.

On October 6, 1986, they were arrested while engaged in the civil dis-obedience protest of climbing, en masse, up the steps of unaccessible buses and blocking their paths with wheelchairs and 'bodies. The Detroit Police Department has a wagon which has a working wheelchair lift. 150 dis-abled members demonstrated, 18 were arrested and subsequently released on $1,000.00 personal bonds.

On October 7, 1986, 37 were arrested for continued peaceful protests, this time for trying to talk to folks in the Federal Building. There is a dispute as to the nature of the October 7th demonstrations. Several of the arrested wheelchair defendants state that they were ordered to disburse, but could not get out of the corridors of the Federal Building because of the limited facilities for wheelchair access. The 18 who were on personal bonds after the October 6th demonstrations were given $1,000.00 which they could not post; the remainder were released on personal bond. 13 cots of the 18 held on the 7th were confined to wheelchairs.

The Detroit Chapter of the Nat boreal Lawyers Guild,. through the ePtorts oaf its president, Kathleen A. Gmeiner, head pre-arranged attorneys on call for any emergency legal representatIon necessary for ADAPT.

[Subheading] ADAPT at 1300 Beaubien

At 9:00 p.m., October 7, 1986, I received a call from Gmeiner to go to the Detroit Police Station at 1300 Beaubien to confirm the conditions under which the City of Detroit was holding the wheelchair bound prisoners. The allegations were that the 13 wheelchair bound prisoners were being held in the police gym at the 1300 Beaubien police station; they were not given medical attention, beds, heat, wheelchair accessible toilet facilities or catheters.

When I arrived at the station at about 9:30 p.m., the station was surrounded by protesters in wheelchairs shouting "Let them go" and 'We will ride." As I entered the police station, the officers in charge communicated one over-riding concern: they wanted to get rid of the prisoners. At the time, it seemed facilitating. In retrospect, it seems offensive.

I was escorted to the police department gym on the second floor. A system was immediately set up to dis-tribute the maintenance medicine necessary for the 13 wheelchair prisoners; an inventory of the situation was begun.

We were in a large gym under the following conditions:

No heat, though the temperature was below 50 degrees, three large windows were broken out, and the wind was carrying the protesters' voices into the jail/gym.

No wheelchair accessible bathrooms,
and the porta-john that the prisoners were required to use had become very soiled because it could not accommodate the needs of the prisoners; several of the prisoners waited up to five hours for a sterilized catheter; no place to wash their hands after using the porta-john and/ or before using the catheter.

No medical supervision.

No intention of providing beds, because of a prevailing assumption by the police department that the prisoners were in a chair therefore they didn't need a bed, although many of the prisoners were in pain From their confinement to their wheelchairs.

After a period of time necessary to identity each prisoner and determine specific medical and comfort needs, one final encroachment of reality: the wheelchairs of the 13 prisoners were running out of power. Without specific battery rechargers, the 13 wheelchair prisoners were rapidly becoming totally immobile.

Several phone calls later — the police instantly supplied me with a desk and trim-line phone — Neal Bush, &wine,- and Milton Henry directed my calls to Judge Roberts of Recorder's Court. The judge considered the physical reality of the conditions of the incarceration and the charges which brought the arrests. He readily offered to sign a writ of habeas corpus, on the condition that the prisoners must agree not to demonstrate until the 11:00 a.m. bond reduction hearing the following morning.

I presented this otter to the 13 prisoners, who were cold, tired, often in pain and lacking appropriate medical attention. They informed me they needed to seriously discuss this matter.

[Subheading] A Considered Response

For one hour they discussed the con-sequences, good and bad, of accepting this offer. The 13 wheelchair bound prisoners assembled in a circle. Each consideration was heard and each position was respected. They encouraged the least verbal to express their opinion; everyone spoke. When necessary members of the circle repeated what they heard to clarify what was said.

Two of the concerns which the group considered were: it they accepted the otter, would they be sending the message that it is OK for Detroit to he unable to accommodate the disabled in jail? Perhaps it they stayed, the system would have to address their needs. Several of the group mentioned that other group members were in extreme pain from the cold and being confined to their wheelchairs.

A consensus was reached. They would agree to leave the jail it, and only it, the live ambulatory prisoners housed elsewhere — were also released. They would show up in court the next morning; the issue of midnight civil disobedience was moot.

Through various and sundry background phone calls, about midnight, Judge George Crockett, Ill, Recorder's Court Judge, came to the station. Shortly after, Justin Ravitz, Detroit Guild members and former Judge Of Recorder's Court, came walking into the station with a writ in hand.

Judge Crockett held an emergency hearing in the police gym. The station thoughtfully turned on the heat prior to the judge entering the gym. By 2:00 a.m. all parties were released on agreement to return to court in the morning.

The following morning, on motion Ravitz, the $1,000.00 cash bond was reduced to $100.00 personal bond by Judge Crockett, Ill. Their on-going representation will be handled by Ravitz and Bush.

As the ADAPT members wheeled out of Judge Crockett's court room, they excitedly talked of the up-coming APTA conventions which needed their attention: first Phoenix, April 4-8 then San Francisco, September 27-October 1.

Beverly Safford, an attorney in private practice, is a member of the Detroit
Chapter.

In the struggle Nat. Lawyers Guild