Disabled Protesters Arrested
New York Times
9-29-87

San Francisco, Sept. 28 (AP)-

Disabled people demanding better access to mass transit systems across the nation blocked buses today at a transit association convention, while the number of arrests in two days of protests rose to at least 54.

Sgt. Jerry Senkir of the San Francisco police said 25 to 30 people were arrested today for failing to leave the scene of an unlawful assembly and for blocking the sidewalk and street.

Nine others were arrested later in the day for failing to disperse outside the Hilton Hotel, where the American Public Transit Association was holding some of its meetings, the police said.

On Sunday, 20 protesters were arrested for blocking the sidewalk outside City Hall during a rally of 500 disabled people. One of the demonstrators, Allan Shipley of San Francisco, 40 years old, was arrested for investigation of assaulting an officer.

About 150 people, most of them in wheelchairs, traveled about a mile today under police escort to the convention center where the transit association was meeting.

“It’s a very emotional issue for disabled people to have come out here and do this”, said Judy Heumann of the World Institute on Disability, an organization based in Berkeley.

For more than 10 years, `groups` of disabled transit riders have urged the association to declare a national policy giving disabled commuters access to the same buses and trains that the rest of the public rides. Some local transit districts carry disabled riders on buses specially equipped for passengers in wheelchairs.

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Thursday 3 August 2017

Tags

APTA - American Public Transit Association, arrests, blocking buses, convention center, Hilton Hotel, transit convention, World Institute on Disability

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