SF Chronicle 9/29/87

PHOTO: BY SYEVE RINGMAN/THE CHRONICLE Four police hold down Lonnie Johnson in his manual wheelchair. They are dressed in dark uniforms, he is in white shirt and pants. His very thin body is lying on his chair, his legs somewhat extended and arms out to the sides in a crucifix-like position. The policeman behind his head has his arm around Lonnie's neck in a choke hold.
Caption reads: San Francisco police officers subdued on unidentified demonstrator outside Moscone Center.

Title: Transit Demonstrations
Cops Bust Disabled Protesters
By L. A. Chung

Thirty-four disabled people, deliberately blocking streets in a bitter demand for better access to public transit, were arrested yesterday by San Francisco police officers.

Twenty-five protesters, many in wheelchairs, blocked Howard Street yesterday morning outside the Moscone Center where the American Public Transit Association is meeting through tomorrow.

Then. in the afternoon, nine more disabled people blocked the street outside the downtown Hilton Hotel, where the transit officials are staying.

On Sunday 22 protesters were arrested making a total of 56 cited in two days.

Calling themselves the September Alliance tor Accessible Transit,
the disabled wheeled themselves a mile to Moscone Center, under police escort, to protest, chanting, "Up with Access! Down with APTA!"

For more than 10 years disabled people nationwide have pressed for wheelchair access to local buses and trains. However, APTA, in 1981, managed to overturn a federal mandate requiring wheelchair lifts on all new buses.

APTA, instead, got a “local option" allowing each transit organization to determine the best way to serve the disabled.

At yesterday morning's protest, Judy Heumann of the Berkeley-based World institute on Disability, said, “It‘s a very emotional issue for disabled people to have to come out here and do this." She was not arrested.

Police gave the protesters outside Moscone Center three warnings to disperse, then started arresting them. They were taken to the Hall of Justice in a specially equipped Municipal Railway bus that had a wheelchair lift.

A special police van with a lift handled the protesters outside the Hilton Hotel. All those arrested for blocking a street and falling to disperse were cited and then released.

The protesters said they will be back demonstrating until the convention ends tomorrow. More than 11,000 public transit officials from across the United States and about 50 countries are attending the convention.

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Monday 18 September 2017

Tags

accessible paddy wagon, APTA - American Public Transit Association, arrests, choke hold, convention, Hilton Hotel, Judy Heumann, Lonnie Smith, Moscone Center

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