Disabled Vow to Parade Despite Denial of Permit

Despite denial of a city permit, wheelchair-bound members of organizations for the disabled say they are resolved to parade along Wilshire Boulevard on Sunday to demonstrate at a downtown meeting of the American Public Transit Assn.

Barry Atwood, chairman of Access Now, told reporters Friday that he expects 300 to 500 gravely disabled people to gather at MacArthur Park at noon and illegally parade to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel to protest what he charged is the association’s refusal to support accessible public transportation for the disabled.

In anticipation, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a three-page background statement pledging that those who “persist in violating the law will be arrested.” Specially equipped vans and trained medical personnel will be used if arrests are made, the statement said.

Atwood appeared before the Police Commission on Tuesday to request a parade permit. According to police, the verbal request was denied because of the lateness of the bid and because of the lack of police and other city personnel “to protect marchers or traveling public due to prior commitments of resources.”

Tactics Questioned

During the hearing, Atwood was questioned about tactics employed by the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) in other anti-transit association demonstrations in San Antonio, Denver, Chicago and Washington. The tactics included blocking intersections and buses, chaining wheelchairs together and handicapped protesters throwing themselves from their wheelchairs to the ground.

Atwood, who said he is not a member of ADAPT, told reporters that he was asked by police commissioners to promise that similar demonstrations would not occur in Los Angeles. He said he told the panel he could make no such promise.

Atwood charged that Police Chief Daryl F. Gates threatened to arrest demonstrators Sunday “to intimidate disabled citizens and to ensure that they remain silent, impassive non-participants in society.”

Sgt. Ralph Hubbard, who heads the Police Department’s special events planning unit, said Atwood’s charge is “absolute nonsense. . . . It’s simply untrue. There was no intimidation whatsoever.”

No Compromise

Hubbard insisted that “every effort” had been made to reach a compromise with Atwood over the route and time of the demonstration but that “it simply wasn’t accepted.”

Atwood was joined at the press conference in front of Parker Center by Bill Bolte, member of the board of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities; Harlan Hahn of Access Now and the Disability Forum, an organization of disabled researchers, and Mike Auburger of ADAPT.

The American Public Transit Assn., representing more than 300 public transit systems throughout the United States, is holding a Los Angeles convention, hosted by the Southern California Rapid Transit District.