15 Seized in AIDS Sit-In at Board Meeting

A boisterous demonstration and sit-in at the downtown Hall of Administration ended Tuesday with the arrest of 15 protesters who were removed from the Board of Supervisors chambers while shouting “Stop AIDS” and demanding the immediate opening of a special hospital ward for AIDS patients.

The disruption, organized by the militant ACT-UP/Los Angeles, was quelled by two dozen sheriff’s deputies who quickly converged on the demonstrators as they sat on the carpeted floor along the front row of the spacious meeting room.

Several dozen protesters, taking their cue from the final words of the Pledge of Allegiance that customarily opens the weekly board meeting, began chanting “Freedom for all” as deputies rushed to confront them.

None of the demonstrators resisted as they were escorted from the room and lined up in the hallway with their hands held behind their back in plastic handcuffs. But as they were taken out of the chambers, some of the demonstrators yelled to the five supervisors, shouting “murderers” and “50 (AIDS ward) beds now.”

“The people who were just arrested are all people with AIDS,” Wendell Jones, a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP), told reporters. “These are people who, on a daily basis, are not getting proper treatment at County-USC Medical Center.”

The AIDS group, which has appeared peacefully before the board in the past, demanded that the supervisors immediately open a 50-bed AIDS ward at County-USC Medical Center, rescind planned health care cuts and commit extra funds for an expanded outpatient clinic for those with AIDS.

The Department of Health Services and the county Commission on AIDS are working toward a 20-bed AIDS ward to open in September, but the demonstrators contend that timetable is too slow.

Rabbi Allen Freehling, president of the AIDS commission, was in the board room when the demonstration began, and told supervisors he deplored the action, claiming that it “accomplishes nothing other than to drive wedges between” supervisors and the AIDS community.

But Morris Kight, chairman of the county Human Relations Commission who joined with Freehling in presenting a special AIDS report to the board, warned that the protest reflected “great anger, and I certainly think the anger will escalate unless we all agree to be persons of good will and work together about AIDS.”

The demonstration drew a frosty response from supervisors who have been angered by recent acts of vandalism after activists splattered paint on public buildings in a protest against the county’s AIDS policies.

Members of ACT-UP have denied any role in the vandalism, but the supervisors likened the group’s demonstration on Tuesday to the previous incidents and said that the latest action only risks a possible backlash against those with AIDS.

“If you were to poll the man on the street, the vast majority of people would not have any interest in AIDS or AIDS funding,” said Supervisor Pete Schabarum. This assertion was challenged by Freehling and other supervisors.

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who along with his colleagues left the room during the sit-in, said he sympathizes with the activists but decried the demonstration.

“They have the right to petition us, not harass us,” he said.

Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Quinn said that those arrested were charged with disturbing a public meeting, a misdemeanor calling for six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. They included 12 men and three women, he said, who were released on their written promise to appear in court.