Source (activates imbedded links and video):
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a56204/protester-pushed-out-of-wheelchair/
Protesters in Ohio Pushed Out of Wheelchairs
This Video of Police Dumping a Woman with MS from Her Wheelchair is Disgusting
The Police Department's reaction to it is even worse.
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ADAPT
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By
Luke O'Neil
Jul 9, 2017
List of 5 items
If you were to conceive of a metaphor for what the impending Republican
healthcare plan could do to people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid, you
could
do a lot worse than the image of the state mercilessly dumping people out of
their wheelchairs onto the ground. Unfortunately, at a protest at Ohio Senator
Rob Portman's office in Columbus on Friday, that's exactly what happened.
A video posted to Facebook shows Alisa Grishman—a 35-year-old woman from
Pittsburgh who suffers from multiple sclerosis among other ailments,
as she explained in another video
—being casually pushed out of her chair and onto the floor by an officer from
the Columbus Police Department. According to people present, a second woman
was pushed over in her scooter and others were pushed or thrown to the ground.
Grishman was among a group of roughly 30 to 40 protestors, including local and
national chapters of disability rights group ADAPT, Democratic Socialists
of America, and the Working Families Party, who had been occupying the space
since Thursday. Their aim was to get Portman to promise he would not support
any legislation that would include any cuts to Medicaid. He has previously said
he would not vote for this version of the legislation if it does so, but
will not commit to blocking future bills that could.
"Without Medicaid, I will die. I will literally die."
The private security that operates the building—Huntington Plaza, a privately
owned building where Portman keeps his office in Columbus—had allowed the
peaceful protestors to stay put, many well into the morning. On Friday
afternoon, emergency medical personnel arrived,
saying
there had been a call about someone suffering chest pain on another floor. The
protestors were blocking three out of four elevators, according to ADAPT's
Bruce Darling, who was there when authorities arrived. But a fourth elevator
remained open, Darling said. At any rate, the elevators had all been turned
off, according to several protesters who spoke to Esquire. It's unclear who
ordered the elevators shut down, but protesters claim it was meant to prevent
them from reaching Portman's office to speak with his staff.
(The Columbus Police Department and Senator Portman's office did not respond to
Esquire's request for comment.)
"We were clear they were playing us," Darling told Esquire. "When we arrived we
held three of their four elevators in the lobby. We basically agreed in
the beginning, the police made an agreement with us, they wouldn't do anything
as long as we left them one elevator. When they came in with the gurney
they said they had an emergency. There was a bit of chaos, and it was highly
suspect, but we gave them the freight elevator."
In the meantime, dozens of police stormed through another side of the building,
according to Darling and Atticus Garden, of the activist organization
Yes We Can Columbus,
which was at the protest in solidarity with ADAPT. Darling, who has trouble
getting up on his own and was also arrested at a protest at the Capitol in D.C.
last month, said he was pushed to the ground.
"In D.C. there was a lot of scuffling and confusion. But that was driven
primarily by chaos on their part I think," he said. "This was just vicious.
There
was no working with them. We could've had a conversation but they just decided
to go with the all out drama, throwing us physically."
According to Garden, police started to order people to leave the building,
saying they were trespassing. However, ADAPT had no intention of leaving.
"Officers
began pushing folks in wheelchairs, dragging them away from doors," Garden
explained. "It got very loud and chaotic. A small army of police began running
into the building. As you can see, in the video, officers began pulling people
out of wheelchairs, tipping folks out of them. They were literally dragging
them outside and tossing them like rag dolls. They cleared the whole building
out."
Block quote start
UPDATE 7/710:06PM 16 protesters arrested-all from out of state:NY & PA. All
volunteered 2 be arrested. Some say they were arrested in DC too
https://t.co/err9QrRbkC
— Columbus Ohio Police (@ColumbusPolice)
July 8, 2017
Block quote end
Block quote start
UPDATE 7/7 4:45PM 15 protestors are being arrested. They are complying. Charges
include criminal trespassing.
#CPD
https://t.co/T8Gfnhcprx
— Columbus Ohio Police (@ColumbusPolice)
July 7, 2017
Block quote end
Emily Benavides, a spokeswoman for Portman, said building security called
police when protesters impeded other tenants.
Ultimately, 16 people were arrested for charges including criminal trespassing,
according to Columbus Police, who said the protesters were blocking emergency
crews trying to reach the person allegedly suffering from chest pains. "If the
police ask you to leave, you're blocking the path for fire and medic, if
we have to push you out of your wheelchair, then that's what we'll have to do,"
Lt. Dan Hargus
said at a press conference.
The Columbus Fire Department later confirmed that
they were unable to find a patient
to treat in the building.
Maddie Stocker, also of Yes We Can Columbus, was one of a few people who had
made it upstairs to Portman's office. After the protestors downstairs had been
cleared, more than 10 armed officers came to remove her and two other women,
she told Esquire.
"They said we either leave right then or be arrested," she said.
In a statement,
Benavides from Portman's office dismissed the protestors as outside agitators.
Block quote start
"Rob welcomes input from all 11.5 million Ohioans who are able to visit or call
any of our offices to discuss any topic. Yesterday, we met with protesters
from the Democratic Socialists of America, and after they refused to leave even
when the buildings closed, we allowed them to stay the night. Our staff
spoke with them again today. We aren't going to allow a handful of Socialists,
many of whom are from New York, to disrupt our ability to serve the needs
of the Ohio constituents who contact us in need of vital services every day.
When the groups impeded the work of other tenants in the building, building
security called local law enforcement."
Block quote end
According to Garden, no such discussions between Portman's staff and members of
the DSA transpired on Thursday or Friday. Of those he spoke to who were
arrested, many of whom had been arrested numerous times before, they said this
was the worst response they'd seen from police yet.
Dominick Evans, a member of ADAPT Ohio who was coordinating media for the
protest and in touch with others on site, said it's important to enlist the aid
of national groups because often people like himself aren't able to leave their
homes to protest due to their disabilities. Two weeks ago ADAPT Ohio had
sent members to meet with Portman's staff, who said he would not vote for this
bill, but also would not promise he wouldn't vote on a future bill that
might impact Medicaid.
"It's an easy promise to make now, but if you care about disabled people, many
of us, without Medicaid, we will either die or end up in nursing homes,"
Evans said. "We gave him 24 hours to give a response. He didn't do that. That's
frustrating, because it's hard for some of us to get there. The idea of
having to come back and protest another bill? Many of us do have jobs, we don't
have the time or energy for it."
Ohio Senator Rob Portman
Getty Chip Somodevilla
One thing his group wants to make clear is that as hard as these sort of
arrests can be, the message they're trying to impart to Portman, like many other
groups around the country are with their own elected officials, is the dire
implications of the health care bill.
"Without Medicaid, I will die. I will literally die," Evans said. "I'm am
Ohioan. I sent people to represent me because I can't get out of my house. The
people here were not getting anywhere. We emailed, called, Facebook'd, and
Portman would not answer his phone or call us back."
"Medicaid to me is life," he continued. "I can't feed myself, somebody puts
food to my mouth, I can't go to the bathroom without help, I can't bathe myself.
But with all those things, with Medicaid, I can live and be independent.
Without them I'd be in a nursing home and probably end up dead. I have
high-level
care needs. It's cheaper for tax payers to pay for Medicaid than to keep us in
nursing homes."