Chicago Action — AMA
Monday morning found ADAPT members downstairs ready and pumped up for the day. I found myself comparing this action to the last. One big change that I noticed was in the attitude of the police. Of course, there were skads of them all around our hotel, and probably in it, too, for all that I know. However, the vast majority of them were very cordial and polite! I couldn’t believe it! Was this not the same police department known for busting heads and asses? Wow, what a change! They were almost aggressive in keeping passersby from walking through our line, and were right on target with their explainations to people about who we were, and what we wanted.
We marched to our target, the American Medical Association. We were trying to get them to support the Community Choice Act. Our line was six blocks long! We chanted loud and proud, “FREE OUR PEOPLE!!!” “Our homes, not nursing homes!” “Raising our voice for Community Choice!”
I was assigned to hold a door when we got to our spot, so I was really pumped! I remembered the last time we were here. I was with a new guy from Philadelphia, who was very excited, and very spastic. while trying to block off a cop car on the street, he accidentally kicked a police officer. Not just any police officer — one of the guys in the white shirts, a Captain, or something. The cop was extremely angry, but decided that since the new guy, Tom, was nonverbal, he was going to arrest me, instead. I was charged with assault on an officer, a felony, but thank goodness, Wade got things straightened out, and I did not have to go back to Chicago. As I mentioned earlier, only four people were arrested — Arthur Campbell, from Kentucky, Mike Auberger, from Denver, Rona Schnall, who at that time, was from Philadelphia, and me. I was living in Denver at the time. Odd. I am the only one still around who was arrested on that action.
When we were in sight of the AMA building, we rushed to the doors, but found that they were already locked. We shut the place down, anyway, including a parking lot. We wanted to meet with the CEO of AMA, but he sent down a lackey, who, of course, could do nothing. The Mayor’s Commission on people with disabilities sent someone down to try and negotiate, but that went nowhere. Incidentally, the Commissioner is an old ADAPTer named Karen Tamley. I worked with her back when she was in Denver. On Sunday, Karen came to our hotel to read a proclaimation from Mayor Daley. Anyway, neither the Mayor’s folks, nor the cops could negotiate with the AMA to meet with us, so things got ugly, and when the dust cleared, 55 folks were arrested. The good thing about these arrests were that nobody had to go to 26th and California, or to Belmont and Western, where the detention and holding centers are. The last time, we were taken to jail, and put into real, live, cells, where we sat for hours. This time, the whole process took literally, a couple of minutes. This, too, was due in part, to Rochester’s own Bruce Darling, one of the Day leaders, our “Arrest Concierge”, whose motto was, “we make your arrest Better!” Thanks, Bruce!