Disability rights advocates arrested during protest outside ...

Chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho. Back to Rhode Island, Gary must go," more than 200 protesters from the disability rights group ADAPT gathered outside the Welfare Building to protest Gov. Tom Corbett and his Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander's policies that they say are taking away their community-based and home-based services.

The protesters from across the nation but including many from Pennsylvania urged the Corbett administration to tap federal dollars available to fund those services and to give them a voice in decisions that affect the services they use.

They also were critical of the Corbett administration's policies which they said has dismantled in 18 months the community- and home-based services that took two decades to build.

Department of Public Welfare spokeswoman Carey Miller defended the administration's commitment "to protecting the safety net for the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, and we are committed to providing services - like the Home and Community-based waiver programs that offer targeted services to individuals that better meet their needs."

She said the federal Community First Choice funding that advocates want the state to tap is not a viable option. She said it would expand the eligibility for services for disabled citizens that the state would have to provide, raising the cost far beyond what the federal match would be.

She said department officials have met with the disability rights activists in the past and will continue to meet with them and take their concerns into consideration.

Amber Smock, a spokeswoman from the national ADAPT organization, said the Pennsylvania chapter asked for the national office's assistance in staging the protest to help get the Corbett administration's attention because "the situation in Pennsylvania is so bad."

After four hours of the protestors' blocking entrances and seven arrests for disorderly conduct by individuals trying to force their way into the building, Alexander's chief of staff Brendan Harris came out to talk to the protesters.

Harris explained he was new to the job, but promised to help arrange for a meeting between them and Alexander, whose schedule was booked for the day. Harris said he was unfamiliar with the federal dollars that the activists were referencing. Activists handed him a fistful of papers that they said would explain it to him.

"We want to have a constructive dialogue with you. We've had several conversations. We want to continue those conversations," Harris told them.

The protesters insisted on getting a written commitment on department stationary that a meeting with Alexander and a representative from the governor's office would be held. The letter received (below) does not mention the governor's office, however.

More information on the individuals who were arrested at the protest was not available, said Troy Thompson, spokesman for the Department of General Services, which oversees the Capitol police.

On Monday, the protesters gathered at locations inside the Capitol to make known their objection to the Corbett administration.

James Wittie, 56, of Austin, Texas, was charged with disorderly conduct after he used his motorized wheelchair to run over a Senate security officer's foot, injuring the officer, Thompson said.

Later in the evening, one of the disability rights activist showed signs of having a heart attack in the Rotunda and Capitol police performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until emergency medical responders arrived, Thompson said. The individual was taken to Harrisburg Hospital. No further information was available.

This is the latest in a string of protests staged by the disability rights community since Corbett took office in January 2011.

ADAPT disability-rights group letter, Pennsylvania

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/10/disability_rights_advocates_ar.html

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