Texas disability activists arrested over independent living protest

Web posted at 10-Feb-99 16:17 Central European Time

Texas Governor George W. Bush (left) and Attorney General John Cornyn want the state of Texas to be able to decide for itself whether to force disabled people to live in institutions against their will. ADAPT and others are protesting.

AUSTIN, Texas, 02-Feb-1999 - Fifteen protesters, most in wheelchairs, were arrested outside the Governor's Mansion on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 2nd, in a dispute over housing choices for the disabled.

The activists were infuriated about an announcement yesterday by Governor George W. Bush and state Attorney General John Cornyn that they would remain allies of Georgia in challenging a lawsuit filed three years ago by two mentally disabled Georgians.

In this so-called Olmstead case from Georgia, the lower courts ruled that people with disabilities had the right to choose to live in the community instead of a state institution. The state of Georgia is challenging this ruling.

Advocacy groups for the disabled fear the challenge, if upheld by the high court, could force more people with disabilities (including autism) to be put in nursing homes and other institutions against their will.

Texas "sovereignty" vs. federal rule

Bush said his budget request to the state Legislature includes enough money to increase the number of people in community care in Texas by 18 percent.

"So I hear the call. I hear the call for more community care. I just believe they ought to understand I want the decision made in Texas," he said.

Cornyn said he believed the U.S. Supreme Court should "reverse such a transfer of sovereign power to the federal courts." That power, he said, should be exercised by the "elected officials of the people."

"Compassionate conservatism"?

Bush, who is believed to be eyeing a race for president, calls himself a "compassionate conservative," a term that already has been ridiculed by potential opponents for the Republican presidential nomination.

"If this is compassionate conservatism, he (Bush) is in a lot of trouble. Forcing people to live in institutions is not going to work," said Bob Kafka, as he sat in his wheelchair, hands cuffed behind his back, waiting to be bused to jail.

Kafka is a leader of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, an advocacy group for the disabled, which has staged several aggressive demonstrations in recent years.

The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities also was represented in the protest.

The demonstrators were charged with criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, after Texas Department of Public Safety officers had to physically remove some of them from the mansion's locked back gate.