ADAPT Arrest

Arresting a person using a wheelchair can be dramatic. With the power turned off sometimes the police officers cannot move the chair or pick it up. Struggling with the wheelchair can become considerable and difficult. Arresting the person can be erratic and uncomfortable. It can create a powerful photograph.

But not always. As a matter of fact, most of the time arresting a person using a wheelchair is pretty boring. The officer simply pushes the chair, electric or manual away from the demonstration. Powerchairs often have unique ways to by-pass the motor, or a “neutral” that will allow the wheelchair to be pushed. When the police locate neutral or the person allows them to drive their wheelchair, the arrest looks more like a person using a wheelchair getting a police escort.

And there are activists that do not assist at all. They may be carried out and removed from their wheelchair or they may not help the officers find how to control the chair. Often chanting and singing all the way into captivity.

In the past 20 years, the police have mostly processed people on-site or near the arrest to keep from using a large fleet of accessible vehicles to get people to a police facility. But the arrest process used to mean hours and even days of process and holding of activists. 

This photo shows some of the drama but it is hard to make out the whole story. The police in this photo are mostly concerned with safely and effectively getting this activist off the curb. The White House gate is to the right of the frame and the police had set up a small ramp to move people in wheelchairs off the curb.

I have been part of ADAPT since 1996 and I have participated in over 40 national actions and I have been part of at least 75 non-violent civil disobedience demonstrations. I have been arrested more than 20 times and been hauled off by the police in dramatic fashion a half-a-dozen times. 

I have tried to show the passion and commitment of my brothers and sisters in ADAPT. I wrote the ADAPT Action Report for about 15 years to give a daily narrative of what the group was doing. I also took photos that have turned into a kind of archive of the actions.

Now I look back and try to find the best of the photos that I have made and why. I made photos all day the afternoon I made this one, I took photos of ADAPT activists getting arrested and was arrested myself just a few minutes after I took this photo. 

Best of ADAPT: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLM8uPW 

Index of ADAPT Action Report (Incomplete):  http://www.knowonk.com/aar/ 

ADAPT Big meeting in Salt Lake City