Ten protesters — most with disabilities — were arrested in U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s Denver office Thursday, two days after they began a sit-in to demand that the Republican senator pledge to oppose the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“Rather go to jail than to die without Medicaid!” protesters, some in wheelchairs or lying on the floor, chanted while Denver police stood in the doorway of Gardner’s downtown office and ordered them to leave. The demonstrators live-streamed their own arrests on Facebook while the chanting continued. Police also used video cameras to record the arrests.
“Stop fighting!” a police officer told one of the demonstrators as officers moved in.
“We’re not fighting,” one responded as an officer restrained a fellow demonstrator and began carrying him away. Police picked up some protesters, restrained them, forced them into their wheelchairs and wheeled them out of the office.
“You’re under arrest,” an officer said.
“Senator Gardner, shame on you!” demonstrators chanted as the first person was removed from the office.
ADAPT protesters Dawn Russell and Lonnie Smith are taken to Sheriff van pic.twitter.com/k0gKMtWwRJ
— Danika Worthington (@Dani_Worth) June 30, 2017
Protesters initially took over Gardner’s waiting room Tuesday when the office opened at 9:30 a.m. Nine protesters stayed the night Tuesday, turning it into what resembled a dorm room with blankets and food. Eight more spent the night Wednesday. Nine were intending to spend the night again Thursday.
The action was organized by ADAPT, a Colorado-born organization that works nationally to promote disability rights. Protesters said they’ve been arrested multiple times doing ADAPT actions. Dawn Howard joined ADAPT in January and said she had been arrested three times before Thursday.
Protesters said they want Gardner to commit to protect Medicaid spending, including assisted-living services that help many people with ability issues live independently. Advocates say those services would be cut in the proposed Senate health care bill, which the group wants Gardner to oppose.
Before the arrests, Gardner’s state director read a statement to the protesters saying building management informed the office that it was in violation of its lease and both staff and the protesters had to leave. Two of the 11 — a mother and her 16-year-old daughter — left.
Police responded to a signed complaint from a representative at the senator’s office that people were trespassing, said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
“The top priority throughout this protest has been allowing these individuals to exercise their First Amendment rights in a safe environment,” Casey Contres, a Gardner spokesman, said in a statement after the arrests began. “In order to allow this, staff have slept in the office for two nights and assisted and aided these individuals with several matters to ensure they were comfortable and safe. Earlier this evening, Denver police asked the individuals to leave. When they declined to leave, the police were forced to remove them due to several factors, including serious concerns for their health and safety.”
Protesters Lonnie Smith, Dawn Russell and Kalyn Heffernan, an MC with the rap group Wheelchair Sports Camp, were taken by Denver police to a sheriff’s van with a wheelchair lift. The hands and ankles of all of them were zip-tied by police. The rest of the protesters were held inside the building’s garage and could be heard chanting “Free our people” and “Rather go to jail than die without Medicaid.”
Other ADAPT protesters chanted outside the entrance and exit to the garage. One of those protesters, Jordan Sibayan, was arrested while trying to go into the garage.
Late Thursday afternoon, a crowd gathered on grass outside the private, downtown office building at 1125 17th St. About a dozen Denver police officers arrived shortly before 7 p.m. with some SUVs and a black bus.
“We’re not going to go down without a fight,” said Carrie Ann Lucas, one of 11 protesters inside the office Thursday before the arrests began. She was among the final protesters to be arrested, and she continued to live-stream the event even as she was taken away.
“I’m not resisting, but I’m not cooperating,” Lucas told officers. She uses a motorized wheelchair and a ventilator.
“Then to die without Medicaid I’d rather go to jail!” pic.twitter.com/w17rhIdf3R
— kieran nicholson (@kierannicholson) June 30, 2017
Denver’s sit-in was one of similar actions across the nation. ADAPT national organizer Bruce Darling said he is no longer keeping track of how many people have been arrested nationally, saying, “There’s enough that it’s gotten confusing.” The biggest so far has been in Rochester, N.Y., where 25 people were arrested.
Gardner staffers said building management told them Thursday that the other tenants had begun to complain and that the protesters no longer could remain there.
They said they offered to help the protesters with transportation. They also said they have taken time to listen to their concerns, including at least 16 meetings or phone calls with ADAPT activists since the start of the year.
ADAPT joined more than 80 other Colorado disability services in signing a statement urging Gardner to vote no on the health care bill. Coloradans with disabilities make up 7 percent of Medicaid participants but 27 percent of the program’s costs, according to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
3 ppl slept in their wheelchairs at @SenCoryGardner‘s office last night. Not leaving until he promises no cuts to Medicaid #ADAPTandRESIST pic.twitter.com/ADwlIakJBD
— Dominick Evans (@dominickevans) June 28, 2017
ADAPT had been talking to Gardner for a year and a half about creating a national program to mirror Colorado’s home and community-based services that assist people with bathing, toileting, cooking, cleaning and more. But with those services now on the cutting block, activists said the situation became “critical.”
Gardner’s state director spoke with protesters Wednesday morning to hear what they had to say. At that time, Russell said she was hopeful that more progress would be made.
The arrests prompted an outcry from liberal activists, who echoed the protesters’ demand that Gardner oppose his party’s efforts in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“This isn’t a game to the people being dragged out of his office,” Alan Franklin, political director of ProgressNow Colorado, said in a statement. “Gardner can’t spin his way out of this. It’s his choice to make to serve (President Donald) Trump over Colorado.”
Denver Post staff writer Kieran Nicholson contributed to this report.