Disability Rights Protesters Arrested in DC

05/03/2011 09:31 PM
By: YNN Staff

U.S. Capitol Police say ten Rochester disability rights advocates were among nearly 100 people arrested while demonstrating outside Congress in Washington, D.C. on Monday night.

300 members of ADAPT, a national disability grassroots organization, rallied in the rotunda, demanding Congress derail the Ryan plan. Under that plan, ADAPT says Medicaid programs would be cut by 35 percent.

Michelle Fridley of Rochester is a quadriplegic. She was among those charged with unlawful conduct and demonstrating in a capitol building.

“I needed to come here to Congress to let them know how this is going to affect me. Where’s my daughter going to go when I have to go into a nursing home because I can’t care for myself and there’s no one. I don’t have the support to be able to do it, and the state isn’t going to be able to provide me with the support either. You know, you’re taking a taxpaying person, and putting them in a nursing home, because I need too much care,” said Fridley.

Fridley says she is trying to convince lawmakers to support the Community Choice Act as a way to protect the disabled and save money.

Capitol Police say the charges are misdemeanors. All those arrested were processed and released.