Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN 1
More...
Places to Go,
People to See,
Things to Do.
The New Southern Voice
Calendar
Pages8&9
\OCE
Vol. 2, No. 5 Taking Pride in Our Culture
April 27,1989
3,000 Protest
New York's
AIDS Policies
New York-The AIDS Coalition To
Unleash Power (ACT UP) swept
through City Hall Plaza here last
Tuesday with over 3,000
demonstrators and supporters to
protest the city's AIDS policies under
the administration of Mayor Ed Koch,
according to reports in the
Washington Blade.
"We're here at City Hall today
because we're dying and we're angry,"
said ACT UP's Ann Northrop.
This demonstration was the largest
ever staged by ACT UP, and was
preceeded by a "zap" on the Brooklyn
Bridge during rush hour. The AIDS
civil disobedience group used the
wave format to successfully close
down the bridge and its exit/entrance
ramps three times during the actions.
CHER! (Concerned Homosexuals
Examining Reality!) was the first
group to successfully penetrate police
barricades and block traffic from the
bridge. New York Police arrested
about 200 demonstrators, who had to
be bused to several different precincts
around the city for processing.
Ron Goldberg, an ACT UP
organizer, said the demonstration was
highly successful.
"We're taking the issue of health
care to the streets. It will be a major
issue in [this year's mayoral] election,"
he declared.
ACT UP member Michael Nesline,
who is also a registered nurse at
Bellevue Hospital, said the
metropolitan hospital system is in a
state of crisis, largely due to New
York Mayor Edward Koch's policies,
which Nesline believes are criminally
negligent. Charles Barber, another
ACT UP member, said the Koch
administration cut the city hospital
budget by $20 million last year.
Koch held a news conference at
City Hall while the demonstration was
going on. He said that he understands
the frustration and anger that the
demonstrators feel. Koch also said that
New York does "more than any other
city or state" to serve the needs of
people with AIDS, but that the city's
limited budget prohibits it from doing
more.
TIA NIKOLOPOULAS
41 Arrested Protesting S. C. AIDS Law
Columbia, S.C. - ACT UP (AIDS
Coalition To Unleash Power) staged its
first major demonstration in the Deep
South on Thursday when forty-one
demonstrators who blocked a major street
in front of the South Carolina state capitol.
building were arrested. Police officers
quickly moved in after the demonstrators,
in two separate groups, lay down on
Gervais Street blocking the two east bound
lanes. They were cuffed and carried on
stretchers to waiting buses for
transportation to a nearby processing
center.
The 41 were charged with blocking
traffic - disobeying instructions of a police
officer - and posted bonds of $100, the
maximum fine for the misdemeanor
offense. All of the demonstrators were
released "within a couple of hours",
according to Heather Wilson, ACT
UP/Atlanta's logistics coordinator. Bob
Hallman, one of two Columbia attorneys
who represented the ACT UP group, said
he observed only one police officer who
"got a little rough" during the two rounds
of arrest < .
The demonstration was a scaled-down
version of the one announced by ACT/UP
Atlanta on March 1. At that time, activists
stated they intended to "take control" of
the South Carolina statehouse to protest
the state's new AIDS law, considered to be
one of the most oppressive in the nation.
ACT UP/Atlanta backed off from that
objective after South Carolina officials
pointed out that any unauthorized entry or
use of the statehouse carries with it a
penalty of five years in prison and/or a
$5,000 fine. ACT UP/Atlanta coordinated
a two-hour demonstration at the statehouse
before the arrests took place.
South Carolina's AIDS law, passed by
the general assembly last year, prohibits
confidential or anonymous HIV testing,
established quarantine provisions for
certain HIV-positive persons, and extends
prison sentences for positive-testing
inmates. The law also requires state
disclosure of HIV status for persons
suspected of carrying or transmitting the
virus.
"Legislation such as this, which serves
to foster fear and drive the
disease underground, must not go
unnoticed," said Chip Rowan,
ACT UP/Atlanta's legal
coordinator. "This action is being
coordinated in protest and
for the most oppressive AIDS
law in the country."
The street-blocking tactic
apparently came as no surprise to
South Carolina law enforcement
authorities, who had several
meetings with ACT UP
coordinators during the last month. "We've
watched videotapes of other ACT UP
protests, and they sit down in the street
completely passive," said Hugh Mann,
press spokesperson for the state's law
enforcement division. "You have to pick
them up and carry them off."
Most of the officers wore rubber gloves
during the arrests. "We offer gloves to
officers in every instance where we're
going to have multiple arrests," said John
Spade, a Columbia police department
spokesperson. "This is standard procedure.
You can catch a common cold with a
handshake. You don't know what people
have," he said.
Although estimates of the total number
of people who participated varied widely,
Cont'd Page 3
TIA NIKOLOPOULAS
