Arrests of Disability Activists Outside Schwartzenegger Home

Yesterday, protestors were arrested outside Governor Schwarzenegger’s Brentwood home in L.A. as they did civil disobedience. They were demanding that the California budget continue to provide a social safety net for people with disabilities. The People’s Day of Reckoning Coalition, which often includes unionized in-home health care workers, has been targeting the Governor’s many offices around the state for over a month. Among their demands is shared sacrifices by the wealthy -- that is, new taxes. Next week, Thursday, July 23, they plan to take their growing frustration to elected assembly members and senators at their local offices.

On July 7, more than 250 protestors blocked the front entrance to the governor’s office in Sacramento for six hours in an attempt to force Schwarzenegger to speak with them. When he left the building by another door at the end of the day, twelve people, most of them with severe disabilities, refused to leave. Several were part of a similar civil disobedience action in San Francisco in June. The twelve were arrested, cited and released.