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Protesters fight against cuts to homes for elderly & disabled
Demonstrators flooded the Sacramento Capitol rotunda in California on June 13 to protest cuts to home care for the elderly and disabled. Police arrested 43 people.
Sean Kennedy, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, said they were cited for misdemeanors and released.
It was the second protest in two days in which demonstrators were arrested by the California Highway Patrol, which provides security at the Capitol. Ten people were arrested on Tuesday after blocking the entrance to Gov. Jerry Brown’s office.
Brown has proposed saving $225 million from the In-Home Supportive Services program through cuts that include a 7% reduction in hours of care. The cut would have a ripple effect because counties and the federal government would withdraw matching funds, leading to a total reduction of about $800 million.
“To the director and staff of the Judge Rotenberg Center, we are Anonymous.
Your mistreatment of disabled children and young adults has been brought to our attention. Your extensive use of aversive methods, including electric shock and withholding of food as a form of behavioral modification is nothing less than torture. We are aware that your so called treatments include attaching electrodes to students and administering a shock that is up to 20 times more powerful than that delivered by a police taser. We have seen the effects of it in mainstream media broadcasts, and heard the statements of opposition by family and friends.
The founder, Doctor Matthew Israel was indicted on counts of obstructing justice by ordering the destruction of video evidence that detailed an event involving a student being shocked over 100 times. This is not the first action taken against the center for abuses. However, electric shock is still used as a part of the centers aversive program.
In response to your torture of these individuals, we have initiated an operation against your center. We are calling upon all concerned citizens to spread the message of opposition through social networks, emails, and phone communications. Contact your local representatives and the Judge Rotenberg Center directly and voice your concern. We will no longer tolerate the abuse of the innocent.
We are demanding the immediate discontinue of all harsh aversive methods. This is a warning that you should not take lightly.
We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Judge Rotenberg Center, you should expect us.”
“In 1999, when Rob was 13, his parents sent him to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, located in Canton, Massachusetts, 20 miles outside Boston. The facility, which calls itself a “special needs school,” takes in all kinds of troubled kids—severely autistic, mentally retarded, schizophrenic, bipolar, emotionally disturbed—and attempts to change their behavior with a complex system of rewards and punishments, including painful electric shocks to the torso and limbs. Of the 234 current residents, about half are wired to receive shocks, including some as young as nine or ten. Nearly 60 percent come from New York, a quarter from Massachusetts, the rest from six other states and Washington, D.C. The Rotenberg Center, which has 900 employees and annual revenues exceeding $56 million, charges $220,000 a year for each student. States and school districts pick up the tab.” - School Shock, Eight states are sending autistic, mentally retarded, and emotionally troubled kids to a facility that punishes them with painful electric shocks. How many times do you have to zap a child before it’s torture?
One group’s suffering & injustice is all of our suffering & injustice.
