I was on the bus and talking to this lady. She mentioned that she was part of an advocacy group that has the goal of making sure businesses are accessible to people with handicaps. It's a good cause; there's no reason in this day and age that being in a wheelchair should keep you from riding the bus or going to the bank or getting some baller ice cream.  But their methods are..... damn.
 
Anyway,  they have these organizers whose job is to walk around and find public places that aren't accessible. They make a note of it and then start calling their members. The lady I was talking to said that she'll get a call at 10 AM that there's a restaurant in a city two hours away that has bathrooms that aren't accessible. So their caravan of "wheelchair warriors," as they call themselves, will go there at the drop of a hat and order iced tea. They'll go into the bathroom and say  "Oh hey, we can't use these. We're going to stay in these bathrooms until we can use them." So they go and martyr themselves in the bathroom.  Or they might get a call that a city has buses that aren't quite accessible enough for their leader's liking. Their response is to chain themselves to the front.
 
The lady I talked to has been arrested several times. She takes it as a badge of honor that the government has her photo and her fingerprints . Her organization is classified by the US government as a "nonviolent civil disobedience group" and is listed in a category she says is just one step below the Black Panthers.
 
That's nice, but have you ever heard of filing a complaint? "You are in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which makes it much more difficult for me to become a regularly paying customer" sounds a lot less crazy than "Oh, I cannot pee here so I'm gonna PUT THIS STALL ON LOCKDOWN UNTIL YOU INSTALL SOME DAMN RAILS." But maybe that's just me.

You talk to random ladies on the bus?

" You talk to random ladies on the bus? "

So it's a PETA for disabled people?
 
Now I've seen everything.

Last line is lol.

" So it's a PETA for disabled people?  Now I've seen everything. "

This sounds kinda crazy, but I can totally picture some crazy lady chaining herself to a bus for some reason. What a boring place it would be with extremists.

Hahah that's actually funny, if I walked into a restaurant's bathroom, and some of these weirdoes are blocking the toilets, I'd just try my best to hit the bowl, but hey, my "aim" "isn't" "great". 

That's actually pretty funny. 

" @dancinginfernal said:

" So it's a PETA for disabled people?  Now I've seen everything. "

Have you seen a man eat his own head? No? Then you haven't seen everything. "

" @dancinginfernal said:

" So it's a PETA for disabled people?  Now I've seen everything. "

Have you seen a man eat his own head? No? Then you haven't seen everything. "

" @Noodlearms said:

" @dancinginfernal said:

" So it's a PETA for disabled people?  Now I've seen everything. "

Have you seen a man eat his own head? No? Then you haven't seen everything. "

Have you? That's the better question. It sounds pretty fucked up, so I'm just curious if this came to mind from experience. "

" @Noodlearms said:

" @dancinginfernal said:

" So it's a PETA for disabled people?  Now I've seen everything. "

Have you seen a man eat his own head? No? Then you haven't seen everything. "

Have you? That's the better question. It sounds pretty fucked up, so I'm just curious if this came to mind from experience. "

That greatly tickled my funny bone.

" So it's a PETA for disabled people?  Now I've heard everything. "

I thoroughly enjoy most of my conversations with strangers, even the seemingly insane ones.  I met a gay, nudist, soil scientist (who was also anti smoking) on the bus once.  He talked to me about how everyone needs passionate intimate sex on a regular basis...at a pretty high volume on a full bus.

There is nothing wrong with peaceful protest and sticking it to a businessman's wallet is more likely to get a prompt result than the long drawn out process of filing with the municipal building codes.  Chances are they (protesters) are doing that too anyway, but this manner of civil disobedience sends a very quick message to the business owner that they need to correct their oversight post haste.  If people can march for abortion rights or gay marriage, I see no problem with the handicapped protesting for their right to access.  All they want is to be able to take a wizz like any other paying customer.

.@PediatricUrology said:

 The lady I talked to has been arrested several times. She takes it as a badge of honor that the government has her photo and her fingerprints . Her organization is classified by the US government as a "nonviolent civil disobedience group" and is listed in a category she says is just one step below the Black Panthers. 

When you're setting up a business, you have a ton of expenses floating around. If someone says "the projected cost to get your restaurant off the ground is $1.3 million," you're not going to notice if your actual cost is a couple sets of handrails lower than your projected cost. If I'm opening a restaurant and making a check to make sure that everything's ready to roll, I might miss that the bathrooms aren't handicap-accessible because I'm not used to looking for it. Pretty much every new business owner forgets something, it's just that most oversights don't lead to angry people (who aren't even potential customers, but an interest group in another city whose leader told them about this place) who want to drive customers away rather than tell them that they need to get their act together.

And I'm not saying that their form of protest doesn't lead to arrests, I'm saying that illegal protesting (such as chaining yourself to a bus or bombing abortion clinics) leads to arrest.