Disability campaigners blockade on 9 News
18/11/2013
Channel 9 News 18/11/2013 [Disability campaigners blockade] (18.03)
T-shirts emblazoned with what protestors claim is a ‘hate word’ have caused an angry protest in Rundle Mall. Police were called in as disability campaigners blockaded a shop selling a new line designed in Adelaide. A true war or words brought dozens of angry protestors to Rundle Mall. Fashionable or offensive, it’s all in how you read it. This is how disability advocates see it:
(Karen Hauptman, Protestor, grab)
Hauptman: “It’s not fashionable. There’s nothing fashionable about a hate word.”
(Unidentified female, grab)
Unidentified female: “Globalize need to stand up and they need to say that they can sleep at night making money out of other peoples misery.”
But the clothing company says it’s a French verb and people need to toughen up.
(Clayton Cross, Globalize Owner, grab)
Cross: “I think this is bullying and they’re just gonna have to come to grips with it.”
Protestors blocked the store’s entrance demanding the t-shirts be pulled from sale, instead confronted by a surprise opponent, Paralympic cyclist, Mel Leckie.
(Mel Leckie, Paralympian, grab)
Leckie: “The only negative connotation is what society has put on it. This has nothing to do with people with disabilities. I don’t see what the problem is.”
Prompting this fiery response from Dignity for Disability MP, Kelly Vincent.
(Kelly Vincent, Dignity for Disability, grab)
Vincent: “Dignity people, it’s not that hard. Get it. Dignity.”
(Unidentified female, grab)
Unidentified female 2: “It’s disgusting.”
But the protest here might have all been in vain, before staff could even take the t-shirts off the shelf it had sold out. Globalize says it won’t be restocking the t-shirts.
