"They misunderestimated Us"

Indiana NGA ADAPT Action report from the Front 

Tuesday, August 19, 2003 5:06 PM

By Roland W. Sykes

Roland Sykes - Photograph by Tom Olin

It was a hot Friday night as the ADAPT team gathered in Indianapolis to deliver a message to the National Governors Association meeting at the Marriott Hotel downtown.

Our team numbered upwards of 75 folks from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana. Some seasoned players and many first timers.

The opposing team comprised upwards of 500 players consisting of local Indianapolis Police, Indiana State Police, County Sheriffs from around the state, ATF EOD (Alcohol Tobaco and Firearms Explosive Ordinance Division -- AKA -- Big Guns, Dogs and High Tech toys) and 200 National Guard Troops stationed two blocks away with missile launchers and other high tech weapons and surveillance gear.

Their team members ranged in appearance from uniformed officers to hotel staff, guests of the hotel, guests of the Governors meeting and troops in camouflage. The FBI and Secret Service agents were posing as hotel management and other hotel staff.

The sidewalks were barricaded for two blocks in any direction from the hotel and the streets were filled with police officers assigned to make sure you did not get close to the hotel without showing your credentials and having them checked via computer to verify who you were and that you were a guest of the hotel, before you were allowed to pass.

They were convinced that they had everything under control because they had just that evening, Friday, arrested and vanished two groups of roughly 50 protesters from the perimeter of the hotel. The nightly newscast stated that they would allow no protests and would immediately arrest anyone who tried. Kinda like the President taunting Iraq to "bring 'em on".

Little did they know that all their elaborate security extending for blocks was about to be rendered useless by the exquisite organizing and advance work of Teresa Torres and the members of the Indiana ADAPT Team.

You see the Fix was in. ADAPT had arrived.

The leadership team had secured reservations in the Governors hotel for a contingent of the ADAPT team consisting of roughly 25 members in 11 rooms. The other ADAPT team members were at other hotels a few blocks away or arrived daily via vehicles or on foot.

It should be said that the Indiana ADAPT members both old and new were in a word, awesome. Absolute focus on the tasks at hand.

I presented my credentials to the officer and he verified that I could pass. As I drove off toward the hotel, his face went pale as he saw my wheel cover on the spare tire of my van.

He reached for his radio to tell them of the problem and only then did it become clear to the opposing team and the commanding officer in the helicopter above that they were in deep doo doo. "Air One, we have a problem."

You see, as our fearless leader would say "they misunderestimated us".

My van has an ADAPT wheel cover that was given to me by a friend with the Logo, the word ADAPT in large letters and the demand to Free Our People Now! They can remove it when I die. Not before.

It was obvious from the reaction that I got from that officer and all the other folks I dealt with from then on to get into the driveway, park the van, unload all my stuff, get checked in and settled that this was the first clue anyone had that ADAPT team members were staying as guests of the hotel. The element of surprise in FULL EFFECT!

Roxane Perez and Toby Tyler had checked in earlier and had not revealed that they were ADAPT members. They slipped in looked around and called us and others to let us know what was happening inside the hotel prior to our arriving. More exquisite advance work. I LOVE it when a PLAN comes together. Go TEAM!

We had eleven rooms booked in the Governors hotel. They were reserved and guaranteed with a credit card for payment, they had little choice but to rent us the rooms.

I checked in and was followed shortly by Kathleen Kleinmann and Mary Childs. We inventoried and charged the radio gear for the next days events.

Other ADAPT team members were not due to arrive until Saturday evening. This action had been planned as a one day event to "keep up the pressure" and let the NGA know that we and our demands for freedom will not go away. This event is part of a national strategy to make them examine the issue. We are applying pressure from many directions at the same moment. No other focus group has gotten to the Power Holders the way that ADAPT has with so little money and so few troops.

That evening I challenged the manager to comply with the ADA by replacing the two 14 inch high toilets in the two supposedly accessible rooms we were able to reserve. The other 9 rooms were not accessible and folks were intending to share the accessible ones in typical ADAPT style. I wanted them to be useable and also wanted to do some testing and recon. It became obvious to me immediately on dealing with the manager that he was not in fact the manager but an FBI agent posing as the manager.

I used the opportunity to check out the lobby and public meeting and restroom areas of the hotel claiming that if they couldn't fix the rooms I and others would have to use the accessible public restrooms on the main or other floors. I demanded to see if they were accessible. I was accompanied by the manager, his assistant (another FBI agent), and the director of maintenance (an Indiana State Police Undercover) to visit my room to inspected the height of the toilet. They said that they could not fix it until the next day. I insisted that they do it and the one in Kathleen's room next door, Now!

The next morning came, Saturday, and still no replacement toilets. I used the low one and injured myself getting back off of it. I reported this to the manager and he had the security officer of the hotel fill out the required incident report forms and fax them to the corporate office.

As I checked the box indicating "The patron intends to sue", I became convinced that the guy I was dealing with, the normal security officer, was really a hotel employee and was scared out of his wits. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.... and was about to sink through the floor. Or wanted to. After he left to Fax the forms, they suddenly discovered two toilets of the correct height and installed them in our rooms.

Saturday evening we meet up with the rest of the ADAPT team, 75 strong, at the Courtyard Marriott two blocks away for our meet and greet and planning meeting for Sundays events.

The group decided that plan A would be that we would try and get the entire team into the Governors Marriott Hotel the next morning under the guise of eating at the brunch and then present our demands and request for them to honor their written word and have a meeting with the Executive Committee of the NGA immediately. Their were plans B, C and D but we didn't need them. See DLW defined below to understand why.

Sunday morning at 9AM the 25 ADAPT team members with rooms in the Governors hotel met in the lobby to await our friends arriving for brunch. Folks arrived in small groups of two and three members at a time.

We had folks with room keys visible at the door and outside acting like they were expecting guests and they would make statements that their folks were here when they saw various groups on the sidewalk trying to get past officers and into the hotel. This resulted in the officers they were close to radioing the other officers to let the ADAPT team members in because they were identified guests of guests.

During the planning meeting I had predicted that if they had made the mistake of selling rooms to us that they were DLW (Dumber than a Load of Wood) and would let us all in before they realized it was to late. All this in spite of the fact that they had heard we were coming and that we were trouble and our folks were all in full dress with ADAPT colors everywhere.

You see here is the rule. If you spot them and they are DLW you can be sure that it goes all the way to the bone and is a condition from which you do not recover. So if I was right in my diagnosis we could not loose.

It worked flawlessly. They let us all in.

Even though some folks indicated during the planning meeting they could not get arrested I watched as they all marched into the building not knowing if they would be or not. Putting it ALL on the line. I found that display of faith awesome to behold. True POWER!

Once we were all in we broke out the signs and started chanting to turn up the pressure. The meetings were happening on the second and third floors. These two upper floors had balconies overlooking the lobby level that we owned. The entire building reverberated when we chanted so much so that it disrupted meetings and interviews with the media for the Governors. Even CSPAN's Live coverage of the event was stopped.

The negotiation team of Shona Eakin and Steve Verridan kept the pressure on. They turned down a meeting with chiefs of staff of a few Governors in favor of sticking with the position that we wanted what they had promised in writing, a meeting with their Executive Committee.

They would not give us the meeting we wanted and eventually after five hours we left the building at a time of our choosing to have lunch on the front sidewalk and driveway eating what else, somewhat warm burgers, fries and sodas from McDonalds. Thanks again to the Indiana Crew for the food.

We chose to leave when we did because we had gotten word that they would be boarding a Charter Bus at 2PM for a 4PM NGA dinner at the Zoo. We left the sidewalk and driveway marching single file claiming to be headed for the Courtyard Marriott two blocks away from the side of the building where the Bus was to be loaded. As we rounded the corner of the property, they pulled the bus into position to load directly in front of us. See DLW above.

We took up positions blocking all exits for the Bus to leave which prevented them from boarding. I think it is in the book somewhere that they should not create a hostage situation if one does not exist. They finally figured this out also and removed the bus by backing it out away from the Hotel the way it had came in.

We let them do it.

Then as the empty bus drove away, we fanned out to cover all four corners of the hotel property to a distance of three blocks. This was so we could spot them trying to get the bus back in someplace else or to spot them trying to exit from an adjacent building. If they tried, we would be ready and react.

We owned the territory three blocks in any direction surrounding the hotel until 4PM. At that point we decided that since most of the media were gone and we had achieved our goals of delivering our message to the Governors and the public that we would meet at the Courtyard Marriott hotel to debrief. We had been in the sun and in temperatures of 85 degrees for two hours and needed some cool and rest. And unquestionably every last team member had earned it.

The media team of Roxane Perez and Teresa Torres were awesome beyond belief in their success in getting coverage. They spent all day with the press and cameras and rotating troops for interviews. We were on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox TV, National Public Radio, and on the front pages of all the local print media as well as the front pages of many other places in Indiana and outside the state. Thanks for your excellent work!

Tom Olin snapped fantastic pictures all day. We got them and will be sharing them soon.

The next morning on Monday all ADAPT members leaving were escorted to the airport, state line or their in state location by a combination of uniformed and undercover units. They could not breathe freely until they were SURE we were gone. I know because I regularly wear my radio headset and surf the frequencies. As Sun Tzu says in the Art of War, "Take advantage of the conditions which prevail in the field of battle". If you can freely know what they know, you should know. If I told you more about sources and methods, I would have to shoot ya, so I won't.

As most of you know, I specialize in teams and team tools and I do have to say again how awesome this TEAM was. It was one of the most fun Actions I have ever been on! Easy too! Take the elevator to the lobby and your there!

I look forward to the March from Philly to DC.

Hope to see you there!

With Love to ya all,
Roland