San Francisco Cell Shutdown: Safety Issue, or Hint of Orwell?

[American Patriot]

BART admits halting cell service to stop protests


Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, August 13, 2011

Michael Macor / The Chronicle
BART police officers are out in force Thursday to prevent any disruptions from a protest sponsored by "No Justice, No BART" group. The protest did not materialize during the evening commute.


Images

View All Images (4)
More News

• Free-speech advocates silent on BART hacking 08.16.11
• Vocational training could help keep kids in school 08.16.11
• Lake Tahoe clarity dips, leaders summit 08.16.11

Oakland --
BART's shut-off of subterranean cell phone service in its downtown San Francisco stations may have prevented a protest Thursday, but it sparked accusations Friday that the action stifled free speech and smacked of the kind of government intrusion employed by Middle East dictators.
"All over the world, people are using mobile devices to protest oppressive regimes, and governments are shutting down cell phone towers and the Internet to stop them," said Michael Risher, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. "It's outrageous that in San Francisco, BART is doing the same thing."
BART officials acknowledged Friday afternoon that they had switched off the transit system's underground cell phone network, which runs from Balboa Park Station through the Transbay Tube, from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday to prevent protesters from coordinating plans to stop trains.
A cluster of groups under the "No Justice, No BART" banner said on websites that they planned to protest the fatal July 3 shooting of a knife-wielding man, Charles Blair Hill, by BART police. Protesters briefly shut down the Civic Center, Powell Street and 16th Street Mission stations July 11. Trains ran through the stations without stopping.
"Organizers planning to disrupt BART service stated they would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police," the transit agency said. "A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for BART customers, employees and demonstrators."
A 'recipe for disaster'

Contrary to some speculative reports, BART did not jam wireless signals or ask cell phone providers to shut down towers near stations. BART owns and controls the wireless network strung through its subways, and BART police ordered it switched off, after receiving permission from BART interim General Manager Sherwood Wakeman, former general counsel for the transit district.
Benson Fairow, BART's deputy police chief, said he decided to switch off the service out of concern that protesters on station platforms could clash with commuters, create panicked surges of passengers, and put themselves or others in the way of speeding trains or the high-voltage third rails.
"It was a recipe for disaster," he said. "The fact that they started to conspire to commit illegal actions on the station platform was our concern. I asked myself: If my wife, mother or daughter was on that platform, would I want them to be in that situation?"
Civil libertarians questioned the constitutionality of BART's decision and predicted legal action, or at least serious investigation by the Federal Communications Commission.
"The most pertinent right in question is the right to free expression," said Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group. "BART makes the point that a few years ago you couldn't even use your cell phone in the stations, but that's beside the point. At this point, they have made a policy of allowing it on the platform.
"To withdraw that ability to express yourself ... under a desire to prevent particular political speech between protesters was a shocking disregard of the free speech rights of every BART passenger and, indeed, was a prior restraint on any expressive activity they would otherwise have engaged in."
Question of control

While BART owns and controls the wireless network in its tunnels, it might not have the right to shut it off to halt a protest, ACLU's Risher said.
"Once BART opens a forum for expression, their authority to close it down becomes a little more limited," he said. "As far as I know, no governmental entity in this country has ever done anything like this."
BART spokesman Jim Allison said this was the first time the transit agency shut down the underground wireless system because of public safety concerns.
Fairow said that BART considered the free speech implications posed by the cell phone shutdown but decided that those rights were outweighed by the need to protect the public.
"It's the constant juggle," he said. "The courts have ruled that some inconvenience is OK (to protect free speech) but the courts have also ruled that public safety takes priority."
BART allows free speech - from protesting to proselytizing - outside the paid areas of stations. But it's not suitable inside the fare gates, and especially on the train platforms, he said.
But even some BART riders thought the tactic seemed very un-Bay Area.
"We don't want the government turning off cell phones in Syria, and we don't want them turning off cell phones here," said Patricia Shean, 72, of San Francisco. "We deal with things differently here."
Chronicle staff writer James Temple contributed to this report. E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1VCgAWygK

[American Patriot]

Cell service remains on during Anonymous protest against BART

August 16, 2011 at 6:46 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment

Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor
San Francisco, CA, United States (AHN) – Bay Area Rapid Transit kept cell phone service online late Monday during a protest led by hacker group Anonymous as the Federal Communications Commission began a probe of the transit agency’s decision last week to cut off cell phone service at some stations to prevent a rally in response to the fatal shooting of a homeless man by BART police.
The “peaceful protest” organized by Anonymous, the group responsible for taking down the websites of foreign governments that sought to quell public opposition, began at 5 p.m. at Civic Center Station. It soon turned chaotic, and BART was forced to close the station to ensure passenger safety.
The protest continued through the evening rush hour, shutting down Embarcadero, Montgomery and Powell stations.
The four stations were opened and were running normally later that night.
Members of Anonymous and others who joined the demonstration appeared in red-stained shirts and the hacker group’s signature Guy Fawkes masks. There was chanting and slogans, but no serious encounter with riot police.
Cell phone service was not interrupted during the demonstration.
FCC spokesman Neil Grace told the National Journal the same day that the agency had started an investigation into BART’s decision to shut down cell phone service to prevent protesters from organizing last Thursday.
“Anytime communications services are interrupted, we seek to assess the situation,” Grace told the newspaper.
Although the FCC said the move may have violated civil liberties, some observers believed the FCC was unlikely to investigate the incident since BART had not used jammers to interrupt cellular service.
Anonymous, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups had assailed the transit agency for using tactics similar to those taken by Egypt and Iran against anti-government protesters. The move also put passengers at risk, they added.
BART, which has about 350,000 riders daily, said its rules prohibit any rallies in paid areas of stations. It added that cellular service was interrupted only in four stations, and that train intercoms and transit police with radios were available for passenger emergencies.
“BART accommodates expressive activities that are constitutionally protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Liberty of Speech Clause of the California Constitution (expressive activity), and has made available certain areas of its property for expressive activity,” it said.
The transit agency shut down its myBART.org on Sunday after the site was hacked and the contact information of about 2,400 of 55,000 subscribers were posted online.
Anonymous said the attack on BART’s website was “an attempt to show those engaging in the censorship what it feels like to be silenced.” But some passengers unhappy with the release of their personal data accused the hacker group of making victims out of BART riders.
The hacker group early this year responded to a threat from HBGary Federal, a contractor that protects the government from hackers, by breaching the company’s security systems.
BART is investigating the death of a 45-year-old transient, Charles Hill, at Civic Center on July 3 after being shot by transit police. The agency said two officers responded to a call of a “wobbly drunk” on the platform at about 9:45 p.m. They reported shooting him one minute after arriving at the station.
One officer suffered cuts and bruises on his arm. Both officers are on administrative leave after giving statements to BART and the San Francisco police, which is conducting a separate probe.
According to BART, Hill was armed with a knife, and glass from a shattered bottle and knives were found at the scene.
The shooting took place less than a week after the transit agency reached a $1.3 million agreement to settle a civil lawsuit from the mother of an unarmed passenger, Oscar Grant, who was fatally shot by BART police on New Year’s Day in 2009.

[American Patriot]

Posted at 09:43 AM ET, 08/16/2011 BART service disrupted by protests at 4 San Francisco stations [PHOTOS, VIDEO]

By Elizabeth Flock


BART police officers push back a protester at the Civic Center station in San Francisco on Monday. (Jeff Chiu - AP) As British Prime Minister David Cameron clamps down on cellphone services across the pond, Americans are facing a First Amendment battle back home.
After authorities for San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, blocked wireless signals in certain stations on Thursday, angry demonstrators organized by a hacker group disrupted service at four busy stations during Monday’s evening commute.
Dozens of protesters wore the Guy Fawkes masks made popular by the movie “V for Vendetta” as they carried signs and banners accusing BART officials of censorship.
The hacker group Anonymous also hacked the agency’s Web site, posting images of Guy Fawkes and personal information of thousands of the passengers.
The cellphone blackout had been an attempt to head off protests over the July 3 shooting death of Charles Blair Hill by BART police. Police say Hill came at them with a knife.
While First Amendment scholars say they can’t remember a time when a public agency clamped down on private communication in this way, BART's chief spokesman, Linton Johnson, told reporters: “There is a constitutional right to safety... A lot of people are forgetting the fact that there are multiple constitutional rights.”
BART officials said they knew of no arrests or injuries.

[American Patriot]

Peterle... yes there are police every where these days.

BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit

Underground = YES, it is a Subway, underground train system

This is all in San Francisco, CA.

BART "police" it would seem are employees of the City, but are specifically cops that are assigned to BART. Thus they are part of the "authorities" in the area.

[American Patriot]

Have you visited the US before Peterle? lol

[Ryan Ruck]

Peterle,
Here in the US large cities with large mass transit systems usually have a police division dedicated to solely policing the mass transit system.

In fact in New York not only did they used to have a police force for the transit system (up until 1995 apparently), they also have the New York (& New Jersey) Port Authority Police Department which is responsible for bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports.