BART Disables Cell Service To Disrupt Protests

1729 writes "Yesterday, in an effort to disrupt rumored protests at Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, BART officials disabled cell phone and internet access within most of the BART system by shutting down the antennas that enable reception in the underground stations."

Comments

Stupid slope

[White Flame]

How long will it be before they just gas a place with knock-out gas in order to "keep the peace"?

Re:Stupid slope

[NiceGeek]

Incorrect. The incident you are referencing took place in Oakland, not SF and it was over two years ago. This protest was about the shooting of a guy who was brandishing a knife on the subway platform. http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/07/21/bart-to-release-video-of-civic-center-shooting-on-the-web-at-3-p-m/

Re:Stupid slope

[capnkr]

This:

I would shoot you in the leg.

You'd better be a damned good shot with that pistol. Most people aren't. Not enough to intentionally hit the smaller parts of an advancing target in a threatening situation, when adrenaline is pouring through your bloodstream and you have absolutely no control over the situation or the actions of the person who's coming at you with a weapon fast, and noise and stress and recoil are playing hell with your careful, gun-range shooting practice skills and he's almost on you...

Your plan sounds all good and idealistic and I'd also like to think that it can happen that way, but remember Moltke: "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy." Try to kill me, and I'll try to kill you right back.

Re:Stupid slope

[type40]

When you fire your weapon you should mean it. Don't shoot to injure or incapacitate. Shoot to kill.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You shoot to end the threat.
If when all is said and done they are no longer metabolizing oxygen, fine. But if you plant a round center mass and they drop their weapon, turn tail, and run. You better cease fire, the threat has been stopped, cuz the next shot you fire they are the victim.
You shoot to end the threat.
You shoot to end the threat.
You shoot to end the threat.
You shoot to end the threat.
You shoot to end the threat.
You shoot to end the threat.

Re:Stupid slope

[type40]

I'm a police office and we are taught to shoot to end the threat.
To use deadly force you need 3 things:
>Means: they have to have the means to cause great bodily harm or death.
>Ability: They must have the ability to cause great bodily harm or death.
>Eminence: The threat must be eminent.
If you don't have all three you don't have a deadly force situation.
If the threat is no longer eminent, ie they turn tail and run, you don't have a deadly force situation.
Being able to keep a clear head in a high stress situation and recognize if you have all three elements is the responsibility of carrying a firearm.

Shoot to kill gets you sued to.
Wait till you get on the witness stand and the lawyer for the family of the person you shot is questioning you.
"Sir is it true that you are a trained killer?"
"Is it true that when you drew your weapon you intenteded to kill the only son of my client?"
That shit looks really good in front of a jury.

Never confuse the training soldier gets with the training law enforcement gets. Just because both carry guns doesn't mean they're trained to use them the same way.

Solidarity

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

When Poland's workers organized to protest the Communist government, one of the government's countermeasures was to disable the phone system.

My mother remarked at the time how unimaginable it was to live in a place where the phones could stop working because the government wanted them to.

Re:Welcome to Fascism

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Fascist! Turn from the left
Fascist! Turn to the right
Oooh, fascist!
We are the goon squad
and we're coming to town
Beep-beep
Beep-beep

Do you live/work in the Bay Area?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the BART website:
Comments and Complaints - 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday, 24/7 voice mail 510 464-7134

Better yet, here is the contact information for BART's Government & Community Relations folks -- drop them a note and CC your local representative:
ALAMEDA COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE
Walter Gonzales, wgonzal@bart.gov, (510) 464-6428
Representing the following BART stations: North Berkeley, Downtown Berkeley, Ashby, Rockridge, MacArthur, 19th Street, Oakland City Center/12th Street, West Oakland, Lake Merritt, Fruitvale, Coliseum/Oakland Airport, San Leandro, Bay Fair, Castro Valley, Dublin/Pleasanton, Hayward, South Hayward, Union City and Fremont.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE
June Garrett, jgarret@bart.gov 510-464-6257
Representing the following BART stations: Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Concord, North Concord/Martinez, Pittsburg/Bay Point, El Cerrito Plaza, El Cerrito Del Norte and Richmond.

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE
Molly Burke, mburke@bart.gov 510-464-6172
Representing the following BART stations: Embarcadero, Montgomery St, Powell St, Civic Center, 16th Street, 24th Street, Glen Park, Balboa Park, Daly City, Colma, South San Francisco, San Bruno, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Millbrae.

LEGISLATION
Paul Fadelli, Legislative Officer, pfadell@bart.gov 510-464-6159

DEPARTMENT MANAGERS
Kerry Hamill, Department Manager of Government and Community Relations, khamill@bart.gov 510-464-6153
Roddrick Lee, Division Manager of Local Government and Community Relations, rlee@bart.gov 510-464-6235

ADMINISTRATION
Lisa Moland, Goverment and Community Relations Specialist, lmoland@bart.gov 510-464-7227

Mailing Address:
Bay Area Rapid Transit District
Government and Community Relations Department
300 Lakeside Drive, 18th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612

Fax Number: 510-464-6146

Re:Won't make too much difference

[Mal-2]

Further, the only thing shut off was BART's own equipment. They were transparent enough to say "we shut off our gear rather than let you use it to organize against us", rather than blaming the outage on some sort of convenient hardware failure (or vandalism, which probably would have passed the sniff test under the circumstances). I can't imagine the cell sites outside the paid platform (which were left on) have zero spillover, so those who absolutely needed it could stand at the periphery while waiting for the next train.

Statement from BART

[drew30319]

From TFA:

"BART’s primary purpose is to provide, safe, secure, efficient, reliable, and clean transportation services. 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.

"Paid areas of BART stations are reserved for ticketed passengers who are boarding, exiting or waiting for BART cars and trains, or for authorized BART personnel. No person shall conduct or participate in assemblies or demonstrations or engage in other expressive activities in the paid areas of BART stations, including BART cars and trains and BART station platforms."

Re:and in vancover they riot over losing a NHL gam

[hedgemage]

Religion is important to a lot of people.

Re:Interesting, yet scary.

[artor3]

It's not that it's a requirement. If they took it down because it was too expensive, or it needed lengthy repairs, or whatever, I'd be fine with that. But when they cut off a mode of communication specifically to prevent people from communicating, that's when it becomes a problem. I expect that in Syria or Iran, not in the US.

I thought Internet access was a human right?

[WaffleMonster]

OMFG for months we've been hearing western nations cry bloody murder over Middle eastern government oppresive measures against their own telecom infustructures...

This colminated with the fucking UN declaring Internet access to be a human right.

Now we have ourselves some relatively minor incidents of civil unrest and the very same (mostly european) countries are doing the very same shit they were previously so adamantly against.

I hope BART gets sued to hell.