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Protests briefly close four BART stations, delaying thousands of passengersSAN FRANCISCO, Aug 16, 2011 (Contra Costa Times - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Demonstrators angry over the Bay Area Rapid Transit's cellphone blackout last week disrupted service at four busy San Francisco stations during the evening commute Monday, stranding thousands of passengers but causing no serious damage. Commuters couldn't enter the Civic Center, Powell Street, Montgomery or Embarcadero stations during portions of the two-hour protest. The demonstration was staged by a hacker group upset over BART's decision last week to cut off cellphone service to thwart a protest over a police shooting. BART officials said they knew of no arrests nor injuries Monday, although one gate at the Embarcadero station was damaged. Dozens of protesters _ some wearing the Guy Fawkes mask made popular in the movie "V for Vendetta" _ gathered at the Civic Center station about 5 p.m. Some held signs and banners critical of BART police and censorship. The protest started heating up about 5:20 p.m., when BART reported that it closed the Civic Center station after transit police decided it was unsafe with dozens of protesters chanting on a crowded platform. One protester delayed a train car door from closing, said BART spokesman Jim Allison. BART reopened the last station _ Powell Street _ at 7:30 p.m. after a back and forth between protesters who marched from station to station and police who tried to keep them outside fare gates. The protest wasn't as rowdy as one last month, when protesters climbed on top of trains and jammed doors. Passengers who gathered outside the closed stations were frustrated over a lack of information from BART officials about the closures. "I was in Civic Center and it was closed and they said to come to Powell and it was closed," said a 40-year-old Oakland woman who declined to give her name. "I need to go home and rest." Otto and Joanne Hottendorf and three teenage companions waited outside the Powell Street station, trying to figure out how to get to home. "We want our money or our transportation," Joanne Hottendorf said. "We already paid for our round-trip ticket. What are we supposed to do, take a cab to Livermore?" Otto Hottendorf said, "The childish behavior of the protesters is ridiculous." Members of the hacker group called Anonymous organized the demonstration to protest BART's Aug. 11 decision to cut off cellphone service to prevent demonstrators from communicating as they organized a protest of the July 3 shooting of a homeless man. BART did not cut off cellphone service during the protest Monday because the measure wasn't needed, Allison said. BART took heat for the move last week, with several First Amendment groups criticizing the agency for squelching free speech, and the Federal Communications Commission announced Monday that is reviewing BART's blackout. "Any time communications services are interrupted, we seek to assess the situation," FCC spokesman Neil Grace said in an email. "We are continuing to collect information about BART's actions and will be taking steps to hear from stakeholders about the important issues those actions raised, including protecting public safety and ensuring the availability of communications networks." Grace said the FCC already has been in touch with BART administrators and plans to reach out to passengers, free-speech advocates and other interested parties. BART officials have said they acted legally. BART did not jam cellphone signals, but instead turned off equipment that allowed calls be transmitted to and from cellphone users in the Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell and Civic Center stations. BART officials defended the move as justified to keep trains running and prevent pushing, shoving or other actions that could endanger passengers on crowded station platforms next to moving trains. BART officials said they do not object to protests outside station fare gates, but they vowed to take action to deal with protests inside the fare gates because of the risk to public safety. "It's our obligation to provide safe transport to our customers," spokesman Linton Johnson told CNN on Monday. One constitutional law expert said the government has some latitude to control speech on certain kinds of public property. "It may well be that the paid areas of BART stations are more like a library than they are like a park, so that the government has a pretty free hand," said Vikram Amar, associate dean at the University of California-Davis' law school. "But the government still has to avoid basing its decisions on the particular viewpoints of particular speakers; the government's regulations still have to be reasonable; and it has to be spelled out so people have notice and there's not too much subjectivity or discretion." BART shouldn't shut down cellphone service because it disagrees with the message of a particular protest, Amar said, but it's probably within its rights to ensure that no protest _ whatever the content _ disrupts its ability to serve its riders. "We're always a little bit more scared of government action when it's not done pursuant to some transparent, across-the-board, generally applicable policy," Amar said. "A lot depends on how much we think their policy was targeted toward these particular persons." ___ (Staff writer Josh Richman contributed to this report.) ___ (c) 2011, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.). Visit the Contra Costa Times on the Web at http://www.contracostatimes.com. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |