Posted on 08/12/2011 7:27:06 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
The operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system temporarily shut down cell service last night in four downtown San Francisco stations to interfere with a protest over a shooting by a BART police officer, a spokesman for the system said today.
"BART staff or contractors shut down power to the nodes and alerted the cell carriers," James Allison, deputy chief communications officer for BART, told CNET. The move was "one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform," he said in an initial statement provided to CNET earlier this afternoon.
Activists had planned to protest the fatal shooting of Charles Blair Hill, who BART police said went after them with a knife before an officer shot him on July 3.
"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," said the original BART statement. "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."
The initial statement from BART said the subway system had asked the wireless carriers to suspend the service in the stations, but Allison later said BART itself pulled the plug and notified the providers after the fact.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...
People should go back to old-fashioned CBs; look how the rabble is lost like bees without a queen when the technology is shut down by the masters of the ant-maze.
Oh, and they should probably leave the Bay Area as well; it is vile, and filled with people who flash-mob and such.
Were they planning to tell the BART cops, "nice shooting?" If not, then I am glad they stopped the protest.
Dial 911 and die. When seconds count, the power is out.
Actually, to avoid a riot I’m all for it.
Do as I say, not as I do. If a cop to refused to use any type of force to stop a attack on a lib, they would be out screaming. If a cop defends them selves using force they are out screaming.
So, if the gang members did show up and the demonstrations got violent, say rape and pillaging there would be no way to dial 911? Heck, a lot of people only have cells now. What if a household accident or a car accident happened? The minutes lost to find a land line could be the difference of life and death.
“there would be no way to dial 911?”
There was already a heavy police presence there in anticipation of a protest, no need to dial 911 when you can say Hey over here!
You trigger happy LEO Lovers are starting to wear out your welcome with some of us "civilians."
adding peer-to-peer would be an easy addition to cellphone technology. But for this reason we don’t see it being produced.
How many times have you been following someone in a car & you lose cell contact. Peer to peer would be easy
Yeah there is plenty of people in the armed services,police forces including myself who have overreacted but that is something else entirely.
Anyway the State of California has created a situation where social order is going to be maintained by denying mistakes happen,which is incredibly stupid.The authorities aren’t perfect and they should work things out to avoid repeating such incidents instead of figuring out how to disrupt people opposed to such errors.
And yes any protest around Frisco or Oakland is liable to get ugly but Bart’s little stunt just makes people realize that State agencies really are too fond of cracking down on dissent.
Let them have their moment to protest and toss the stupid ones in jail.
“So, if the gang members did show up and the demonstrations got violent, say rape and pillaging there would be no way to dial 911?”
First, when you call 911 on a cell phone in California you get the Highway Patrol dispatcher in who knows where. Not the local 911 dispatcher.
Second, and I only know this because I was there, the cops were already out in force. There must have been 100 of them outside the bart station and on the platform.
I spoke briefly to one of the cops on the platform asking him when the festivities were going to start. He said that the protestors were already there among the commuters. I said “So, you can spot them?”. He said “Sure, it’s always the same ones.”
He also said he thought they may be waiting for a signal.
Which would obviously be transmitted by cell phone or wireless.
I guess I’m on the other side of this situation... I have no problem with this.
Let’s take an alternate scenario. There is a bomb in a BART station that will be triggered by a cell phone. Do you shutdown cell phone service?
These flash mobs are getting more and more violent. People are getting injured, hospitalized etc. If one tactic is to shut down service temporarily...no problem with it really.
All the bugout training tells you not to depend on your cellphone in an emergency. They likely won’t work. Either too many people making calls or power outage or shut down. You are supposed to have secondary plans. Get a grip FReepers that time has come.
Sorry, violent protests are not a Right last time I checked. In fact, planning, organizing, participating in such events is illegal for all those involved. It is time to stop calling these things 'protests.' They are nothing of the sort.
Atta boy! The "copy cat the British riots" thugs are ready to start here. Better to shut them down before it gets to that stage-- in SF or anywhere here.
The problem is built into your response. Shut down phone service to stop a flash mob, not do right thing in the first place, which is not to have a catch and release program for violent criminals (Sure, it’s always the same ones).
Bring back hard labor and reform the prisons / court system. Make doing a violent crime unthinkable and the problem would mostly go away. Next, let more law abiding citizens carry. A well armed society is a polite one.
Yeah, that was my thought too. If anyone had a 911 emergency at that time and couldn’t get through, they (and their lawyers) would soon become mighty rich.
There was hardly anything violent in any of these protests,as for nipping this in the bud.....well let’s cancel all protests and any speech deemed inflamatory.Anyone who sacrifices freedom for total “security”,fully deserves whatever happens to them.
Again this being Frisco,I assume these protests do have an edge to them but nothing as truly violent as what goes on in London.
I used to think shooting authority figures was a bad thing. Then I grew up. You can confiscate our guns, have half of the population spying on the other half. Put a camera on every street corner. Civil War is coming, and in Chaos there is Profit.
There was an Obama type in Romania who used the same tactics. Stomping on protests, turning those protests into riots and shooting the riotere. A staunch Communist, not very bright, but completely ruthless, with a self-aggrandizing personality, who blamed everything on "the Other Guy." Made his wife the Minister of Science...
Ask Nicolae Ceauşescu if he had a Merry Christmas, 1989.
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