Cell Phone Network Shutdown
On August 11, BART officials, acting in anticipation of another anti-police protest announced during the evening commute hours, and acting on information that the protest would be coordinated live via Internet and text messages, successfully prevented the demonstration by shutting down the public cell phone network serving their jurisdiction in and between the downtown San Francisco stations. This action immediately garnered worldwide condemnation of BART, escalating the scope of public scrutiny on the agency from a regional to a global scale. The cell phone shutdown has generated even more negative publicity than has been generated by Charles Hill's shooting. It is the first documented instance of any government agency in the United States shutting down public communications to disrupt a protest. The American Civil Liberties Union called the decision "in effect an effort by a governmental entity to silence its critics." Numerous media outlets quoted BART officials making the claim that the planned protest was a threat to public safety, but did not offer any analysis of the claim's merit. BART has not published any evidence to support the claim that the protest planned for August 11 constituted a danger to anyone.
Read more about this topic: BART Police
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—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)