BART Pulls the Plug on San Francisco Protestors

We're accustomed to hearing about governments censoring the press, blocking the Internet and jamming cell phone signals in an effort to stymie free speech.

Normally, such things happen in China, Iran or Egypt.  But in recent days, Big Brother has been moving closer to home.  In London, Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed shutting down access to social media in areas wracked by -- or threatened by -- rioting.

And now comes a story from our very own San Francisco, which likes to see itself as an early locus of the modern free speech movement. Operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down cell phone service to four stations in downtown San Francisco last week in response to a planned protest.

Last month, protesters disrupted BART service in response to the fatal shooting of Charles Blair Hill by BART police on July 3rd. Last Thursday’s protest failed to materialize, possibly because the disruption of cell phone service made coordination difficult.

Early reports indicated that BART cut off cell phone service by approaching carriers directly and asking them to turn service off.

Later statements by James Allison, deputy chief communications officer for BART, assert “BART staff or contractors shut down power to the nodes and alerted the cell carriers” after the fact. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile have not said whether they were complicit in the shutdown.

BART said Friday that it had instituted new rules, including:

"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."

"Expressive activities" isn't defined but would seem to include the act of speaking which, last time we checked, was protected by the First Amendment.