Cellphones blocked in SF to hinder transit protest

Cellphones blocked in SF to hinder transit protest

news.yahoo.com

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Transit officials said Friday that they blocked cellphone reception in San Francisco train stations for three hours to disrupt planned demonstrations over a police shooting.

Officials with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, better known as BART, said they turned off electricity to cellular towers in four stations from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. The move was made after BART learned that protesters planned to use mobile devices to coordinate a demonstration on train platformsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Transit officials said Friday that they blocked cellphone reception in Sa

(visit the link for the full news article)

Okay, my theory on this is that the governments of North America are afraid about protests thus the cell phone use was blocked, thus ending a potential protest they have the goods and the bads, the good being we wouldn't have a repeat of Vancouver or London, the bad being it is stripping peoples rights to protest, since one can legally and peacefully. But I guess everyone is on high alert about planned protests.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Peer 2 peer is the winner here, rather than hub and spoke which they can disconnect at the hub.

There was p2p messiging applications for android etc released at Defcon. Look into those.

this is an outrage. what if a member of someone's family needed medical attention and was trying to reach someone in that block out zone. total BS... especially in such a progressive city.
how is that even legal?

Prohibiting people from communicating with each other is 100% control.

The most powerful, non-violent means of protest and self protection is the ability to use that cell phone to relay instant info. Taking away this non-violent instrument leaves a wider opening for violence due to the lack of communication between the citizens.

This action should be the final signal that the Govt. now has free reign to do whatever it wants at its whim. They can carry a gun to the protest but the citizens can't even use a cell phone?

This itself should be the reason to protest.

Go down to the local store and buy some cheap handheld CB radios and what not.



These radios can range 10 km or more right? lol

yea, true, in Toronto cell phones simply don't work in the subways underground. Most likely since the signals can't reach but that is a danger in itself.

It's scary how many people in the comments section of that article are agreeing with what BART did.

Originally posted by hypr2011
yea, true, in Toronto cell phones simply don't work in the subways underground. Most likely since the signals can't reach but that is a danger in itself.

edit on 13-8-2011 by hypr2011 because: (no reason given)

Here we can use mobile phones while in the subway lol havn't they hard of putting transmitters in the subway or the cars? lol

Originally posted by zooplancton
this is an outrage. what if a member of someone's family needed medical attention and was trying to reach someone in that block out zone. total BS... especially in such a progressive city.
how is that even legal?

TPTB,

and their subclaves,

DO NOT care about anybody else.

Local "authorities" are all blindsided and "YES'ed" up with fear of the mirror image of themselves being victims.

they will always accuse anybody of what they themselves are guilty of !!!

it's psychology 101 at its' best !!!

the general public needs to prepare for this kind of BS.

don't trust any public officials, unless they're your best friends or very close relatives.

this will end up being like the other countries .... rats in a cage !!!

awesome! glad this happened! seriously! people need to stop relying on technology to take their country back! they gave us technology to get us used to it, to get us soooo accustomed to it that we "need" it to do anything!

they can turn a cellphone tower off....but they can't turn an angry group of protestors already crowded together. stop using phones and social network sites to congregate. start using friends and word of mouth. any and everything you post online/text message is tracked/monitored.

so hey you dumba$$ americans...stop talking/texting about it and just do it! let them strip us of their technology! we don't need it anyways! we're gonna take this land back one way or another...you mark my words! they can stop the phone calls but THEY CANNOT STOP THE MOVEMENT!

Already posted.
www.abovetopsecret.com...


But for all those people outraged, remember that BART have no obligation to provide such a phone service on their system in the first place. Much like a wifi at McDonalds, or a private individual leaving his wireless router open for th public to use.

If they switch off their own property, what gives you the right to be outraged?

reply to post by hypr2011


America has just exposed itself, there is a fear of an uprising in US and the government knows it very well.

People have been talking about revolution in the internet for some time now, and any thing could spark it, I guess the government believed this could be one of those sparks.

This is dangerous times for Europe and America.

reply to post by jude11


I agree with you 100%

This is something that we will see all over the USA from now on I would imagine. What are they basing this on? What law are they using to justify there actions?

Yeah, I started this same thing earlier, must have been a time thing.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

But carry on. It's the story, not the teller that should get the attention.
Mods, if needed, delete mine.

A thought.

Imagine a presidential election. Something devastating gets out but TPTB turns off all media to inhibit communication.

The evil uses boggle the mind.

Originally posted by alfa1
Already posted.
www.abovetopsecret.com...


But for all those people outraged, remember that BART have no obligation to provide such a phone service on their system in the first place. Much like a wifi at McDonalds, or a private individual leaving his wireless router open for th public to use.

If they switch off their own property, what gives you the right to be outraged?

I am not really familiar with the hierarchy of BART, but would assume that if it has a police force present in its name (as you see in NYC with the Port Authority in Manhattan), then i would also assume that it represents a form of local government. Having said that....

Originally, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress. However, starting with Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925), the Supreme Court has held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government.

from a Wiki on the 1st Amendment.

Lets hear what Justice Hugo Black had to say about the matter of our right of protest:

An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

Anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an important role in the progress of mankind. Persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history have been able to criticize the oppressive practices and laws either anonymously or not at all... It is plain that anonymity has sometimes been assumed for the most constructive purposes.

and our own Declaration of Independence (which i sincerely doubt many Americans have read, or remember reading, and comprehend):

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.— Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world...

Tyranny you, and (as our founders suspected) other Americans tolerate. Nay, you actually embrace it. This is the nation I find myself in, the people I am surrounded by?

I am ashamed.

Glad I ditched my cell a while back. If I was a subscriber I would be up in arms over a service that I pay for being flipped off at will by the government. Id at least be demanding a refund for loss of service.

Wouldn't this mean BART is overreaching its authority?

For one the towers do not belong to them, so I'm sure they had to ask for them to be shut off by whoever owns them, but should the company who owns the towers even listen to them since BART has no authority over the airwaves?

I would doubt the FCC would want some podunk local transit authority deciding arbitrarily when to cease and resume communications when it sees fit, because that is what its doing. So, did they get FCC permission first before they pulled this stunt?

I smell a lawsuit in there somewhere.

Originally posted by mustangill
reply to post by jude11

 

I agree with you 100%

This is something that we will see all over the USA from now on I would imagine. What are they basing this on? What law are they using to justify there actions?

TPTB will do whatever they want whenever they want.

you can sue 'em later after the fact .... good luck (if you're still alive!)

they will call your bluff and then eat the same pie in the sky that YOU THINK you might have !!!!!!

check out these topics .... and get ready ..... now!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...