Brooke spoke with BART spokesman Linton Johnson, hours before a planned protest outside San Francisco rapid transit stations. Johnson defends BART's decision to black out cell phone service last week in the interest of passenger safety, and says "they will do whatever is appropriate" to promote safety for their passengers. The burning question is whether or not they will shut off cell phone service again tonight.
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I herd a bunch of Spitting and sputtering, when asked the Important Questions, those actions raised, including "Protecting public safety" and ensuring the availability of "Communications". Nice style in Questioning as you hit a bullseye against a 15 year (X) Journalist that showed Intelligence vs. Ignorance of shutting down networks that could save someones life.
It's called "cell phone service" for a reason. It is a "service" and is NOT a "right" for citizens. At age 60, I'm old enough to remember riding public transportation without access to cell phone "service." Get real. Growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, I can attest to the fact that cell phones were not needed to organize and stage a sit-in. Quit whining. Free Speech is not tied to cell phone "service."
As BART's actions show, the ability to shut down cell service is in its design. Other government and quasi-government facilities across the nation, it is now revealed, likely also have this ability to interfere with public communications. Who is thinking of parallels to regimes world-wide which have shown the same ability to crack down on lawful dissent and assembly? What do WE stand for, if not to be in complete opposition to this behavior?