Dear Dirty America

Brian Nash

BART officials won’t say if they will jam cell phone signals during a scheduled protest Monday afternoon at the Civic Center station but they insist they have the right to do so.

The hacker group Anonymous says it plans to hold a 5:00 p.m. demonstration to express outrage at BART’s decision to shut down cell service last Thursday during another planned demonstration which did not materialize.  BART police say they made the decision to prevent demonstrators from coordinating efforts to disrupt train service.

Officials will only say they are preparing for Monday afternoon’s protest but insist they have the right to cut off cell service for everyone within the fare gates.

“The platform area is deemed a non-public forum,” BART spokesman Linton Johnson said.  “A public forum area, which is outside the fare gates, you are allowed to exercize your right to free speech as long as you don’t interfere with peoples’ ability to get from Point A to Point B or interfere with their Constitutional right to safety.  Outside the fare gates, that’s the public forum area.  Inside the fare gates is a non-public forum and by law, by the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court, there is no right to free speech there.”