BART Board Approves Authoritarian Cell Shutdown Policy, confirms intention to suppress speech during protest.
BART Board confirmed this morning a policy of shutting down Cellphone Networks to quell dissent. BART was the first agency in the United States to use Chinese Communist, Iranian Theocratic and Mubarak style suppression of free speech to quell protest. As the US Secretary of State has strongly condemned Iran and Egypt for similar communication network shutdowns, Chinese officials were quick to state their pleasure that US officials were beginning to recognize the value of suppression of free speech in quelling of dissent. However now that the ink has dried on official policies confirming the intention suppress free speech, The US Corporate news media seem to have taken a different tact, pretending that BART Board of Directors has made amends, and is in fact limiting cellphone shutdowns to rare occurrences.BART limits cellphone service blackouts , San Jose Mercury NewsSan Francisco area transit agency’s new cellphone policy would allow jamming in rare cases, The Washington PostFeds Pressured BART to Strengthen Cell Phone Policy by Zusha Elinson, the Bay Citizen
The Corporate News reported that BART has strictly limited Cellphone Shut Down to three extremely rare categories. The first two examples cover categories that in my opinion do not require clarification, Terrorist Explosives, and Terrorist Hostage Taking. This shouldn’t have required board action, and is indicative that the General Manager is incompetent, as a company memo should have been sent months ago confirming and clarifying that shutting down cell nets to thwart terrorist strikes is an imperative. The third category is a successful or apparently successful protest. “Illustrative examples of “Extraordinary Circumstances” include, but are not limited to, strong evidence of the use of cellphones to: (i) [terrorism!] (ii) [Moar Terrorism] … (iii) To facilitate plans to … Substantially Disrupt Public Transit Services [*protest].” ~page 68, BART Board Meeting Agenda Packet, [square brackets are for my paraphrasing of deleted sections] [*My Clarification Note, as legalese typically says the worst things in just a few words.]
Updates according to the Bay Citizen the ACLU was involved in writing the Cell Phone Policy.. http://www.baycitizen.org/bart-protests/story/barts-cell-phone-blunder-spurs-federal/
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