BART Braces for More Protests

Bay City News Service – For the third consecutive Monday, BART officials are warning commuters that stations may be shut down due to a planned protest at San Francisco's Civic Center station at 5 p.m.

But the protests will be different this time, according to the Twitter account of the hacker group "Anonymous," which is organizing the demonstration.

The protesters will be handing out fliers stating their demands, and they have been instructed by organizers not to enter the Civic Center station but to gather outside so as not to interfere with commuters.

The group began its protests after BART shut down cellphone service at several stations during a separate protest over the shooting of 45-year-old Charles Hill.

Hill was shot and killed on July 3 by BART police after he allegedly threatened officers with a knife and a broken bottle, police said.

Dr. Rupa Marya, a former doctor of Hill's, will be in attendance at the protest today aiming not to disrupt commuters "but to educate a population that may need to pause and think about the value a human life has," she said in a post on her Facebook page.

Corby Sturges, who commutes to San Francisco from the East Bay, will be leaving work early to make sure he can get out of the city before the demonstration begins. He called the protests "misguided."

"Interfering with the commute is not making much of a difference at BART headquarters," Sturges said. "The more effective protest would be focused at BART headquarters (rather) than commuters."

Someone fed up with the protests has set up a Facebook page titled "Commuters Take Back BART." The page states there will be a counter protest against the Anonymous protest tonight.

"BART commuters are sick and tired of 'protests' interfering with our right to use public transit, so we can earn a living and get back to our families," the site states.

"Let's take back BART from these misguided protesters and show them they are way outnumbered and will not shut down BART again," it reads.

BART shut down cellphone service in the stations during a protest on Aug. 15 and has closed multiple downtown stations in response to each protest.

Last Monday's protest resulted in the closure of the Civic Center and Powell Street stations and the arrest of about 40 people by San Francisco police.

BART held a community meeting last Wednesday to discuss the cellphone issue.

BART spokesman Jim Allison said that tonight, there will be a similar BART police presence in the stations to that of previous weeks.

"We support peaceful protests so long as they're outside the fare gates," Allison said.

Allison said, however, that if protesters are demonstrating inside the station, they could be arrested.

He cited a California penal code section that states that anyone who "hinders the safe and efficient operation of the rail line or rail-related facility is guilty of a misdemeanor."