OntheWilderSide

Update: Info on how BART and the San Francisco community are dealing with the cell-phone and Free Speech issue can be found at an 8/17/2011 article at The Oakland Tribune/Inside Bay Area: here.
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Stay up to date about BART / San Francisco subway protest at The San Francisco Examiner Twitter: here.

Update from SFE Twitter at about 7:00pm PST/10pm EST:

Update from SFE Twitter at about 6:30pm PST
“All downtown SF #BART stations are reopened except for Powell Street, which remain open to passenger exiting only #opbart”

Live Blogging from The Oakland Tribune: here.

KW writes: LOL! One of the themes of the BART protest, is “Can you hear me now?” Which has the double-meaning of the words you say when your cellphone is shut off, and also, the message the protesters are sending to the BART administration and the BART police. There is a photo and caption at the Oakland Tribune with a protester standing next to a BART police officer and shouting repeatedly. “Can you hear me now?”

Below is some background and info…

(excerpt from) The San Francisco Chronicle
BART closes Civic Center, Powell stations
[BART is the subway system in San Francisco]

“(08-15) 18:02 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — BART has closed the Civic Center and Powell stations in downtown San Francisco after about 75 protesters gathered on the Civic Center platform to express anger over the transit agency’s decision to cut underground cellular phone service for three hours Thursday evening in an effort to quell a protest.”

You can find rolling updates at the Mercury News

A detail from 5:24 p.m (Pacific Times) stated:

Fliers being distributed at BART station call for firing of BART chief spokesman Linton Johnson. Fliers say it was Johnson’s idea to cut cell service last week to thwart protest. A banner is displayed calling for elimination of BART police force…

Filed under: News, politics, progressive politics Tagged: | bart, can you hear me now, cell service, Free Speech, Linton Johnson, protest, San Francisco