<story><title>San Francisco Subway Muzzles Cell Service During Protest</title><url>http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20091822-245/s.f-subway-muzzles-cell-service-during-protest/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nettdata</author><text>Am I the only one who doesn&apos;t see a problem with this?&lt;p&gt;They provided a cel phone repeater as an amenity/courtesy to their passengers.  It&apos;s not part of their charter to provide cel service.&lt;p&gt;Their goal is to keep their passengers moving efficiently.  By no longer providing that cel service, they disrupted the wannabe disrupters.&lt;p&gt;Their freedom of assembly wasn&apos;t interfered with, they just didn&apos;t help it.&lt;p&gt;If the protesters relied on cel phone coverage to perform their demonstration, then their strategy failed, and they&apos;ll have to come up with another way.&lt;p&gt;They increased the presence of police in the area, so the &quot;how will I call for an ambulance&quot; concern is a bit melodramatic; there were emergency personal already on scene, with non-cel communication capabilities.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I feel the right to assemble/demonstrate has been extended too far into the area of &quot;I demand the right to fuck up everyone else&apos;s day&quot;, and applaud BART for doing something about it.</text></comment>
<story><title>San Francisco Subway Muzzles Cell Service During Protest</title><url>http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20091822-245/s.f-subway-muzzles-cell-service-during-protest/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tshtf</author><text>Are they really concerned about public safety?&lt;p&gt;What if, while the cell sites were powered down, a crazed lunatic with a knife started stabbing people on a BART platform or train? How could anyone call for help?&lt;p&gt;This is lunacy.</text></comment>