BART closes, reopens stations to thwart demonstrators

[Renew Deal]

(CNN) -- The threat of spreading protests prompted transit officials in San Francisco to successively close and reopen several key downtown subway stations on Monday.

The situation was fluid, with officials trying to thwart demonstrators, closing and reopening the Civic Center and Montgomery stations, closing the Powell station, then at least partially reopening Powell to allow riders to disembark.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit System announced in a news alert e-mail and in a tweet about 5:30 pm. PT (8:30 p.m. ET) Monday that its Civic Center station had been closed and "trains are running through."

Video from CNN affiliate KGO showed police officers in response gear at that station, with one officer on a megaphone telling people, "This is your final warning, the station is closed."
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http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/15/california.bart.protest/index.html

They also shut down cell phone service.

[krispos42]

1. Break out the walkie-talkies

FRS and GMRS radios, break'em out. They're in the same frequency range as some bands of police, fire, and EMT radios, so if they try to jam them they'll disrupt their radio net.


And being independent, decentralized simplex transmitters, there is no way they can be shut down by any phone company.

[Renew Deal]

2. They are setting themselves up for flash mob madness

People are one step ahead of the cops, though the cops can catch up quickly.

[krispos42]

3. You'll know you're where the cops don't want you to be...

...by when your service craps out.


It should be easy enough to pinpoint the area where it's off... simply have a group of people (perhaps via Facebook and Google Maps) find out where the border is, retreat back into "safe" territory, and post it on the Internet. If you have a bunch of people doing it, you quickly should be able to find the negative space that shows the outage/jamming.

[saras]

4. And OBVIOUSLY thwarting protests is more important than doing their job...