BART president on cell shutdown

BART’s temporary interruption of cell phone service was not intended to and did not affect any First Amendment rights of any person to protest in a lawful manner in areas at BART stations that are open for expressive activity.

— A letter posted on the BART Web site Saturday and signed by Bob Franklin, president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s board of directors. A planned protest, which prompted BART’s August 12 severing of wireless service, was in reaction to the shooting in July of an apparently homeless man whom BART police officers said had come at them with a knife. In 2009, a shooting incident involving BART police resulted in the death of an unarmed teenager.