Anonymous Does Not Regret This Inconvenience

In light of our recent actions, there has been talk about a "right to public transit". Anonymous *wishes* there was a right to public transit - the people of Los Angeles would have a really good court case. There's some right to transit in China, in Soviet Russia... what makes this country different is that we also have a right to free speech. That is sometimes a minor inconvenience, but well worth it in our opinion - freedom isn't free, as the saying goes.

The inconvenience experienced by commuters on Monday was mostly due to a complete overreaction by BART. There were more police and journalists in the Civic Center station than protesters. The protesters never made it into the other three stations that were shutdown. As far as we know, they made no attempt whatsoever to delay trains or otherwise interfere with the normal operations of the system (and if we are incorrect, we condemn those actions).

Given the entirely peaceful nature of Monday's protest, the presence of large numbers of heavily armed riot cops at future protests is unnecessary and inappropriate. Over 300 people protested peacefully, without a single incident of violence or property damage. No arrests were made. The excessive police presence is nothing more than a blatant, shameful attempt by BART to intimidate protesters attempting to exercise their first amendment rights.

Anonymous will not tolerate a BART policy banning cellphone use or excluding protesters from the platforms (http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_18710956). We will settle for nothing less than a policy permitting non-disruptive political activity inside a rail station, as mandated by the 1967 California Supreme Court decision  (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/14/MNTC1KNC27.DTL). The right to free speech does not end at the turnstile. We believe the entire country is a free speech zone, and that is what makes America great.