Blackmoor Vituperative

Controversy continues to rage over the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District’s unilateral decision to follow in the footsteps of Egypt’s now fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak, by cutting off cell phone services in an attempt to quell protests (in BART’s case, a protest that didn’t actually occur).

The “Anonymous” group has today already hacked BART’s external Web sites in response, and more protests triggered by BART’s actions may be forthcoming.

Is comparing Mubarak and BART unfair? Over the top? After all, various U.S. observers have been supporting BART’s decision, saying that riders really didn’t need cell service at those locations, didn’t have it in those locales a relatively few years ago, and have suggested that pretty much anything was acceptable in the name of proactively preserving “public safety” — even in the face of nonexistent protesters.

And since luckily it appears that no critical phone calls (“Sorry, I can’t reach the doctor’s cell phone!”) were blocked as a result of BART’s action, it’s no harm, no foul, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

[…]

(from BART, Cell Phones, Lenin, and a Steel Cage, Lauren Weinstein’s Blog)