Spanish Police Brutality & BART Hijinks

My apologies on the lack of posts over the past few weeks.  I just started a new job and as you might imagine it’s very time consuming.  However, I ran across this startling video this morning and thought I should at least post it and of course discuss local relevance.

Given Anonymous’s recent hacking of the BART website in response to BART’s heavy handed handling (say that 3 times fast, actually never mind, I tried it, it’s easy) of a protest over a fatal shooting of a transient man, whose crime was that he “advanced threateningly” at an officer, I thought the above video a good reminder that our rights are fleeting.  (Try to record an “officer of the peace” in San Francisco or Spain.  It will not end well for you.)  So in order to quell or better control the protest BART made the decision to shut off the subterranean cell/Internet network during the protest (safe?).

What’s the over/under on how long it will be before our Local, State or even National Government begin controlling or limiting access to social networking services like Twitter or Facebook during protests or times of “crisis?” Our friends across the pond are already considering “restrictions on social media websites,” following last month’s classy rioting.

How we protest in the Bay:  Basically everyone that’s protesting just annoys the shit out of people who actually have jobs.  This leads to the annoyed identifying less with the protestors and more with the reason they are protesting in the first place.  “I wish the BART police would just shoot these protestors so I can get to work.”

I could have sworn that our right to peacefully assemble (I know it’s not always peaceful – but then again the police aren’t always peaceful either – see the Spanish video) was guaranteed by some old document, kept under high security in our nations capital.  No it was not stolen by Nic Cage in National Treasure.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that it’s not easy being a BART cop especially when you have the “enlightened citizens” of San Francisco aggressively mocking you.  Then again the surprising SWAT presence is probably over playing their hand.  Maybe exercising some common sense would do us all some good.  Just a thought.

Now this is not one of the more thoughtful or intelligent diatribes I’ve ever heard but then again we’re in San Francisco and I’m fairly certain everyone within ear shot thought she was George Clooney.