ARE YOU READY TO SEE THIS OVER YOUR MORNING COFFEE? NO. YOU’RE NOT.

The shockwaves of the controversial series of protests against the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system are being felt throughout USF.

The protests against the BART stem from serious allegations against the BART Police, who are accused of using excessive force against Kenneth Harding, 19,of Seattle, Washington and Charles Hill, 45, a local transient. Adding fuel to the already simmering controversy, when local residents planned a peaceful protest against the use of excessive force by BART police, cell phone service was shut off in multiple BART stations to circumvent people from gathering. This action, which many are calling a violation of the right to assemble and practice freedom of speech, has increased public outrage against the BART police, causing many to call for re-training of all officers and the removal of their firearms, although some are demanding the BART police be disbanded entirely. The activist group Anonymous has also taken an active role, organizing these protests via social networking sites such as Twitter and distributing the emails and passwords of BART officers.

USF students, as both activists and customers of the BART, have voiced mixed opinions about the ongoing protests. Freshman Hannah Marshall, a fine arts and environmental studies double major, recently participated in one of the protests and, after learning more about the reasons for the outcry against the BART police, has decided to further engage in these protests, saying “It was extremely educational for me though, and I plan to become more involved in political activism such as the BART protests. The experience really opened my eyes “. Some students like Vincente Patiño, a junior and San Francisco native studying ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Architecture, may be feeling far less kindly towards the protesters. Patiño was stuck on a BART train “at Powell station for about five minutes before the doors of the train were made clear” when protests shut down the multiple BART stations earlier this August, when the conflict started. Patiño points out “some individual protesters over-stepped their bounds by trying to bring a very important regional transit system to a grinding halt through vandalism, climbing on trains and overall creating a very unsafe environment for thousands of unsuspecting passengers. I do support, though, the proposition of keeping a special eye on the BART police since this is the second time in recent memory that the transit police have shot people under questionable circumstances”

More recently, the protests against the BART, aside from forcing many commuters to find alternative routes and causing delays throughout the Public Transportation System, have taken a very serious turn. Not only have there been incidents of violence at many of these clashes but at the September 8th protest at the Powell BART Station, the BART police locked journalists, many of them students at SFSU working on an assignment, and protestors alike into the underground station. While a few journalists were escorted out, most of the people locked inside were arrested, their press passes confiscated.

While all reporting members of the Foghorn were threatened with incarceration, photographer Kia Zomorrodi, a freshman Finance Major, was arrested after being told by BART police that his media pass was “not legitimate enough” to warrant being let out of the station with other journalists and being accused of “causing trouble”. Zomorrodi, who was charged with a misdemeanor under penal code 369i, interfering with public transportation, was taking photos as a member of the press when he was pushed by police along with his fellow journalists so they could be rounded up and arrested by the San Francisco Police Department. While being detained, BART officers refused to answer Zomorrodi’s questions regarding the reasons he was not being released along with other journalists. Zomorrodi was only informed of his charges after being handcuffed and put into the back of a police van and, although he was released from custody that night, he must appear before a judge on October 13th and convince them of his innocence; the maximum penalty for a misdemeanor charge is up to a year in county jail and a $1000 fine. In hindsight, Zomorrodi described the BART officers as “…rude and ignorant. I used to have a lot of respect for officers but tonight totally changed my view on them. I saw first-hand why they are hated so much.”

**Note**

This is the unedited version of the piece that was wrote for the SF Foghorn. It may have been edited.