Sunday, August 14, 2011

UK & SF Both Block Tech To Prevent Violence

First it was British PM David Cameron talking about disrupting cell phone use to prevent protestors from coordinating during the riots, & soon after we learned that BART police in San Francisco actually did disrupt cell coverage upon learning there was going to be a protest over a shooting.

No surprise that the Chinese government took issue with that, since our government criticizes them for censorship. Be careful when you try to talk out of both sides of your mouth.

The problem here is that while it sounds draconian & definitely not democratic, public safety is at risk. The riots in London were quite violent, with lots of buildings being torched. I'm sure the number of injured was very high. In San Francisco BART officials cut underground cell service for 3 hours to attempt to prevent a protest over the fatal shooting of a man by police (What is it about BART & people getting shot?). This has been answered by hackers attacking a BART site & listing the names of thousands of Bay Area residents using that site. Question hackers: are you threatening commuters, because if you are, you are no better than thugs & criminals.

Yes it is an uncomfortable position to be in, but protests & riots have caused it. How exactly did a police shooting in London lead to stealing TV's? One has nothing to do with the other. It's simply an excuse to get something without paying. As for BART, a spokesman now says the disruptions were legal because they own the property. You may disagree but your workplace could use the same argument. Now they are trying to prevent protests that will disrupt service Monday. Yes because preventing people from being able to get home from work will make them popular. Do these people have jobs?

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