Nemesis List: Bay Area Rapid Transit

Subject: Totalitarian municipal officials.

Doing Business As: BART, the San Francisco Bay Area’s public transportation system.

Occupation: Masters of the Airwaves.

Crime: Spooked by rumors of a planned rush-hour demonstration in a San Francisco BART station, the agency arranged to cut off cell phone reception to the station platform.

Constitutional Guarantee Hampered by Nemesis: Right of public assembly.

Possible Legal Fallout to Nemesis: Only federal agencies are allowed to jam telephone reception. BART is not a federal agency.

Nemesis Legal Fallout Workaround: BART initially claimed wireless carriers had suspended service to the stations on request.

Nemesis Legal Fallout Second Thought: Deputy Chief Communications Officer James Allison later clarified that “BART staff or contractors shut down power to the nodes and alerted the cell carriers.”

Nemesis Birds of a Feather: Egypt’s former president, 83-year-old Hosni Mubarak, on trial for crimes against democracy, was an avid jammer of cell phone communications.

Demonstrators Intended to Protest: The fatal July 3 BART police shooting of Charles Hill, a 45-year-old homeless man armed with a bottle of vodka and a knife. After Hill threw his knife, Officer James A. Crowell left his TASER in its holster in favor of firing three warning shots into Hill.

Nemesis’s Previous Violation: On January 1, 2009, Oscar Grant, 22 years old, was fatally shot by then BART Officer Johannes Mehserle. Grant was shot while prone on the ground with two cops kneeling on his back.

Legal Fallout of Previous Violation: In July 2010, Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. In June 2011, BART and Grant’s family reached a $1.3 million settlement.

How Justice Was Served: Several BART commuters captured Grant’s shooting—on their cell phones.

Possible Alternative Policy to Phone Jamming: BART might best serve itself, and the community, by instituting a policy against shooting people to death.