Good Morning. As you already know, I am speaking on behalf of No Justice No BART. I am that guy who comes to your meetings, so I'm not "Anonymous" to you. I tell you the things you don’t want to hear, and this won’t be any exception. Lets start with a question:
What was the first thing your police officers on Fruitvale platform did after they shot Oscar Grant in the back? They tried to confiscate video footage taken by passengers.
Let that to sink in for a moment.
What was the first thing that BART cops did, as an innocent man lay dying because of their lack of self control, and because of their mistake? Did they call an ambulance? Did they perform CPR? No. They ran around the platform confiscating passenger cell phones to prevent video of their actions from reaching the general public.
Shutting us up didn’t work then. And it is not going to work now.
But that message doesn’t seem to have gotten to you. You believe you can figure out a way to shield BART from accountability for the violent and deadly mistakes of its police. And you believe that the BART police force can, and will eventually silence our demands for justice. And so you let them shut off cell service, endangering passengers. You let them, also, lock down stations full of people, closing metal gates over all the entrances and exits, and then issue commands to 100s of people inside, to immediately evacuate the station through a single door. God forbid, if there was an earthquake Monday evening, you would have some serious hell to pay.
So let me repeat. Your counter-protest "strategy" IS NOT WORKING. Bob Franklin’s wishful thinking notwithstanding, your police are not getting better at handling protests. Your counter-protest "strategy" IS FAILING MISERABLY.
SITE MENU
Visits