BART vs. Anonymous: Dumb and dumber

There are a lot of very smart people who live in the greater San Francisco area. Apparently none of them work for Bay Area Rapid Transit.

Certainly the functionaries who made the decision to block commuters’ cellphones last week won’t be taking home the grand prize on “Jeopardy” any time soon.

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Last Thursday BART attempted to thwart a public protest by turning off the mobile signal boosters in its underground stations, effectively shutting off communications with the outside world -– including 911 calls. The protestors were gathering to rage against last month’s shooting of a drunk, knife-wielding homeless man by BART police.

Maybe the police were justified in shooting the guy. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. (But I’ve watched the video, and I have to question why two cops carrying guns were unable to subdue one drunk guy with a knife without requiring a body bag.) People are certainly within their rights to protest police shootings. Otherwise we’d be living in a police state. Were the protestors violent? Doesn’t look like it from the reports I’ve seen, though given what happened in London, it certainly could have turned ugly.

I’m sure it was all those reports about how the London riots were organized via BlackBerry that inspired BART to make this chowderhead move. But that’s a little like closing all the paint stores to keep people from making signs. They will find another way to get it done, and you’ll just look like a moron.

I have ridden BART many many many times. I have also ridden subway systems in New York, DC, London, Paris, Barcelona, and Seoul. Most of them have been impressively efficient, even if sometimes a little pungent (that would be New York). BART, though, not so much. Barely Adequate Rapid Transit might be a better acronym.

So it’s not terribly surprising to me that some members of BART’s board are still defending this tactic (though BART wisely didn’t repeat it during subsequent protests this week) or that a transit spokeshuman issued the following statement:

“The platform area is deemed a non-public forum,” BART spokesman Linton Johnson said. “A public forum area, which is outside the fare gates, you are allowed to exercise your right to free speech as long as you don’t interfere with peoples’ ability to get from Point A to Point B or interfere with their Constitutional right to safety.  Outside the fare gates, that’s the public forum area.  Inside the fare gates is a non-public forum and by law, by the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court, there is no right to free speech there.”

You might as well declare BART a separate country with its own laws. Also: No criticizing BART’s on-time performance, or they’ll lock you in one of those disgustingly filthy toilets.

The response to this move, however, hasn’t been a whole lot smarter. Naturally, Anonymous had to get into the act. So over the weekend it/they hacked into myBART.org and spilled the names, email addresses, and other personal information for some 2,400 commuters onto the InterWebs. Some of these records include home addresses and phone numbers.

As far as I am aware, none of these people shot a homeless guy or blocked anyone’s cellphone.

The Anons also posted an usually sophomoric statement, which read in part:

We are releasing the User Info Database of MyBart.gov, [sic]  to show that BART doesn’t give a s*** about it’s customers and riders and to show that the people will not allow you to kill us and censor us. This is but the one of many actions to come. We apologize to any citizen that has his information published, but you should go to BART and ask them why your information wasn’t secure with them. Also do not worry, probably the only information that will be abused from this database is that of BART employees.

Right. Identity thieves, scam artists, and burglars will be careful to only pick on people they’re absolutely certain work for BART. What Anonymous did was arguably worse than what BART did. At least BART thought it was acting in the public interest. (The FCC may decide otherwise.)

Memo to the Anons: Exposing commuters’ personal information isn’t going to make them stop taking BART. It will, however, turn them against you, if they aren’t already tired of your shenanigans.

The Anons could have made their point and still redacted key information. That’s what an adult hacktivist would have done. BART could have forestalled protests at its stations by opening up a public dialog following the police shooting; at the very least, that would have provided another venue where protestors could vent their ire.

BART needs to learn that it’s not actually a separate country with its own laws. Anonymous needs to grow up. Sadly, I doubt either will happen very soon.

Was BART’s mobile shutdown an egregious violation of our free speech rights or a smart and safe thing to do? Vote below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.

This article, “BART vs. Anonymous: Dumb and dumber,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter.