The BART action to block cell phones (one that’s not legal, by the way) as part of a plan to thwart a protest at San Francisco Civic Center Station became national news today. I know this, because CNN just aired a news segment that came on here in Georgia, where I am visiting my Mom.
The unfortunate fact is BART’s action was cast in a bad national news light, with CNN questioning BART’s right to take such an action, and BART Spokesperson Linton Johnson going from looking very good in the wake of the network failure of two days ago, two looking very bad today.
CNN specifically showed a close-up of Johnson saying “We suggested it,” with a smirk when asked who came up with the idea to cut off the cell phone access system in the station. What Johnson should have said was “We regret the action we took. We’re not proud of it. And we’re sorry for those inconvenienced by it” and then repeated that statement.
BART’s San Francisco protect cell phone blocking action overall, from this blogger’s view, was dangerous and wrongheaded.
Let’s say the protest was planned for two days ago at night, rather than Thursday, and BART took the action of blocking cell phone use? Then, BART’s computer network fails, the trains don’t move, and suddenly you’ve got people who in many cases need to get to their kids or loved ones without travel or communications, and both BART’s fault.
BART’s action was just plain stupid. There’s no other way to describe it.
For people like me, who keeps in constant contact with my elderly mother via cell phone, BART’s action would have been just plain horrifying and resulted, from me, in a video blog attack that would have been withering.
BART Public Relations need to show compassion for those people who’s lives were interrupted so irresponsibly. It seems BART elected to punish everyone – well, every rider – for the expected actions of a few people. That’s wrong.
It’s also against the law. More on this in a moment.
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.