Yesterday's protest of the officer-involved shootings of Charles Hill on July 3rd and the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant drew some 70-80 protestors to Civic Center Station just before the evening rush hour. While those numbers don't sound overwhelming, the group was able to cause enough chaos to delay trains and close Civic Center station by 5:30 p.m. According to the Examiner, protesters were jamming train doors, banging on windows and at least one person was pulled off the roof of a train car during the demonstration. After the Civic Center closure, the group fizzled slight as some headed toward Powell Street station chanting "Oink, oink, bang, bang, every day the same old thing" and "No justice, no peace" while calling on BART to disband their police department.

According to the Chronicle, protestors at Civic Center also disrupted BART spokesman Linton Johnson's statement to the press, shouting racial epithets and calling Johnson "Uncle Tom" and "self-conflicted blackie."

At Powell Street, some protestors boarded a train to 16th and Mission where they shut down another station before beginning a 2-mile return march back toward the Powell Street Cable Car turnaround. Parading from the Mission, protestors escorted by SFPD officers continued to cause a ruckus, blocking two lanes of traffic, tipping over garbage cans and spraying graffiti on buildings along their path. BART PD didn't make any arrests during the demonstrations but SFPD nabbed least one protester on suspicion of public drunkenness.

As of around 8:30 p.m. last night, BART service was back to normal, but Civic Center, 16th and Mission and Powell Street stations were all closed at various points in the evening according to SFAppeal's timeline.

Video from Civic Center shot by SFAppeal's Chris Roberts:

[SFExaminer]
[SFAppeal]
[Chronicle]