Dual efforts were made last night to maintain BART service by both the police and the protesters. As a result, this Monday's BART protest -- the third this month -- was the first that didn’t interfere with commutes or delay service.
The protest started around the 5pm commute hour at Civic Center station and moved down past Powell, Montgomery, and Embarcadero. Two demonstrators -- including organizer Krystof Lopaur -- were brought into custody at Embarcadero station when the two protesters exited the free speech area and used their paid fare tickets to get inside BART gates. [Video embedded below] According to protester Michael Edminster, the police “grabbed the instigators” and “everyone who was organizing things.” The demonstrators were brought into custody, but not arrested.
The rest of the protest was less eventful, as the 100 or so person crowd wandered back up Market Street chanting, “No justice, no peace, disband the BART police.” Police kept protesters on the sidewalk, except for a short lapse around 6th Street and Market, where a few protesters were able to move to the middle of the street.
Last Monday’s protest saw the closure of Powell and Civic Center stations, and the arrest of 40 people. While the protests seem to have mellowed this week, the fight for BART justice continues online. On the OpBART Twitter feed, organizers threatened: “We’ll take down 10 sites for every innocent Anon arrested.” And as one protest sympathizer prophesizes: “I sure hope it goes on every week until BART does something.” Expect this every Monday until further notice.
