Protestors who chained themselves to BART trains on Black Friday are now facing a hefty fee from the transit agency in addition to criminal charges. One of the organizers of the protest is calling it a "ransom" and has vowed to fight the sum.
The fourteen arrested in the #BlackLivesMatter protest shut down the West Oakland BART station on Black Friday back in November, grinding the transit system to a halt for hours. "The BART board is pressuring the district attorney to press charges, whereas you see a lot of other protesters are being released and just told to go home but this all black organized action, we are being charged and they want restitution," Cat Brooks, co-chair of the ONYX Organizing Committee and one of the arrested protestors, told KCBS. Brooks.
"You will get not one dime from any of us. You will have send my black behind to jail," Brooks added.
Brooks vowed to fight the charges, and an online petition has started to pressure the BART board of directors to reconsider the financial penalty.