Posted on 08/13/2011 4:02:31 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
Nobody’s mouth was taped shut. Everybody on that train could say anything they wanted.
I think a better analogy would be someone giving a speech inciting violence using a PA system in a public park and the city turning off the power to the park.
Nobody’s speech is prevented; the audience just got smaller. The city has no obligation to have power at a public park (and it might inconvenience some innocent people cooking hotdogs at the park, but nobody has a right not to be inconvenienced). If the speaker wanted to continue using his PA system, he should have brought a generator of his own.
Likewise, if you want to use your cell phone in areas where there is no coverage, get a more powerful cell phone.
Huh?
Power output is strictly regulated. They could arrest you for using non-FC compliant equipment.
Citizens pay for cell service as a communications medium. Citizens expect to use said service where normally available to communicate. If government is allowed to disable that capability at will, then first amendment rights are being abridged.
I guarantee that walking up to a officer in the station and claiming you are a doctor would neither result in the cell block being lifted, or the officer allowing him to use his radio.
It’s pure orwellianism at its best.
Yah, life's a bitch isn't it? That doesn't mean you have a right to cell phone service.
A lot of people believe things are rights that aren't.
You can expect that the city will provide a service. They may have promised that service. That still doesn't make it a right.
You can take it up with your city councilman, maybe even vote for someone else at the next election, but government doesn't have to provide you with technology to communicate. That is your responsibility.
If you don't like not have cell service on the train, don't take the train.
Used to be BART didn’t have cell service available.
BART added it as a convenience.
It is a convenience, not a Right.
Lastly their anticipated actions have happened before by the same group. The platform area and trains are prohibited areas for safety reasons. Last time they blocked trains, train doors and even climbed on top of the trains. They need to get arrested.
The airwaves are not free now.
No State has ever wanted unlimited freedom of the press, and that includes the USA.
Somehow, I think the First Amendment and free speech have survived a brief shutdown of the cell phone service on some trains. The fact that days later we are arguing about that instead of the riot means that there was no riot, whether because of, in spite of, or regardless of, what happened to people’s cell phones.
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