Thread: San Fran: BART Stations Shut Down Ahead of Immigration Prote

Posted: Friday, 31 October 2008 12:09PM

BART Stations Shut Down Ahead of Immigration Protest


SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) -- BART closed Fruitvale Station for a second time Friday when another wave of young demonstrators headed to an immigration protest in San Francisco tried to jump the fare gates.

Service at the Fruitvale, Coliseum, West Oakland and Richmond stations was disrupted around 10 a.m. Friday after dozens of protesters jumped the fare gates. Shortly after those stations reopened, service at Fruitvale was disrupted again for about an hour by the arrival of more protesters.

KCBS reporter Bob Melrose at Fruitvale said protesters shouted at BART police from outside the gates, but there was no violence.

The groups are heading to a noontime rally on Sansome Street in San Francisco, according to authorities, to demonstrate against the recent raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

KCBS reporter Margie Shafer in San Francisco reports hundreds of students from at least 10 schools converged on a park at Clay and Washington to rally ahead of a march to the ICE office nearby.

The group was calling for an end to ICE raids and for the agency to close its detention centers. Speakers at the rally also urged sanctuary cities to provide more support for undocumented workers.

A spokeswoman for ICE, Laurie Haley, defended the agency’s work to arrest and deport those living in the country illegally.

“ICE takes its responsibility to enforce the nation’s immigration laws seriously and we carry out this mandate in a fair, human manner that meets the highest standards of law enforcement,â€

I guess they figure that if they can jump American boundary walls why not mere turnstiles.

Sorry Morons.......you only get everything free IF Obama gets elected.


It is frightening though that a group such as this is able to shut down a major transporation system......I don't care how long it was or if there was no violence. It should NOT be happening at all.

These are all dry runs for something bigger and worse.

Just wait for what's coming whether or not Obama wins this election

Originally Posted by Richard

I guess they figure that if they can jump American boundary walls why not mere turnstiles.

Yes, they proved worthy of staying here. NOT

That should have been evough reason for ICE to come and arrest and deport any one causing mischief.

Why is it no matter what they do, they can't seem to abide by any rules or guidelines.......even when they get what they want..........

As Obama would say "these people are the future of America". Heaven help us all. These derelicts have no respect for the law. They dont even give a damn that other people might be affected by the shutdown of transportation. THEY DONT DERSERVE TO BE IN OUR COUNTRY.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... .DTL&tsp=1


Fare-dodging protesters behaving in S.F.; BART stations open
Carolyn Jones, Matthew B. Stannard, Jill Tucker,Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, October 31, 2008

(10-31) 16:16 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- BART closed three East Bay stations for a time this morning, one of them twice, after hundreds of youths jumped fare gates on their way to a protest in San Francisco against federal immigration policies, authorities said.
Transit system officials warned that they might shut down San Francisco stations this afternoon if protesters tried to jump fare gates again on their way out of town. But by 4 p.m. the danger of that happening was fast diminishing, as the bulk of protesters had dispersed without incident and the situation appeared calm, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.

The Fruitvale and Coliseum stations in Oakland and the Richmond station were all closed starting about 9:15 a.m. as the youths evaded fares. All three reopened by 10:30 a.m., but BART closed the Fruitvale station for a second time from about 11 a.m. to just before noon as more youths jumped the gates.

When the station reopened, security officers with dogs stood watch to make sure everyone paid.

In addition to the station closures, some BART trains bound for San Francisco were delayed at the West Oakland station by protesters holding doors open and demanding that Fruitvale be reopened, passengers and BART officials said.

No injuries were reported in the mass fare-evasion scheme, which took BART officials by surprise. Johnson said it appeared that the youths had made a coordinated decision to jump the fare gates.

Police detained three people at the Richmond station. Johnson did not know whether anyone was arrested.

The protesters were heading to a rally at Ferry Park on San Francisco's Embarcadero, where they began a noontime march through the Financial District opposing enforcement actions taken by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The protest briefly tied up traffic on several streets but was peaceful.

BART officers were dispatched to the demonstration to monitor the crowds and were prepared to shut down stations if people tried to jump the fare gates on the way out of San Francisco, Johnson said early in the afternoon.

"Our mission is to try to keep the stations open, but our No. 1 priority is to keep our passengers safe," Johnson said.

He said extra BART officers had been called in early on overtime. There already were plans to beef up the force to handle the Halloween celebrators expected to pack BART trains tonight.

One of the protest organizers, Sagnicthe Salazar, said the students detained at the Richmond BART station had been "trying to peacefully get to the action in San Francisco."

Salazar, who is with an East Bay youth organization called Huaxtex, acknowledged that protesters were jumping fare gates. She said the demonstrators were organized independently and had no funding.

Outside the Fruitvale station, fuming would-be passengers were forced to wait out the delays before they could get on a train.

"I am on my way to a family emergency and no, I'm not in a good way right now," said Lisa Roellig of Oakland, whose mother was in a hospital.

At the rally in Ferry Park, protesters said the BART ride from the East Bay was tense as students delaying trains argued with commuters and other passengers.

"This was a peaceful protest. We were not trying to start anything," said Kenya Ramirez, 17, who traveled from San Diego for the rally. "We were just trying to get our message out. Our message is civil disobedience."

She said the students held train doors open at several stations so fare jumpers could get on board.

"The other people were getting upset because they had someplace to go," she said. "We're doing it for them. They were being a little selfish."

Students from Oakland's Leadership Charter School, Richmond High School and Contra Costa Community College were among the roughly 400 protesters.

Many of the students wore skull makeup on their faces and yellow ribbons on their arms and carried signs denouncing immigration policies as well as the detention and deportation of immigrants.

Shortly after noon, the protesters marched up Washington Street with a police escort to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service building at 630 Sansome St. Several chained themselves together near an entrance to the building around 1:30 p.m. and were still there nearly three hours later.

E-mail the writers at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com, mstannard@sfchronicle.com, jtucker@sfchronicle.com and rgordon@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 13RV7C.DTL

I HEARD THE PASSENGERS GOT INTO ARGUMENTS WITH THESE KIDS. ICE SHOULD DECEND ON THIS AREA AND CLEAN IT WITH A FINE TOOTH COMB. THESE "PROTESTORS" WENT TOO FAR BY JUMPING THE GATES...THEY ALSO KEPT THE DOORS OPEN WHICH KEEPS THE TRAIN FROM MOVING. PROBABLY MADE SOME PEOPLE LATE FOR WORK. I DONT THINK BART RIDERS ARE GOING TO BE TOO SUPPORTIVE OF THEM...EVEN IF THEY WERE BEFORE. ITS HARD ENOUGH TO GET AROUND HERE WITHOUT THESE LITTLE PUNKS STOPPING THE TRAINS.

Good job! Great way to PO paying passengers and PROVE that more enforcement is needed and quick. Thanks for driving the message home.

Why weren't these kids in school?