Ari Siletz

Dear Ari

Having just moved out of SF bay area I can assure you that other than cool/chilly weather and nice views pretty much everything else has had bad influence on San Francisco long before IRI!

It's the most overpriced, over-rated, over-regulated city in America with overpopulation of snobs hippies and yuppies. On the other hand it's the center for perverts, homosexuals, prostitutes, massage-shops and one of the few places which pricing is used to racially separate people in their little colonies like Los Altos or Mill Valley. So blacks are pushed into southeast Oakland, Asians in San Francisco city & san Jose and whites in Napa, Sonoma, Marin county & colonies like Los Altos or Los Gatos between SF and SJ.

So blocking the cellphones for a few minutes on Bart wouldn't exactly change SF or start US faschism. US will never turn into another Iran unless they stop the right to bear arms. And Iran's regime will never turn rogue if Iranians have right to bear arms.

Thanks MM.

Good news on the Rochester police response. Shows the community still has power. 

Undecided about the "Anonymous" hacking group. I like the fact that it is a grass roots protest group with anti-fascism tactics that don't harm the ordinary citizen (similarly I support wikileaks). On the other hand it is the sort of secret activity that could factionalize, get out of hand, and pose a public safety risk--ie drift towards terrorism. "Anonymous" didn't hack into the software that controlled the trains, but it could have. So should we support law enforcement in curtailing this group or not?

Ari - two updates on your last US stories - from CNN

Rochester, N.Y., officials vow to improve police, community relations

(CNN) -- "After months of allegations of racial profiling and poor relations between the police force and populace, officials in the New York city of Rochester are vowing to tackle the issues head-on, a city councilman said Saturday."

Hackers target San Francisco's rapid transit system

(CNN) -- "Members of a well-known hacking group - according to a statement and Twitter messages - took credit Sunday for an online attack targeting San Francisco's embattled transit system.  This is in response to the system's decision to cut off cellphone signals at "select" subway stations in response to a planned protest last week."

Public Relations

America was built from slavery; then segregation (which still continues to this day); and supports puppet dictators (like the House of Saud - who openly practiced slavery until 1967 or 68 and are the chief sponsors of terror around the world).  My comment has nothing to do with Iran; but it's only to emphasize that what America says and does concerning human rights are 2 different things.  Iranians need to remember that people are beaten and raped in American prisons all of the time (there's very little accountability from government officials) and the pro democracy protesters in Bahrain were violently put down with Saudi and U.S. help.  America just has a better public relations program than Iran.  

The differences between Iran and U.S

If some one goes to court and file complain against someone else, the bottomline is "intention". Judge will rull out his decision based on people's alternate motive or  "intentions".  Now, the reason for banning cellphone in public area is to protect the public or to prevent people's privacy to get invaded. It has nothing to do with democracy. Now, the reason mullahs in Iran banning cell phone is to shut down any voice of freedom. That only helps stinky mullahs to stay on power longer to suck the blood of our nation and continue their parasite lives. It is NOT meant to protect people well being and their privacy. Hope people are smart enough to see the differences.

Siavash

Come on Arie what is this!

Does anyone want to be  called  on their cellphone while in a train???

I cannot stand all those  yellers  on the  cellphone  in the train!

Oh God of Israel help  us  ALL!

Cell Phone Censorship in

//www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/cell-phone-censorship-san-francisco

"There is enough in this world to meet every man's need but not every man's greed." --Gahndi

aynak

I really hope there will be serious consequences for those who made this decision. However, in moments of bitterness I wonder if these despots didn't know exactly what they were doing--sensing the national drift towards fascism and putting themselves in line for fancier appointments. At this point what needs to happen is a massive...massive pro-democracy demonstration in SF so as to make it  poltically risky to let these fascists off the hook. Sadly the US population doesn't understand the urgency of the situation as well as we Iranians do. If Americans don't deal with these incremental infections in the democratic body now, we'll be fighting a possibly lethal disease later.

Amazing Ari

My first reaction when I heard this, was exactly the same.  Crowd control.   Except, being in Bay Area, Bart officials or whoever tried to implement this , is going to get it so bad, that they regret ever using Islamic Regimes model to enforce quote on quote security.

ایران برای همه ایرانیان
رای ایرانیان - دولت ایرانیان
نه ولایت وقیح نه پادشاه سفیه

I don't know about you people

But I'm starting get a bit fed up with protest here, protest there and protest goddam everywhere. Yep, "protest fatigue" has got the better of me.

I think I'll go shut myself away from the world for a while and have some chocolate-chip muffin washed down with some choice cuppacino instead.

(Ps: I'll make an exception in Iran's case. Protest there must go on there until the Islamic Republic is history).

An outrageous act to put a lid on another outrageous act

I agree with Vildemose and hope ACLU gets involved here.

And thanks for writing about this and sharing.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad

I hope the ACLU files

I hope the ACLU files charges against this particular police department.

"There is enough in this world to meet every man's need but not every man's greed." --Gahndi

locational identity

welcome to interrment, idiot. 

I've found this comment right on points

"There is absolutely no way this action can be justified. I am sure, who ever authorized this will be removed from his post and a new protocol will be introduced, preventing similar events. And I hope the media will watch the responsible authorities.

This, however, can not be the main focus in this topic.

For years the US and their allies have attacked various nations about their limitations of freedom and have criticized leaders for shutting down internet and cell phone service. We have told everyone, our modern and fair democracies would never allow that.

Well, reality is different. Within 24 hours the English Prime Minister announces he wants to shut down various internet and phone services and then we read about american authorities actually shutting down cell phone service.

Both these cases are linked to protests by the public. In both cases protests are against the local government. There is no terrorism involved. In England it's a bit more difficult due to the extensive violence but it should be expected from a both these nations (that have been spending great deals of money to train security for terrorist attacks) to manage local protests.

The fact that these actions are against the law is indisputable but by far not the shocking part. The two countries that are regularly the first to comment, criticize and even invade other countries have - once again - publicly proven that the standards they expect from other nations can not be expected from themselves"        Thanks for the blog Ari, Once again, hypocrisy in action ..   Things in west is some kind of THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM ..... God saves us all from massive riots and demonstrations if things economically continue as it is going now....  Especially here in the UNITED STATES OF THE BANKS  !!