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Free Speech Battle Rages Over San Francisco Cellphone Shutdown

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Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officers arrest a man during a protest at the Civic Center train station in San Francisco. (AP)
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officers arrest a man during a protest at the Civic Center train station in San Francisco. (AP)

A battle over First Amendment freedoms is being waged in San Francisco, after transit police shot and killed a transient men they said lunged at them on July 3rd with a knife in a station.

Protests followed. Then last month officials from BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit, cut cell phone service to some stations to try to stop a planned flash mob protest they said was going to interrupt service, which caused more protests.

And, on Sept. 8th, the transit police handcuffed and detained journalists they said were interfering with their handling of a protest. All this comes as other cities try to figure out how to handle sometimes-violent flash mobs organized via social media, such as the ones that robbed stores in Philadelphia and trashed neighborhoods in London.

Guest:

This segment aired on September 19, 2011.

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