45 Busted in BART Protests

Some 45 people were arrested yesterday during the latest protest against San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit's decision to cut cellphone service to foil a demonstration earlier this month. The protests forced the closure of two stations at rush hour, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. BART police arrested five who were protesting at the Civic Center platform; city police busted 40 others when they refused to disperse from two street-level protests.

Witnesses described shouting matches between the demonstrators and angry commuters facing chaos for the second time in seven days, the Los Angeles Times reports, and the Chronicle paints a picture of what commuters had to deal with: The Powell Station was opened and closed four times and the Civic Center station three times, as BART officials warily eyed the shifting protests. The BART board meets tomorrow to discuss the possibility of adopting a policy on when, if at all, the agency can cut its wireless network. (More Anonymous stories.)