#OpBART - Success and Failure

Backstory: BART (San Francisco's mass transit authority) shut down cell phone service during the protest of a recent killing of a homeless man. BART admitted that it turned off cell phone service to prevent the protest from going viral out of a fear of rioting. Anonymous took exception to this and organized several various acts of civil disobedience to show their anger. The most visible of these was a physical protest (the first for Anonymous) which resulted in several stations being shut down.

Source: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/08/16/18687809.php

I followed this live protest on August 15 as closely as I could via Twitter, ABC News, and a couple live video feeds from protesters on location. Ultimately, I'm not sure how "successful" the BART protest will be. Here are a few points where I think Anonymous went right, and where I think they (and protests in general) are going wrong.

Lack of Violence: SUCCESS
To the best of my knowledge, no one was hurt or killed during the protest. Police shoved protesters around, and vice versa, but no one ended up in the hospital (again, that I know of. Please feel free to correct me.) Overall, I count this aspect a success, as there was no copy-cat rioting.

Impact: SUCCESS
There is no doubt in my mind that thousands of people were made aware of and impacted by the protest, especially in light of BART shutting down four stations in response to the movement of the protestors. In this aspect, Anonymous successfully created a live Denial Of Service event. Denial of Service usually refers to the crash of a website; normally, this can be created when a website is flooded with visitors, but obviously hackers can do it as well with code. Also, BART made a major concession by shutting the train stations down as opposed to shutting off cell phone service, though this is mitigated by Anonymous's release of an Android app that allowed users to send messages without using the cell phone network. Even if BART had attempted to shutdown cell phones, it probably would not have hampered the protest much.

Media Coverage: NEUTRAL
Yes there was media coverage. No, not nearly enough.

Fighting For The Citizen: FAIL
This is one are where I think Anonymous failed its stated purpose. By causing the shutdowns of four stations, Anonymous inadvertently pissed off the very people they are purporting to fight for and essentially handed BART a perfect, anti-Anonymous PR campaign. How many thousands of commuters were stranded as the result of Anonymous's actions? Those people are probably bitter about the event, and leaving a bad taste in someone's mouth is never an effect way to campaign for your cause.

Possible solution: If you're going to cause a live D.O.S. event, come up with a plan to mitigate the effect on the locals. For example, why not ask every protester to bring extra cash with them, and offer to help pay cab fare for those stranded due to the station closures? Bring pamphlets with information on alternative transportation, especially the kind that BART can't profit from. Do not piss off the people you are trying to get on your side.

Making A Stand: FAIL
When police came in to start shoving people out of the station, I was excited because I thought "Here we go, we are going to see people take a stand for what they believe in." Boy was I disappointed. Instead of sitting down and making the police move them, the crowd meekly turned around and then wandered for hours on end. Anonymous made sure to provide information for legal counsel in the case of arrest, but they neglected to act in such a way as to force the legal system to deal with them. While I certainly don't want people hurt, tucking tail and walking away when confronted with what you consider to be oppressive is not going to effect the changes you are seeking - in fact, it rewards the very behavior Anonymous was trying to prevent. Have some ovaries, and next time force the system to deal with you. Do not let them think they can wave a piece of paper and you will obediently follow orders. Do we know whether or not that piece of paper the cops read from was legitimate? Or was it simply a flyer that someone scribbled a neat, official-sounding speech on as a scare tactic? Why should cops get warrants when simply saying they have one is enough to get people to do what they want them to do?

Possible solution: Set up a legal fund, and get people to sit down instead of leaving when a cop gets up in their face. "They can't shoot us all" was a rallying cry during the protest, yet nothing the protesters were doing forced the cops to do much more than stand there. If you believe in a cause, do not fear arrest. It will only serve to make you look better and them look worse. If you don't believe in a cause enough to get arrested for it, then you are as bad as the oppressors, because you allow them to draw a line in the sand that you won't cross.

In the interest of a balanced approach, there was also one major, glaring, epic mistake by BART:
BART trapped people inside a station after closure. This is a biggie, because no one is allow to restrict a person's movement without probable cause. I am very surprised Anonymous and others haven't picked up on this.

I hate to be nostalgic, but I miss the days of the hunger strike, the sit-in, the chain of people linked arm in arm that have decided that no, this power you cannot have. Like unions, protests have become toothless displays of mass exercise (I have no idea why protests seem to be stuck on this idea of marching; don't they realize you have to figure out how to get back to your car?). Would women have ever gotten the right to vote if protesters were not arrested and then maintained a hunger strike? Would segregation have ended if blacks had simply been too afraid to get hit with that fire hose? If you are going to draw a line, stand on it. Do not allow anyone to shove, coerce, or manipulate you off that line.