California Governor Vetoes Bill Barring Gov't From Turning Off Mobile Phone Service
from the seems-like-it-should-already-be-illegal dept
You may recall how law enforcement in California tried to shut down a protest last year by turning off mobile phone service at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station to prevent potential protestors (none of whom actually showed up) from communicating. This raised significant questions about whether or not such actions were even legal. Either way, a bill was introduced and passed in the state legislature that would have barred such a shut down in the future... but California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed the bill, because apparently allowing law enforcement to cut off communications to prevent free speech is perfectly reasonable in his book. I still think the original action probably violated existing law, but it's a shame that Governor Brown couldn't stand up for basic freedom of speech issues, especially when it comes to having law enforcement shut down cell service to prevent public assembly and protest.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: bart, california, free speech, jerry brown, mobile service, shutdown
Reader Comments
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Wait, it's a law against THE GOVERNMENT doing something? BEST LAW EVER.
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Someone connecting the dots with live streaming ?
Meanwhile proud United States of America innovates and moves one upstream in the censorship chain and cuts of the cell towers instead.
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Rather that show up in riot gear, they could have set up an area for the protesters and explained that are within their rights to protest but if they break the law they are getting arrested.
People would have protested, a couple people would have been arrested, and life would have moved on. Instead they shut down cell service, showed up in riot gear, and made the situation more volatile with the overly dramatic hype.
Oh and those people who were made late on their commute totally couldn't bitch on twitter about it, oh the humanity!
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It's all part of the plan
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Re: Someone connecting the dots with live streaming ?
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I wish this was the case as much as you do, but sadly, protests are a great way for people who just want to cause chaos to blend into a group.
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I think I get it
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But really, in the end it's all part of the ongoing efforts to censor free speech.
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At least get the whole story.
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Re: It's all part of the plan
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...we'd all be safer and not inconvenienced by -you know- yucky people who actually believe in their rights, and *gasp* want to exercise them too ! ! !
the nerve ! ! !
(another authoritarian outed ! ! !
all in a day's work...)
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
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Anyone can make up a bullshit scenario where the end result is "and therefore it should be okay to take away our rights."
Sorry, but that's not how rights work. Regarding your scenario, the proper response is: don't let contraband cell phones get into the prison in the first place, not turn off cell phones which likely would have significant collateral damage.
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911
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Who's gonna have pie on their face then?
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Furthermore, the real issue isn't the contraband cellphones as much as the corruption that allows them into the prison in the first place.
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Making this a routine law enforcement tactic in the 'free' world seems problematic to say the least
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You aren't advocating those Orwellian "free speech zones", are you?
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There Mike I fixed it for you.
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There Mike I fixed it for you.
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Re: 911
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Look, you know your cherrypicking is stupid. Just stop.
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Unfortunately, this is normal (not to say nuts) for them, and very few politicians can resist a bunch of gold-starred and shiny-badged cops telling such stories.
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One of their "concerns" was the protestors maybe shoving someone onto the tracks in the chaos. I see nothing wrong with defining an area, in the actual place (this is key), so that protesters can be heard and regular people can carry on with their lives.
It should never be an either or situation. Rather than treat them as an invading force to be put down, let logic dictate the situation. People have a right to protest, other people have the right to move on. Simple solution is to create a situation where everyone can coexist, and it doesn't require a tank, riot gear, pepper spray, etc.
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Waiting for people to come to the aid of someone injured by a weapon aimed at his head, then lob in a grenade to inflict the most damage to even more people.
Send them in in plainclothes and incite more violence and chaos.
Lie about the activities of the defenseless people you just pepper sprayed, and get no real penalty for violating your oath.
The sad thing no one wants to accept is the police in many cases are the ones turning the dial to 11 in the protests. It helps them justify their budget, lets them paint protestors - who are doing something legal - as nefarious to the media and the citizens feel safer.
I fear cops way more than protestors.
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> problem in prison.
In California, that's mainly due to the wonderful prison guard union, which throws mountains of cash toward fighting any attempt to criminalize smuggling cell phones into prisons.
In Cali, it's only an admininstrative violation. Which means a guard who's caught doing it can be punished on the job, but can't be arrested/jailed for doing it.
The union fights hard to keep it that way. Why? Because the guards make beaucoup $$$ smuggling phones into prisons and they don't want to see the gravy train end.
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> from the issue at hand which is the question;
> should it be legal for a government or non-
> government entity that has placed a repeater
> for the use of citizens/customers be able to
> turn off said if they want to without getting
> court permission?
Especially since it's not necessary for the government to turn off the repeater to address the prison cell phone problem. If the FCC would just allow state prisons to use cell jammers, the prison issue would go away while allowing the repeaters to be left alone.
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> practice to jam cells around prisons,
> at least here in Texas.
If so, they're violating federal law by doing so. Jamming cell frequencies is a violation of federal law and even state governments can't do it without permission, which the FCC has so far declined to provide, even to prison officials.
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How to get residual income on phone bills Las Vegas
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Unreal
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Unreal
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