In a case that has drawn national attention, the board of directors for Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, has just held its first public hearing on BART’s decision to shut off cell phone service to de-rail a protest planned for August 11th. At the time, protesters were targeting the transit agency for the police shooting of Charles Hill, a homeless man police say was threatening them with a knife. BART’s decision to shut off cellular communications to keep protesters from coordinating is believed to be the first case in the country of shutting down cellphone service to disrupt a protest. It’s drawn civil liberties groups and open internet activists into the fray – some of whom compared the shutdown to recent actions by dictators in the Middle East. Brian Edwards-Tiekert reports from the hearing: