Protesters petition BART to drop charges over service disruption

Chinyere Tutashinda of the BlackOut Collective leads the crowd in a chant during a Black Friday protest in at the West Oakland BART station. Chinyere Tutashinda of the BlackOut Collective leads the crowd in a chant during a Black Friday protest in at the West Oakland BART station. Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Protesters petition BART to drop charges over service disruption 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Protesters are petitioning BART’s Board of Directors to drop the criminal complaints against 14 activists who halted service at West Oakland BART Station on Black Friday.

The activists were arrested Nov. 28 for allegedly blocking a train at the station and disrupting service between Oakland and San Francisco for two hours as part of a Black Lives Matter demonstration protesting a grand jury decision to not indict the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo.

They said they were charged by the Alameda County district attorney’s office just after Christmas with misdemeanor trespassing on a railway. They said they learned from their attorneys that the charges could force them to pay up to $70,000 in restitution to BART, a penalty more severe than those faced by the hundreds arrested at other recent Bay Area demonstrations calling for racial justice.

Cat Brooks, co-chair of the Onyx Organizing Committee and one of the 14 charged, said it’s telling that authorities would single out a peaceful, all-black demonstration with the heaviest penalties. She said she believes it’s the transit agency that is pressuring prosecutors into action.

“As we see our white and other allies get slap-on-the-wrist citations and walk away, shame on BART for choosing this all-black organized action to make an example out of,” she said.

The petition, which had garnered more than 3,300 signatures Saturday, said the high restitution is an “attempt to silence black protesters from speaking out against police brutality.”

Though BART did not acknowledge the possible restitution, General Manager Grace Crunican issued a statement Friday saying that the agency was aware of the petition but that “halting BART service and inconveniencing hundreds and thousands of riders is a crime.”

“The group chained themselves to trains at West Oakland and closed down the BART system for hours, creating mobility problems for thousands of people who rely on public transportation to get to work or to vital appointments,” she said in the statement. “The act was intentional and potentially dangerous to our passengers. BART police had no choice but to arrest 14 protesters in the incident.”

Brooks said the 14 activists are scheduled to return to court for arraignment on Feb. 4.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle

staff writer. E-mail:

vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo