On July 3, a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer shot and killed 45-year-old homeless man Charles Hill after Hill allegedly came at the officer with a knife. Protesters began organizing a July 11 action in the subway, but BART foiled their plans by shutting down cell service at several stations. BART spokesman Linton Johnson took responsibility for the action, In retaliation, the infamous hacker group Anonymous posted personal NSFW pictures of Johnson revealing his junk online. Do cock pics even count as scandalous anymore?
According to Gawker, Anonymous has declared war on BART and have “hacked BART passenger and police databases, and shut down a number of stations with real-life protests for two weeks in a row now.” But their latest volley came when they posted pictures of the presumably gay Mr. Johnson lifting up his shirt and pulling down his shorts to reveal his penis. They added the message, “If you are going to be a dick to the public, then I’m sure you dont mind showing your dick to the public…”
The obvious goal was to humiliate Johnson and, while we don’t like the idea of blocking people’s right to communicate, uploading dirty pics is well, below the belt. The guy’s a spokesman—does Anonymous really think this fall guy had the power to shut down phone service in the stations? We hope BART is too concerned about protests and future hackings to let a not-so-little thing like Mr. Johnson’s penis get in the way.
Maddie
I’m now scared
ousslander
are cops the only people allowed to be attaclked witha kife and not respond. I guess they should have sung to him and offered some tea.
Big deal the guy flashed cock, he;s not a teacher or preacher. anonymous is trying to use his homosexuality as a weapon to hurt him. Oooh, look at the fag , he is a disgrace.
n00b
@ousslander: They wouldn’t have to show NSFW pictures of him to humiliate him for being gay if that were the case. And unless the guy is closeted, I don’t see how being gay in and of itself would be a humiliation in this day and age.
It’s clearly to expose his private parts, they even say so in the description. Do you really think people in that organization would care so much about not offending gays that they wouldn’t have blatantly said it if they meant it? Cut the victim shit. Guy’s a dick, he got what he deserves. Google his name to see how much grief he’s caused in general.
n00b
Lulzsec and Anonymous are not the same thing.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
So where are the pics? Gawker doesn’t have them, and the blog is shut down.
Ray
I used to respect what Anonymous did, you know back when they attacked countries like Iran and corporation that cause harm. Now it just seems like they are brats trying to get attention.
B
No. 3 · n00b wrote, “It’s clearly to expose his private parts, they even say so in the description. Do you really think people in that organization would care so much about not offending gays that they wouldn’t have blatantly said it if they meant it? Cut the victim shit. Guy’s a dick, he got what he deserves. Google his name to see how much grief he’s caused in general.”
The web site with the pictures seems to be gone, possibly due to someone complaining.
Linton Johnson is merely a PR guy. He claims to have come up with the idea of shutting off cell phone service, but almost certainly had no authority to do it – he just made an idiotic suggestion and some other idiot(s) who could do it went along with it.
Of course it didn’t have much effect on the protesters – they could just station some guys above ground to send text messages or post things on twitter, and the people who they would want to reach were those not at the protests (and most likely not on BART) but who might show up, and who might have wanted to know which BART station needed more protesters. It did inconvenience BART’s passengers: basically BART screwed its passengers in an obviously ineffective attempt to disrupt a protest, suggesting that BART is being run by utter idiots.
Will refer readers to the ACLU’s position regarding free-speech rights – there’s no need to repeat that.
As to the pictures, it is not even clear if they are ones of Linton Johnson, but if not, they are of someone who looks very similar (same hairline but some other features are less certain, and the pictures were not high resolution ones).
B
No. 5 · Mr. Enemabag Jones wrote, “So where are the pics? Gawker doesn’t have them, and the blog is shut down.”
I saw the pictures yesterday, via a link from a mainstream newspaper whose web site had a “what’s going on around the web” section. That link went to a news article that had a link to the pictures, but today the site with the pictures has disappeared, at least for a while. I just tried http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/linton-johnson-naked-pictures-anonymous-bart_n_935679.html and it had a link to http://bartlulz.weebly.com/ which is working right now. Weebly is a web-services company. The page may end up moving around as lawyers try to shut it down by complaining to the web-hosting companies.
The huffington post article asked the same question I have – is it really him or just someone who looks similar, the result of searching a large number of images to get the best match.
Riker
@Ray: Anonymous never wanted your respect. The only reason they have ever done anything is for the lulz, the only reason anyone needs. Iran and Scientology are not being run by Anonymous, but by moralfag splinter group Project Chanology. Anonymous as a whole honestly doesn’t care.
pete n sfo
I think people need to dial-it-down a bit on BART. The protesters planned to swarm a crowded subway platform at Rush Hour. Most would have no idea what was going on & all this while trains sped through.
Seriously, in what world would it NOT be appropriate to use whatever tool they have in their chest to manage that unmanageable and unsafe situation???
Anonymous then released contact info of private riders, & home addresses of policemen (which means their spouses’ & kids’ as well). Not good. BART has never said, “Don’t Protest” & cell phone service was interrupted on the platform only. They have repeatedly said, “please, just take it to the street.”
If Anonymous wants to make a difference, could they please figure out who the FUCK NOM is protecting instead of pissing off the very people that formerly supported them.
ps: Linton, I like the new PR angle. 😉 lol
B
No. 10 · pete n sfo, “I think people need to dial-it-down a bit on BART.”
The people protesting may need to dial it down to avoid inconveniencing passengers, but I do think BART deserves a lot of criticism for how its handling the situation. Turning off cell phone service is not going to stop protesters from protesting inside the stations, nor is it going to stop them from creating any sort of situation that might lead to an accident. The guys who released private information about BART riders broke a number of laws, but the people running the web site should have provided better security. It was apparently an SQL injection attack.
BART’s response to the security flaw is unacceptable. According to http://news.softpedia.com/news/Anonymous-Leaks-Personal-Info-from-BART-Website-216767.shtml BART “advised customers to be wary of scams and place a fraud alert on their credit files.” BART should have offered to pay for any damages resulting from BART’s failure to protect customer data. Instead, BART told its passengers to fend for themselves when it was BART that screwed up.
Kev C
Looks like the work of West Coast anarchists fighting for causes nobody gives a shit about.
Riker
@pete n sfo: Anonymous doesn’t want to make a difference, and it doesn’t care about who supports it or doesn’t. The only reason it needs to do something is the pursuit of almighty lulz. Anonymous is legion. It does not forgive, or forget. It may save your life one day, and then kick your poodle the next, just because it can.
pete n sfo
So, seriously… somebody that knows anyone connected to this group, put them on NOM & Maggie Gallagher’s tail…
That’s some serious f’n w/ people’s rights that’s gone on FAR too long. The BART stuff is a mess, but not nearly as clear-cut a position… and I’m not a BART defender by a long shot. But, go after the real MoFo’s in our society; what could ALL that money spent on Prop 8 have done for other organizations instead.
And, “B” on Comment 11 (first of all, get a name) you have clearly lived in SFO TOO long if that twisted justification of logic actually holds water for you.
I’m serious, someone that knows these people, get them to fu*k w/ some real dirtbags.
Riker
@pete n sfo: I can’t say that I have any influence with LulzSec, but i’ll go bring it up
Velocifero
Usual white gay priviledged responses. If a homeless gay or trans person was the victim at BART everyone would be applauding Anonymous. But when the victim is just a homeless person then its OK for the brown shirts of Oakland to kill, murder the person. I applaud what anonymous did. The BART lacky is a public spokesperson and he is not immune from public humiliation. BTW: If you white rich queers think Anthony Weiner deserved what he got then so does Mr. BART spokesmodel.
B
No. 14 · pete n sfo said, ‘And, “B” on Comment 11 (first of all, get a name) you have clearly lived in SFO TOO long if that twisted justification of logic actually holds water for you.’
Pete needs to work on his reading comprehension! I criticized BART. I didn’t “justify” what any of the protesters had done.
The facts are that killing cell phone service within underground stations (a) inconvenienced passengers and (b) was not in any way an effective tactic in discouraging protesters. BART claimed there was talk of people chaining themselves to trains – you don’t need a cell phone to chain yourself to a train. It’s not like they are going to show up and say, “hey, we’ve got to text someone so they’ll go to a hardware store and get the chains and locks.”
According to http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18727397 ‘The plan was for color-coded protesters to possibly chain themselves to trains and shut down BART’s busy evening commute. The red team was the front line, representing a “high possibility of arrest,” and all groups would text BART security positions to each other to monitor response times and coordinate actions over several stations for the Aug. 11 surprise demonstration.’
So, all they had to do was to have some guys pop out of the station to send some texts and receive some, and then go back down to report what they got and to monitor what BART security was doing. Cutting service would have hardly any impact at all on such a protest. Meanwhile not having as many text messages (which can be recovered if someone is arrested) means less evidence to use to convict a protester who does something illegal.
So, BART in fact deserves criticism for a lousy cost-benefit analysis if nothing else.
Then there’s BART’s web site security. It’s simply inexcusable not to properly protect customer data (and if you use a contractor, you should make sure that the contractor is following the best industry practices). BART failed there as well. It seems a “beginner” managed to get into BART’s site. It’s not like you needed a real expert or anything like that. That’s as lame as leaving your payroll on the counter and having it stolen by a 10 year old kid.
B
No. 16 · Velocifero wrote, “Usual white gay priviledged responses. … The BART lacky is a public spokesperson and he is not immune from public humiliation. BTW: If you white rich queers think Anthony Weiner deserved what he got then so does Mr. BART spokesmodel.”
Hey cut the racism! Oh, and BTW, in case you don’t know, the person alleged to be Linton Johnson (the “BART lacky”) is the black guy in the pictures.
Harold Osler
@n00b:
He’s the spokeman for BART–not the High Commander. What kind of power do you think he has?
I love how all these loudmouths carry on about Linton Johnson is a “public figure” and yet hide behind fake names.
The fact remains that the “protesters” were doing all they could to get things scrambled and especially trying to provoke the various security. And before you deny that just recall all the photos of “protesters” screaming in cops’ faces and calling them names. The only reason would be to get their “I was hurt in a protest” merit badge.
Wasn’t one of them the lawyer who defended that trash whose dogs mauled and killed Diane Whipple and said the trail was biased because the gay community wanted it that way?