By TIM JUE
Beat Staff Writer

UPDATED 04/22 23:37 PDT: Response from No Justice No BART protest group included.

New bans and prohibitions for anyone hoping to attend a BART Board of Directors meeting were made public Monday, a move that is viewed as a direct response to a series of tense meetings between angry Oscar Grant shooting protesters and transit agency brass that saw red paint being splattered on BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger two weeks ago.

The new rules include:

• Pat down searches by BART Police for members of the public who are hoping to get into the board chambers.
• Prohibitions on clapping, booing, hissing and shouting while someone is speaking.
• Restrictions on signs and posters being brought into the meeting hall.
• Restrictions on using cell phones and mobile devices while the meeting is in session.
• A limitation of the number of people that are allowed at the podium to speak.
• A new order for everyone in the audience to be seated during the duration of the meeting.

BART Board Meetings have become increasingly tense and hostile since the New Year’s morning killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed train passenger who was filmed on home videotape being shot to death by a transit agency police officer.

Religious, political and protest groups have crammed the bi-monthly BART Board of Directors gatherings to confront and – several times – take control of the meeting from the transit agency.

Large banners have been unfurled in the meeting room, the board members publicly grilled by the angry protesters and a seemingly helpless transit agency – still feeling the disastrous aftereffects of the videotaped shooting incident and subsequent response – has been searching for a measured response to restore order to the out of control meetings.

Monday’s release of new rules appears to be that response to ensure that a Apr. 9 incident where Citrus Heights man approached Dugger and threw red paint on her symbolizing Grant’s blood on her hands. He was tackled by BART Police and arrested. Dugger was left shaken but unharmed in the incident.

The disruptive meetings have been fueled by one group’s vocal calls to “take over BART Board Meetings.” On its website, and on other independent community forums, the group No Justice No BART which was formed in response to Grant’s killing, has called on the public to attend the meetings with the intent of protesting the agency’s failure to meet a list of demands that include the oustings of Dugger and BART Police Chief Gary Gee.

On Wednesday, the group responded to the new regulations.

“These “rules” just show that they care more about the decorum of their meetings than justice or even basic human decency,” No Justice No BART member Krystof wrote the California Beat. “If the Board is desperate ‘to get some control back over their meetings,’ then action on our demands is their only option.”

“Enforcement of these rules will only create more mayhem at the meetings,” he said.

The next meeting of the full BART Board of Directors is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Downtown Oakland. A calendar item on the protest group’s website is calling for yet another disruption of the meeting.

E-mail Tim Jue at californiabeat[at]gmail.com. Get the latest developments and complete BART Shooting coverage from the California Beat on our special page. Follow the California Beat on Twitter for the latest breaking news and updates on this story and many others.