The hacker-activist group Anonymous threatened cyber attacks against the Fullerton Police Department and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system after controversial police confrontations.

The threat to hack the Fullerton police website was in response to the death of homeless man Kelly Thomas during a confrontation with officers. The city deployed its information technology staff to secure computers and electronic communications and monitor the systems for any intrusions.

“Like most municipalities we are very electronically integrated and have a significant number of computers and computer systems,” Fullerton police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said. ”It’s definitely something we are taking seriously and doing everything we can to make sure our facilities are secure.”

No sabotage or disruptions have been detected, Goodrich said.

The hacker group, however, appeared Sunday to have penetrated MyBART.org, a website run by the San Francisco-area transit agency, adding a link to a Twitter page dedicated to news about Anonymous. The main BART website doesn’t appear to be affected.

In a message circulated before the hacking, Anonymous condemned BART’s temporary cutoff last week of cellphone service in some of its underground stations amid a protest over the shooting by police of a knife-wielding man on a subway platform. Activists have criticized the cellular cutoff.

“We will set those who have been censored free from their silence,” the Anonymous message says. “That’s a promise. Anonymous demands that this activity revolving around censorship cease and desist and we know you are already planning to do this again. We will not issue any more warnings.”

In a separate statement sent to the Fullerton police and distributed on the Internet, Anonymous said “Operation Fullerton” would avenge the death of Kelly Thomas by treating the department’s technology systems “with as much mercy as was shown Kelly Thomas.”

“This is not just a brutal attack against another human being, but an attack against human rights,” the statement says, demanding the prosecution of the five Fullerton officers reportedly involved in the beating of Thomas during a routine check on a car break-in report.

Source: LA Times

Anonymous: Operation BART
This is a message from Anonymous to the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART)
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE USA:
The past year has brought about substantial awareness through some unfortunate events that have occurred around our world. From internet censorship to the unnecessary violence inflicted upon un-armed civilians, we’ve all seen what can happen once a portion of us are gagged.

In Egypt and Tunisia, we saw people struggling to make their voices heard. We have seen companies such as Telecomix delve into the nastiness of political corruption in an attempt to free those censored individuals from their prisons of silence. We have seen social media such as Face Book and twitter explode with users from around the world speaking out against censorship.

Today, we’ve seen America come alive. In the Bay Area, we’ve seen people gagged, and once more, Anonymous will attempt to show those engaging in censorship what it feels like to be silenced. #Operation BART is an operation geared toward balance – toward learning. You do not censor people because they wish to speak out against the wrongful occurrences around them. The Bay Area Rapid Transit has made the conscious decision of ordering various cell phone companies to terminate services for the downtown area inhibiting those in the area from using cell phones – even in the case of an emergency.

To BART:

We will not tolerate censorship.

We will do everything in our power to parallel the actions of censorship that you have chosen to engage in, we are legion.

We will be free to speak out against you when you try to cover up crimes, namely on behalf of those who have engaged in violence against a mostly unarmed public.
We will set those who have been censored free from their silence. That is a promise.
Anonymous demands that this activity revolving around censorship cease and desist and we know you are already planning to do this again.

We will not issue any more warnings.

TO THE PEOPLE OF SAN FRANCISCO:

People of San Francisco, join us Monday, August 15th at 5pm for a peaceful protest at Civic Center station to illustrate the solidarity with people we once knew and to stand up for your rights and those of your fellow citizens.
We will be wearing blood stained shirts for remembrance to the blood that is on the hands of the BART police.

For the people outside of San Francisco, show solidarity by using black fax, email bombs, and phone calls to the BART Board of Directors. BART decided to cut off your communications and now we will flood theirs.

We request that you bring cameras to record further abuses of power by the police and to legitimize the protest. The media will certainly spin this in an attempt to make our actions appear to be violent or somehow harmful to the citizenry at large. Remember, this is a peaceful protest. Any actions trying to incite violence in our protest are not of our people, and they ought to be discouraged.

We are Anonymous,
We are legion,
We do not forgive,
We do not forget,
Expect us.