Protesting teens shut 3 BART stations

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of youths heading to a political protest jumped BART fare gates Friday morning, catching transit officials off-guard and forcing shutdowns at three East Bay stations that stranded some passengers for more than an hour.

The Fruitvale and Coliseum stations in Oakland and the Richmond station were all closed starting about 9:15 a.m. as young people heading for a rally in San Francisco against enforcement of federal immigration laws evaded fares. All three stations reopened by 10:30 a.m., but BART closed the Fruitvale station a second time for nearly an hour starting at 11 a.m. as more youths jumped the gates.

When the station reopened, security officers with dogs stood watch to make sure everyone paid.

In addition to the station closures, some BART trains bound for San Francisco were delayed at the West Oakland station by protesters holding doors open and demanding that Fruitvale be reopened, passengers and BART officials said.

Passengers and protesters said the delays caused anger that almost boiled over into blows at the stations and on the trains.

No injuries were reported in the mass fare-evasion scheme, which took BART officials by surprise. BART spokesman Linton Johnson said it appeared that the youths had made a coordinated decision to jump the fare gates.

The protesters were heading to a rally at Ferry Park on San Francisco's Embarcadero, where about 400 people began a noontime march through the Financial District opposing enforcement actions taken by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The youths, many wearing skull makeup, tied up traffic on several streets, but the protest was peaceful.

The protesters marched up Washington Street with a police escort to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service building at 630 Sansome St. Some protesters chained themselves to oil drums designed to block vehicles. Police decided to wait them out and made no arrests.

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