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Picket report, San Francisco, September 4, 1999

Picket photos are also available.

Date: Saturday, September 4, 1999
Start and End Times: 11:00 - 4:30 pm 
Location: San Francisco
Picketers: Phil Scott, Keith Henson, Kristi Wachter, Administrati, Brent
   Stone, Peaches, phr, SP:Ultra
Handlers: Josh and Nice Mark
Weather: lovely
Number of Handouts given away: 253 (upstat!)
Comments: very little handling; well-attended and long picket

flier stats:

  99 Travolta/space cooties fliers ("Does John Travolta Want to Give You
Space Cooties?")
  99 Bowfinger/celebs fliers ("See Bowfinger - Save $360,000!")
  16 Xenu fliers
   3 Lisa fliers
   3 Lisa/hurts people
   2 Rodney
   7 Rodney article
   1 Breaking the law fliers
   1 advisory
   1 neighbors/questions
   1 Pilot's "Org's Grades are Out"
     plus at LEAST 20 I mooched off Peaches
       
 253 total 
 (my stats only - others gave away fliers, too ... in fact, everyone did a
great job of handing out fliers)
 
-----------------------------------------------

Familiar faces seen:

Nice Mark (I believe this is Mark Warlick) - although I don't think I've
ever seen him in SF before. I HAVE seen him in San Jose, Campbell, AND LA,
though.
Josh
Burly Guy
Movie Star (pretty, slender, dark-haired lady Scientologist who almost
always comes out for a smoke when we picket on weekends)
Mr. Get-Your-Facts-Straight
Craig
Miss Pixie (red-headed lady Scientologist)
Goldilocks (lady Scientologist with long, flowing blond hair)

(I'm going to have to start assigning them serial numbers or something - I
can't just keep coming up with nicknames based on hair color)


Familiar faces not present during this picket:

Jeff Quiros
Mr. Lady-I-Work-Here
Our Lady of the Stress Test Table (although I think she works in Day Org -
we usually don't see her on weekends)

-----------------------------------------------


 
Note: Quotes may not be exact, since I didn't listen to my tape recording
at all. Also, I occasionally rearrange the chronology slightly to enhance
the narrative flow.


Eight of us picketed the San Francisco org today - the largest SF picket
we've had in a while.

It was largely uneventful - just the way I like it.


PHIL(ADELPHIA) FREEDOM

I suspect Phil's recent distress pulled in most of the picketers, but I
know at least one was pulled in by something else altogether. I'll let him
tell it if he wants to. It was darn good to see Phil at the picket, and I
was glad to give him a hug and offer him my support.


TOO LATE (TO TURN BACK NOW)

Degraded being that I am, I was late AGAIN - I didn't actually leave the
apartment until 11:55, so I got to the org about 12:15. To my delight,
there were two picketers already in action - Phil and Keith. Phil arrived
at about 11 am, and Keith got there a half an hour later, so San Francisco
got a nice long 5 1/2 hour picket, all told.


As I passed the cafe we often frequent (also much frequented by the
Scientologists, I believe, and the site of a February musical performance
by Our Lady of the Stress Test Table), I ran into Administrati, sign
hoisted high, engaged in spreading the word to a couple of folks who had
expressed interest in his activism. He said he'd catch up with me in a
minute, and I continued on to the corner, only to bump into Brent Stone,
also in full picket mode. We crossed to the org and joined the picket
after giving warm greetings to Phil.


WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

At about 12:30, Peaches joined in, and not long after that Phr came along,
as did a new picketer, SP:Ultra. It was his first picket, and he seemed to
enjoy himself just as much as the rest of us. (Since it was his first
time, I made sure to give him a picket advisory flier.)


AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN

Somewhere between 12:30 and 1, I think, a police car stopped in the
traffic lane closest to the org (all the parking spaces were taken) and
the officer went inside. He was inside for a LONG time - maybe half an
hour or more. When he finally emerged, he said nothing to us, just hopped
into his squad car and drove away - but not without a friendly wave to us.


With the large number of picketers, we were able to cover more territory -
Brent found that he gave away many more fliers by simply going around the
block (Market Street has lots of foot traffic), and I crossed to the other
side of the street whenever tall trucks parked in front of the org and
obscured my sign.


PHOTOGRAPH

Each time someone arrived, a Scientologist would pop out of the org to
take pictures - usually Josh or Nice Mark. When Administrati got ready to
leave at about 1:45, I herded everybody together for some group photos,
and Mark came over and got some, too. We all posed obligingly for Mark.


Nice Mark did a pretty good job of living up to his name - he seemed
coolly polite to everyone, as far as I saw. He answered my comm when I
greeted him and asked how he was doing. When we did the group photo, he
asked me for copies of my new fliers (too late, since all the Travoltas
had already been handed out). In keeping with the doctrine of exchange
(after all, I wouldn't want to turn poor Mark into a criminal by giving
him something for nothing), I tried to get him to trade me Scientology
literature for my fliers, but he got a little impatient and said, "Come
on, you're not going to give me your fliers?!" and I gave in. (Anyone who
wants to see the fliers I was handing out can take a look at
http://www.scientology-lies.com/fliers/travolta.html and 
http://www.scientology-lies.com/fliers/bowfinger.html )


WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS?

My most stalwart revenge-picketer, Craig, was also hanging around the org
quite a lot. We even had a bit of amiable conversation. I commented about
how work has been keeping me so busy that I can typically only picket once
a month these days - no doubt due to the efforts of my very own personal
OT committee, who are busy postulating massive amounts of work for me to
keep me too busy to picket. Craig said he hoped that I continued to be
really busy and make millions of dollars so I wouldn't picket any more. I
asked him how his studies were going, and he said, "Oh, you know." (which
rather surprised me - I expected an entheta "Great! Lots of wins." kind of
reply) He asked me who all the other picketers were, and I obligingly
named them all for him: "This is Picketer #1, and this is Picketer #2, and
over there are Picketers #3 and 4, and of course I'm Picketer #5." <grin>

Craig did put in an obligatory appearance revenge-picketing at my home
later in the day, but I was still picketing away in front of the org, so I
didn't get a chance to see him in action this time. I'm delighted, though,
that I got to see him down at the org, since it had been quite a while
since we'd spoken.


KEEP ME HANGING ON

At about 2:00, we decided it was time for a refreshing beverage and
adjourned to the cafe. I went to find Keith to tell him we were heading
that way, only to learn that he was planning to meet his wife and needed
to be out in front of the org. I decided to keep him company - and thus an
additional 2 1/2 hours of picketing came to be. Ariel ended up being
delayed, so first Phil and then everyone else came back out to join us.
(Phr kindly brought us some lemonade - thanks, Phr!) Unfortunately, I
hadn't planned for such a long picket, and I ran out of fliers (hence the
relatively large number of Xenu fliers I gave out - they ended up being
all I had left). Peaches had brought fliers, too, so we gave away many of
hers as well.

As a result of our extra picket time, we were there during the afternoon
break, when 10 or 12 Scientologists hung around outside for a while. (Some
of them were smoking, but not all; many seemed to be grabbing something to
eat.)


WHAT NOW?

While Keith and I were picketing, Burly Guy and another staffer walked
over near Keith's car and started hanging out there. I alerted Keith and
we went over to make sure they weren't tampering with the brakes or
anything. Shortly after we did, they crossed the street and started
hanging out near the cafe, so I popped over to tell the other picketers
they were there and that, as far as I could tell, they weren't up to
anything, but if anyone was concerned about their car, they might want to
keep an eye on things.


WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?

As I went over to the cafe, a gentleman asked me how much SCIENTOLOGY was
paying me. Despite my sign and my criticism, he had a really hard time
believing I was not working for Scientology, trying to generate sympathy
or something. I handed him some fliers ("Uh huh - here comes the
propaganda," says he) and showed him the info on the felony charges, the
high cost, the people who had been hurt, the New York Times article - and
I pointed out that I put Scientology's web site on my fliers to let both
sides be heard, but emphasized that www.xenu.net and
www.scientology-lies.com were both critical archives.



THE END

... and that's about it. We had a SPLENDID picket, gave away a lot of
fliers, caught some rays (I used that wog-tech sunscreen this time to
avoid my usual sunburn), and got some exercise and fresh air. (Brent kept
saying, "I keep forgetting how much fun this is!") It was absolutely
marvellous to see so many faces - especially Phil, long absent, and our
new picketer, SP:Ultra - and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again
soon. Thanks to everyone for coming out!


The next regularly scheduled first-Saturday-of-every-month picket is
October 2 at the regular time, 12 - 2. See you then!



Kristi


P.S. Photos will be posted to www.scientology-lies.com soon. Really. I
mean it.


--
Kristi Wachter
the activist formerly known as "Jour" (before $cientology outed me)

I think $cientology is hurting people and breaking the law, and I
want them to stop it. See http://www.scientology-lies.com for more.
         Can you say "Xenu?" ... I knew that you could.

This page was last updated on December 18, 1999.