Subject: picket report, San Francisco, 11/21/98
From: humanrights@racerrecords.com (Kristi Wachter)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 23:24:47 -0800
Message-ID: <humanrights-2311982324470001@racer.vip.best.com>
Picket Report, Saturday, November 21, 1998
San Francisco
SUMMARY:
Suppressives: Mysterious Dude, phr, and me
Date/Time: 11/21/98, 12:00 to 1:40 pm or so
Handouts: fliers (mint/law, "Why I Picket", criminal allegations, Lisa, Xenu, mini-fliers), suckers, mints, Attorney General postcards
Tools: sign, disposable camera, tape recorder, bag-o-suckers-n-mints, "I'm NOT a Scientologist" headband
Weather: cloudy but not rainy
Foot Traffic: steady
Street Traffic: steady
Scn Response: a few conversations at the org; 3-person revenge picket immediately following
General Passerby Response: very favorable
Stats:
150 Lisa/Breaking the Law fliers *
1 Xenu flier
9 Lisa fliers
26 Costs a Mint/Breaking the Law
186 Total
* Phr and Mysterious Dude handed out a whole bunch of these, but Mysterious Dude, who's been in and knows how these things work, says I get the stat.
Note: as I do NOT have perfect memory and I don't check everything against my tape recording, any quotes below are very close paraphrases. I apologize for any inadvertent inaccuracies and will try to correct any errors that are pointed out to me.
OVERLONG NARRATIVE:
It was a diverse picket today - conversations with pleasant Scientologists, conversations with hostile Scientologists, waves from police officers, plenty of fliers handed out with plenty of help from Phr and Mysterious Dude.
NO RAIN, NO PAIN
Once again, we had weather reports predicting rain in the afternoon, but our Gnarly SP Oat Tea powerz (G-SPOTs) kept the rain at bay until we were all picketed out.
THE PRE-PICKET PICKET
I made my usual phone call to the police station, then assembled my accoutrements and headed for the door. I had a new sign:
$CIENTOLOGY HURTS PEOPLE.
$CIENTOLOGY HURT LISA MCPHERSON.
$CIENTOLOGY HURT WAYNE WHITNEY.
$CIENTOLOGY HURT DOROTHY GEARY.
WHO WILL BE NEXT?
(The first and last lines are biggest, although I think all lines can be read from a distance.)
I had made an extra sign for Mysterious Dude, but try as I might, I couldn't wrestle the darn thing all the way to the org, and I made myself about a half hour late in trying. Mysterious Dude did a great job of starting the picket without me, and he had handed out a considerable number of fliers (he made up some really cool ones with a calendar on the back) while waiting for me to finally arrive.
I also had 150 copies of a new flier announcing the Nov. 13 felony charges and the Dec. 5 picket (I posted the flier text in another message). I handed these out all along the way to the org and got lots of appreciative comments on the way.
As I was leaving, my landlord saw me heading out in full regalia. He knew about my activism (I called him when the revenge pickets started so he would hear about them from me first), and he grinned and said, "Off to do your thing, eh?" As I approached the org, a policeman directing traffic and a construction worker both waved and gave me thumbs up. (The latter took a flier.)
HERE'S TO THE LADIES WHO LUNCH
When I arrived, I saw a couple of older ladies standing near the org, and something about them made me think they were probably Scientologists. Sure enough, a few minutes later, another older lady came out of the org, beckoned to the pair, and then walked off with them, presumably for lunch. They looked fairly well-off - I wonder if they were some of the wealthy benefactors, or perhaps some new WISE wives.
"WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?"
Shortly after I arrived, I had a conversation with a lady Scientologist. She wanted to know what Scn had done to me, and I explained that they hadn't done anything to me - I was concerned about how they were hurting other people. She repeated, "But what did they do to YOU when you were a Scientologist?" - one of those questions that tends to identify a person as a Scientologist. I repeated that they hadn't done anything to me - that I had dabbled briefly, did an auditing session, decided it wasn't for me, they tried a few times to get me to come back in, but really did nothing to hurt me (except, recently, picketing me and lying about me to my neighbors). I reiterated that I was concerned about the harm done to other people. "Like what?" she wanted to know, and I described Lisa's ordeal. I was stunned when she said the coroner had investigated and decided that what happened to Lisa "wasn't a problem;" I pointed out that it was enough of a problem for felony charges to be filed. She gave me the usual line about how I was out there complaining about something that I didn't personally know anything about. I replied that, in fact, I knew a fair amount about it.
"You personally don't know whether it's harmful or not."
"I've read the Introspection Rundown and I think it's illegal."
"The what?"
"The Introspection Rundown."
"I've never heard of it."
"Are you a Scientologist?"
"Yeah, I am!"
"Well, it's in, I think, Volume 8 of the Reds. You should take a look at it."
She went off onto the standard
"Scn-is-doing-more-good-than-harm-and-what-about-the-eeeeevil-psychs" rant and asked me, "Why don't you get on [attack] what's really bad in the country?"
"I happen to think this IS what's really bad in the country."
She accused me of trying to cut down the only group on the planet that's trying to help; I said I wasn't trying to cut it down, I was merely trying to get it's ethics in.
Then I asked her if she had any comment on the altered version of Science of Survival. (THANKS for posting that, Patricia!) She took a moment to respond (comm lag!), so I asked her if she knew about the changes, the chapters deleted and the chapters added. She said, "Yes, I do!" I asked her if she knew what policy directive authorized the changes. Of course, she couldn't answer that, so instead she said, "I know that Scientology is headed in the right direction. I think that if you really wanted to help mankind you'd take those signs down."
Alas, we had no agreement on that subject, so she went on her way to lunch, and I continued handing out fliers.
BILL'S BACK!
Not long after she left, Bill Crawford showed up. Fond as I am of Ben and Jeff and Darlene, I think Bill currently holds the coveted title of Kristi's Favorite Scientologist. He's got a sense of humor, he shares some of my political views, he's actually able to converse, he likes jazz, and he doesn't ply the standard cliches (Who are you working for? Who's paying you? You don't really know anything about it, do you?).
Bill said he had read the information I'd left for him, and we chatted about that for a bit. I also asked him if he was familiar with the massive changes to Science of Survival. He wasn't, and I handed him the info I'd printed out (http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=411613826 - check it out). He read it avidly, even though I'd told him he could keep it. He quickly picked up on the fact that entire chapters had been deleted and others inserted.
We talked about Lisa, too (he didn't have the details on the felony charges), and I lent him a copy of the logs to read. He read those avidly, too, and when it occurred to me that probably no one else would dare to read them that afternoon, I told him he could keep those, too. I mentioned that the last three days are "missing," and how that struck most ex-Scientologists as highly improbable, and he immediately agreed that they must be somewhere.
I invited him and other Scientologists to join the memorial vigil for Lisa on the 5th.
Although Bill has been at San Francisco Org "off and on" for many years, he didn't know who Wayne Whitney was, so I told him. ... As we discussed the people that Scn had hurt and the ways it had hurt them, I told him that there probably wasn't one single thing that Scn could do to get me to stop picketing, but that if there were one, it would probably be to publicly, clearly, verifiably abolish the Introspection Rundown.
Bill and I had a lovely chat. In response to my concern that there is NO oversite of Scn (whereas psychiatry is subject to government oversite), he said that he mistrusts the government more than anything. We eventually got into a discussion of Noam Chomsky and "Manufacturing Consent," and I asked him whether he thought that kind of thing - censorship, sanitized information, news spin - happened within Scn. He kind of dodged the question, but he admitted that it probably does happen occasionally.
He said he's opened his mouth a lot and made noise about problems and misapplications of the tech, and that he's gotten threatened with expulsion, but has never actually gotten into ethics trouble for raising those issues. He said he refused to obey the directive not to talk to Gerbode after he was declared. (When Sarge was ED in Palo Alto, Bill was his Ethics Officer.) He highly recommended a particular Scn tape - I THINK he said it was "Scn and Technology" - but I told him if it wasn't at the library, I didn't have access to it. I told him if he got a copy donated to the SF Public Library, I would go in and check it out - and he said he'd go in and talk to the org about doing just that.
We probably could have talked for hours, but SeaOrgBoy* came out and signalled to Bill that he had a phone call. Bill said he'd be back out, but he hadn't reappeared by the time we finished picketing, so the continuation of our conversation will have to wait.
(*I like SeaOrgBoy, too, I just don't know what else to call him. He strikes me as a little drone-like, but he can probably be a nice guy when he wants to be. Besides, he's kind of cute.)
Hey, Bill - if you'd like to go for coffee after a picket sometime, let me know. My usual conditions apply - tape recorder and a companion - but I'd be delighted to chat with you at length in the comfort of a cafe.
POPPING PINKS, BUT NO GREYS
Although I don't usually have a specific goal in mind when I picket, I really wanted to get rid of all my pink Lisa/Law fliers this time, since they list the 12/5 event and would be out of date after that. Phr and Mysterious Dude did a FABULOUS job of helping me hand them all out. After I finished talking with Bill, the three of us worked on handing out the few that still remained.
One of my last takers was a young gentleman who said he'd been in Scn for a few months, about 5-7 years ago, at the Sutter St. mission (before they moved to the smaller location). He had unpleasant memories and impressions of Scn.
Sometime toward the end of the picket, a pineapple appeared, sitting on top of the trash can that marks the edge of the sidewalk. We had much fun speculating on whether it was a camera or a microphone (I suggested it was both).
BULLBAITING, OR JUST BULL?
We finally handed out our last pink flier, and just as we were wrapping up and preparing to leave, my own personal revenge picketers came out of the org bearing their "Kristi Wachter is a religious bigot" picket signs. The two of them, a tall black gentleman and a strident blonde lady, were REALLY rude and hostile, shouting out lovely phrases like "You can go fuck yourself! Bitch!" I replied that, alas, I couldn't, as I was physically incapable of that. I got some photos of them, and as their tirade continued, I said, "I'm sorry you guys are having trouble confronting the truth about Scn." The tall black man said "The truth about Scientology is that you are a nut! You have 8 - 10 hours a day to spend on newsgroups. You are a flake. You can suck my dick. You're an idiot. You're a dumbass."
Doesn't it just make you want to run right out and sign up for the Communication Course?
They shouted a few more insults and said, in a nasty, threatening way, "We'll see you at your home, Kristi," then they got in their van and drove off.
As we were turning to go, a young lady we had met before (she had been chased and assaulted by a stat-crazed body router) happened by and took a flier, and reminded us about her experience.
I'm hoping some of the folks who took fliers will join us for the Dec. 5 memorial.
Anyone who's in the Bay Area, isn't going to Clearwater, and is committed to non-violent protest is welcome to come to the protest and memorial. It's from 10 to 5 on Dec. 5, followed by a candlelight vigil starting around 5 pm. (And you're welcome to come anytime between 10 and 5 - I don't expect folks to be there the whole day!) (It's not like we're Canadians or something!) I will be handing out a modified version of David Gerard's picket advisory and telling anyone I see that it is a NON-VIOLENT protest, and if they can't commit to that, to please leave.
Lengthy as this report is, it's only the first half of my exciting Saturday adventures ... read on for the story of my revenge picket!
Kristi
... to be continued ...
========
Subject: Re: picket report, San Francisco, 11/21/98
From: humanrights@racerrecords.com (Kristi Wachter)
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 00:04:38 -0800
Message-ID: <humanrights-2411980004380001@racer.vip.best.com>
And the following is a complementary report from Mysterious Dude, posted at his request.
[My comments in brackets.]
Mysterious stranger writes:
I was a bit surprised by the nastiness, aggression and foul language used by the cults counter pickets that came out just as we were about to leave.
The big guy seemed like he was trying to provoke a fight. What he said about me could easily be libel. I can see that a camera, and my own tape recorder, will be musts in the months to come... when the cults lady picket swung her signs to hide her face, as you began taking pictures, she almost hit me in the face with the edge of her picket sign, a tough corrugated plastic material. but I don't think it was deliberate.
[It was interesting - at first she hid her face, but then she parted the two signs so I could see her face. She was having trouble confronting the truth, but she wasn't having a lot of trouble confronting ME.]
It could easily have torn up ones eye..... My signs will have balsa wood sticks, and be made of a rolled edge flimsy card board something like yours, very tough to hurt anyone with.
[A word to the wise, both Scientologists and critics alike - be careful where you swing that picket sign! Look around before you hoist it onto your shoulders or flash it at traffic.]
The cults big, male, picket seemed to be on the thin edge though, and he could have done some real damage. It was a semi scary experience. If anything ever happens one will need pictures, and multiple tapes running to get all goings on recorded.
Which was interesting, one has to reasonably sure they were hiding their faces on advice of their lawyers, makes one wonder what the deal is.
It is very interesting, I noticed she was being nasty and hiding, and you were not hiding, and were behaving decently about the whole affair. A revealing contrast.
[As we all know, cameras and tape recorders and camcorders are an excellent idea.]
[Also, for what it's worth (since I haven't had a chance to write up the revenge picket report yet), they were quite rude at the org, but by the time they left my house, they were much less so. I was even getting along quite well (I thought) with the tall gentleman. I'm having a hard time not priding myself on bringing them up the tone scale. <grin>]
The cult appears to be getting more desperate, I wouldn't be surprised at anything from now on.
You may also let the cult know in your picket report that I have picketed exactly 3 times in the last 10 years.
But I do plan to a bit picket more at least a few times a year, especially as the whole truth is coming out on Lisa and the copyright fraud.
(msg to cult HQ)
If the cult really wishes to see me picketing a lot, and picketing their cults businesses and business owners, all they have to do is keep up the viciousness and abusive language and picket my home or business...... then the cult, and the public will see a LOT more of me, and a few tons of damning leaflets passed out on the criminal behavior of the cult.... and I will pass them out in front of the cults front groups, and FSM locations as well.
It will get messy.
I'll take a year off and do just that .... full time. And I have absolutely no problem funding a few billboards and enough leaflets to blanket the city end to end.
The cults income stats are down dramatically over the last year, and judging by the publics reaction to your Lisa flier! Stats will take another huge drop shortly. I was absolutely amazed how effective it was when I introduced it with:
'the cult is indicted in this lady's death, they held her captive tied to a bed until she died'....
About an 80% acceptance rate I'd say, three times as good as the last fliers.... for the first time some people wanted extra fliers to hand out to their friends. I also found it very effective to walk around the block.... People on the side of the block near the cults store front are often pretty well shut down and into getting by as fast as possible..... around the sides and in the back by Carls Jr... people were quiet a bit more chatty.
Even those that said they knew all about the cult were surprised to read the details in the Lisa handout! The cult, it looks like, will pay dearly for their ruthless treatment of Lisa..... This is Justice for Lisa... a very important issue.
Other interesting things:
A passerby seemed well up on the cults crimes and convictions and even on some of the govt.. involvement.... he seemed very well informed. he gets onto the net at the library, but did not have factnets URL or any others. I fixed him up.
A group handing out free thanksgiving dinner tickets passed by, very nice well dressed decent looking people, 6 or 8 altogether in one group.... they had no clue about the cults satanic roots.... we discussed those in detail for a quite a while, and I gave the guy in the group who surfs the net the appropriate URL's.... now THAT was rewarding experience.... these guys will spread the word to their entire congregation!
[I ran into this group of young people on the other side of the Org and couldn't interest them in a flier - well done, Mysterious Dude! I'm nearly positive they were from Metropolitan Community Church, the well-known congregation that welcomes and embraces gays, and I suspect they'd be quite interested in the Dianetics nonsense about gays and the Pattinson lawsuit.]
The cult will need a bit more than good luck to recruit anyone these guys know. I neglected to give the guy my phone number though... but that gives me an idea, I can volunteer to give my 'escaped the cult' testimony to these congregations.
You know, and I just realized the other day, this ALL started when I was at the cults Flag Land Base in 198x, a street person holding an old handcarved wooden cross, worn from handling, and on an equally worn leather strap was picketing in from the land base..... you could see just see the compassion and decency of the person, and I stopped to talk to him and wish him well in life even though I disagreed at the time with what he was doing.
And he wished me well... and we parted.
I was immediately sent to ethics and trashed, and later in the stay was kicked off of th land base after many thousands of my dollars were terminally missapropriated. But you know. At least I was out! And it has saved my Life, and it is thanks to this one mans humble picket.
I owe him..... and in turn you see, I have been instrumental in getting others out of the cult, and in exposing it's crimes, and hubbards very evil intent. That is the result *so far* of this one mans humble effort to simply stand against evil, and wish that I be saved from this ruthless cult.
In the end, you see, just his single effort, and the efforts a few others who stand against evil will take this cults down.
Down from its control of lives and governments. It won't be easy, or fast, but it will happen as surely as the sun comes up every day, to erase the darkness of the night.
(Mysterious guy from points east)
[No no no - you're "Mysterious DUDE", remember? <grin>]
--
Kristi Wachter
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