From: humanrights@racerrecords.com (Kristi Wachter)
Subject: picket report, San Francisco, 10/3/98
Date: 1998/10/03
Message-ID: <humanrights-0310982337170001@racer.vip.best.com>
X-Trace: 907482989 4515 (none) 206.86.0.12
Organization: Racer Records
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Picket Report, Saturday, October 3
San Francisco
SUMMARY:
Suppressives: Peaches, Phr, "Mysterious Dude," "Anonymous," and me
Date/Time: 10/3/98, 11:45 am until 1:45 or 2 pm
Handouts: fliers, suckers, mints, Attorney General postcards
Tools: sign, disposable camera, tape recorder, bag-o-suckers-n-mints
Weather: sunny, fairly warm, very windy
Foot Traffic: slow to steady
Street Traffic: steady
Scn Response: mostly non-confront; handler at the org, possible surveillance, revenge picket at my home
General Passerby Response: very favorable
Stats:
0 Xenu fliers
9 Lisa fliers
3 Why fliers
9 AG postcards
2 Breaking the law fliers
56 Costs a Mint/Breaking the Law
21 Don't be a Sucker/Breaking the Law
100 Total
... plus uncounted lollipops, mints, and "$cientology hurts people." mini-fliers
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:
Five of us, including two newcomers, did a good two-hour picket at the SF org today. It was a quality-over-quantity day for me, as I gave out fewer fliers but had some long conversations.
THE PRE-PICKET PICKET
As usual, before the picket, I called the police. I told them we'd not had any trouble in the past and that we didn't expect any trouble today, but that picketers in other cities had been assaulted.
I walked to the org again. My first flier went to someone walking past my apartment building as I went out the door.
50% - 75% of the people I passed on the street took one of my mini-fliers - the ones that say $CIENTOLOGY HURTS PEOPLE.
NEW PICKETWEAR
To reduce the misconception that I was recruiting for $cn, I made a headband out of bright pink ("Pulsar Pink") paper that says on both sides, "I AM *NOT* A SCIENTOLOGIST!" I was dressed in my standard bright red picketing jammies, and on my way to the org, someone commented - "Great outfit!"
SLOW DAY AT THE ORG
When I approached the org, only one person was visible, sitting on a ledge along the window of the org. There was no stress test table and no body-routing while we were there.
A fair number of people did go in and out of the org while I was there.
Despite my pre-announcing this picket in a.r.s., $cn didn't put up much of a response - just one handler and very little additional interaction. They did revenge picket my home; I'll post more about that in another thread.
Foot traffic was a little slower than usual, but we still had a pretty good number of passersby.
I did a better job of recognizing some of the Scientologist regulars so I didn't annoy them with fliers; a couple of the ones I didn't recognize said things like "I've been in Scientology for 23 years" (to which I typically reply, "Oh. Good for you, sir!") ... It does seem like most of the Scientologists I talk to these days have been in for more than two decades. I believe that's true of Darlene Bright, Jeff Quiros, Bill Crawford, and today's revenge picketer, Ben.
THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD
At every picket, it seems, there's at least one person who was in $cn and left, or who knows someone whose life was ruined by $cn. One of my first conversations today was with a gentleman who said he worked at Celebrity Centre in LA around 1986, working in the kitchen and stuff. He said he had actually been slated to be on staff in San Francisco, but he began hearing some entheta and had enough doubts that he decided to route out. He said that all of the initial training had made him feel pretty "confused".
I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY ...
I actually thought I looked a little dorky with the headband (I'd suddenly achieved full hippie effect - the headband flattened my bangs and gave me a distinct 70s look), but one gentleman came up to me, asked me for info, then confessed that he actually just found me really attractive and said, "You're married, aren't you?" I told him that I was attached, but once we got that out of the way, we had a nice long talk about $cn. He asked a lot of good questions and took several fliers. He actually said he would watch for us and may join a future picket.
A VIRTUAL FONT OF INFORMATION
As I turned to continue my picketing, I saw Peaches talking with a young man; she turned to me and suggested I talk with him. He looked like a student - rather earnest and very gentle. He had just gone into the org for the first time last night, and he was on his way back in. I gave him several fliers, including a Lisa flier, and answered all his questions - he asked about the allegations of illegal activity (because of my sign and my flier), the Introspection Rundown, the RPF - we talked for quite a long time, and I got to give him a lot of information. He read each flier as I gave it to him and asked questions when he didn't understand something. (He asked a number of vocabulary questions - "What's auditing? What's the RPF?", and I got to point out that $cn's redefinition of language helps to isolate its members.) I encouraged him not to take my word for it but to research things himself as much as possible, and I suggested that if he talk with the Scientologists again, that he bring a friend and promise himself that he wouldn't spend any money for at least a month. He replied that he didn't have any money and that he was sort of homeless at the moment. I was relieved; I imagine he's pretty safe if he's that broke. He did go into the org later; we didn't see him come out.
DEJA VU
Several neighborhood people are starting to recognize us, and I'm starting to recognize them. The gentleman who had the discussion with me about consent and whether $cn is breaking US laws (not just divine law) walked by and waved and smiled, and a few other regulars said hi and declined fliers because they had them already.
THE AMAZING MODULAR SIGN
Thanks to my neat-o modular picket sign, it's a simple matter to change the message on my sign, which I did today. One side had my usual "Is $cientology breaking the law?" with www.xenu.net and the allegations below. On the other side, though, I created a two-sign message:
WHY
WON'T
$CIENTOLOGY
PAY
MINIMUM
WAGE?
ARE
THEY
BROKE
OR
JUST
MEAN?
After all, if $cn works, and policy is to pay everyone based on org income, how come they don't have loads of money to lavish on their employees? Low pay is so out-exchange.
LADY IN RED MEETS MAN IN BLUE
A police officer came over to talk with us for a while. I assumed he was checking in to make sure we were okay after my phone call this morning, but actually, he was waiting for an ambulance to arrive and just came over to see what we were picketing about. I gave him a few fliers and discussed my concerns about illegal activity. He was very interested in our picket and our fliers (while reminding us repeatedly that, as a police officer, he wasn't allowed to have an opinion). He remembered Wayne's regular pickets; I gave him the sad news that Wayne had died. The officer was aware of the situation in Germany and recognized that Germany's reaction comes from their understanding of, and fear of, totalitarian organizations. The officer thanked us for the info and said, "You guys have a lot of guts."
NEW ERA PICKET TECH #1: SMILE AND WAVE
A big ol' tour bus came by, and all the passengers on our side looked out the window and avidly read our signs. I obligingly flipped mine so they could read both sides. As the light changed and the bus pulled away, I started waving, and several tourists smiled and waved back.
Thus, I suggest new picket tech - whenever a bus goes by, WAVE.
NEW ERA PICKET TECH #2: SHUT UP AND LISTEN
I have been reminding myself lately of the importance of listening to what Scientologists have to say. As I've mentioned, I consider picketing to be an opportunity to practice empathy and compassion, and to overcome any "us vs. them" mentality I may have with genuine respect and love.
So I've been reminding myself to shut up and listen. I think I did reasonably well when our latest handler, Bill Crawford, came out to talk with us again.
At my last picket, Bill asked me for specific citations in Dianetics that I thought were false, and for information about my other concerns. I started to put together a list of statements in Dianetics that I believe are demonstrably false, but in the process I came across Jeff Jacobsen's "The Hubbard Is Bare" pages, and chapter 5 addressed the lack of scientific validity quite well, so I just printed that out for Bill. I also printed out a few pages from my "Is $cn Breaking the Law?" pages, and added my letter to $cn about anti-feminist doctrine and the Pilot's "The Org's Grades Are Out" flier.
Bill had told me to leave the info with the org, so I took off my various accessories in order to not deliberately offend anyone, then went in the door and said to the first Scientologist I saw, "Bill Crawford asked me for some information. May I give it to you to give to him?" She gingerly took it and kind of looked at it, rather hesitant, and then the young Scientologist who's previously asked me to stay on the sidewalk, who typically sits behind the reception desk, piped up and said "I'll take it", so I gave it to him, then turned and left.
Later Bill came out of the org and talked with me for a bit. (He also talked with one of our newcomers, Mysterious Dude, for a while.) Bill had my info packet in his pocket and he said he would look at it. Bill told me he had read the Introspection Rundown - big points for Bill! I haven't been able to get Jeff Quiros to read it.
We also discussed Fair Game; he said that as far as he knew, Fair Game was still cancelled, but he thought that some people did still follow it nevertheless. I noted that $cn had argued in two court cases in the '80s that Fair Game was a core belief of $cn and should have First Amendment protection, so it was not, in fact, cancelled. He said that he personally didn't feel a need to attack critics because he believed that what goes around comes around (not his exact words). I said I thought this was a point of agreement between us - I, too, believe in karma - and I thought that the reason $cn is being so heavily criticized right now is because of their own unethical behavior, and that they were pulling it in. (He did mention, again, that he'd probably come out and picket me sometime.)
Bill did say that he'd sometimes reported things that seemed wrong to him, and he hadn't been shot down for doing it. (I didn't think to ask whether those things had actually gotten changed.)
I tried to do a better job of listening to Bill and not just spouting my own viewpoint, and I think I did pretty well. Of course, I'm sure I'll improve with practice.
When I came home and encountered my revenge picketer, Ben, I tried to do the same - really listen to what he had to say. (He wasn't all that talkative, but I tried to be a good listener when he did speak.)
STILL NO GERMANS???
I had a couple more chances to practice my language skills - there was a Spanish-speaking gentleman at the picket, and when I was talking with Ben outside my apartment, a whole gaggle of French speakers came by.
Tonight's homework assignment for myself - look up the following words in French and Spanish: false imprisonment, fraud, extortion, incarcerate, intimidate (I guessed "intimider" in French, and I was right!), harm, illegal. (Funny, we never had much need for those in language class.)
DON'T DROP THAT EAVE!
As we were leaving the cafe where we'd been having a bite after the picket, we noticed a gentleman in the cafe who was, I believe, the gentleman I saw outside the org when I first arrived. Perhaps he'd been hatted to keep an eye and an ear on us for the duration of the picket. (Perhaps I'm just paranoid.) (Yeah, right.) If he was indeed eavesdropping, he undoubtedly picked up all kinds of ARSCC(wdne) trade secrets, like that phr's nifty new digital camera only cost 60 bucks, or that the San Francisco Public Library has all the colored volumes - the reds, the greens, and the blues (no pinks and greys, though), and that we had sandwiches. Will the Knowledge Report he writes mention that I had grapefruit juice? If we lived in one of those enlightened countries where I could request my file from them, maybe I'd get to find out.
It was a good picket - a little more relaxed than usual. My special thanks to Mysterious Dude and Anonymous for coming to hang out with us for the first time. I hope we'll see them again soon!
Kristi
--
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://members.aol.com/jour0 for more.
Can you say "Xenu?" --- I knew that you could.
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