Subject: picket report, 9/19/98, San Francisco
From: humanrights@racerrecords.com (Kristi Wachter)
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 23:24:10 -0700
Message-ID: <humanrights-2109982324100001@racer.vip.best.com>

Picket Report, Saturday, September 19, 1998
San Francisco

SUMMARY:

Suppressives: Jim, Elvis, Peaches, phr, and me
Date/Time: 9/19/98, about 11:40 am until almost 2 pm
Handouts: fliers (sucker/law, mint/law, "Why I Picket", criminal allegations, Lisa, Xenu, new tiny ones), suckers, mints, Attorney General postcards
Tools: sign, disposable camera, tape recorder, bag-o-suckers-n-mints
Weather: sunny and warm
Foot Traffic: steady
Street Traffic: steady
Scn Response: new handler (see below); no Stress Test table or body routers; don't know if they picketed me or not
General Passerby Response: very favorable
Stats: 32 mint/law fliers; 49 suckers and 29 sucker/law fliers; 0 "Why" fliers; 8 Lisa fliers; 2 Xenu fliers; 36 Attorney General postcards; 1 "is $cn breaking the law" flier - plus a bunch of uncounted "$cientology hurts people" mini-fliers. Total: 108 fliers/postcards.

(Actually, I believe the correct stats are 82 mint/law, 79 sucker/law, and *208* total fliers, but I didn't actually write down my starting numbers before I left, and I refuse to artificially inflate my stats. Even if I am running low on Prozac. After all, it's not Thursday.)

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:

I kind of wanted to picket both San Jose and San Francisco today - I heard some people were planning to do both - but I just couldn't get excited about driving an hour south and an hour back. My general rule of picketing is, picketing time must exceed travel time.

It was excellent picketing weather, and the five of us covered the crowd quite well.

THE PRE-PICKET PICKET

Before I left, I called the police station that's just around the corner from the org and told them we would be picketing. I told the officer that we hadn't had any trouble in the past and weren't expecting any today, but that picketers in other cities had been assaulted by Scientologists. Since the police station is so close to the org, I usually see a pretty good number of patrol cars, but I THOUGHT I saw more today. It could have just been my imagination, though.

I borrowed some tech from the New England picketer who posted to Andreas' guestbook (and thanks to Andreas for posting it to the newsgroup). I made up very small "fliers" (12 to a page, slightly larger than business-card size). On the front, they said, in large letters, "$cientology hurts people." On the back, they said, "You can change that." followed by suggestions (Inform yourself. Contact your representatives. Contact the Attorney General. Tell your friends and family.) As I walked to to the org, I kept a few in my hand to offer to people as I walked by. ... Outside a hotel, a valet parking gentleman declined one, then did a double-take, saw what it said, and practically ran after me to get one. <rueful grin> I don't know - I have a big sign that says "Is $cientology breaking the law? There's evidence they are", a Lisa flier dangling from my neck ("Killed by $cientology?"), and little fliers that say "$cientology hurts people." How can I possibly make it more obvious that I'm PROTESTING $cn, not proseletysing for it???

I also handed mini-fliers to two young ladies, about college age, who were very supportive. I made sure they got a Lisa flier, too.

I got acks and support all along the way to the org. A cab driver honked at me to get me to hold my sign so he could read it; he and his passenger both gave me waves and thumbs up as the light changed.

ME FIRST

As usual, I was the first to arrive. (It's nice of Peaches to say I got there at 11 am, but actually, I didn't show until about 11:40.) There were no signs of activity - no Stress Test table and no one outside smoking. There was a young gentleman curled up in the doorway of the law office building next to the org, catching some sleep. I didn't notice anything special going on for Auditor's Day, although I saw more people going in and out of the org than I had since my first Saturday picket.

There were a lot of tourists with maps out in the vicinity of the picket, and I must have given directions to half a dozen people. (I don't think any of them were GERMANS!, though.)

After I'd been picketing for a bit, Elvis arrived; I saw him talking with a lady and a younger lady (probably her daughter). The older lady had had some bad experiences with $cn (I don't think she'd been in or anything, just the usual bad experience with the personality test or something, as I recall) (really, given the number of people who tell me about being turned off during the personality test phase, I'm a little amazed anyone ever makes it past that). She got angrier about $cn as we talked, and she was very happy to take an Attorney General postcard. It sounded like the AG's office was going to get an earful from her.

Elvis and I introduced ourselves to each other and, after a bit of small talk, we continued picketing. (I apologize for not being more chatty, Elvis - I tend to get pretty focussed on picketing.)

I noticed a few people going into the org, including one or two people who took fliers from me. ... I just read Charlotte's story on her web pages - GREAT site, Charlotte! - and I can't help but wonder whether any of the Scientologists who take my fliers and bring them into the org get to read any of the material before they hand them over.

COMM WITH OSA-BOY

A big burly gentleman I think I've seen before came outside for a smoke; while he was standing there, the young gentleman I've mentioned several times before - I think of him as OSA-Boy... he's always in a white office shirt and a tie and seems a little plastic to me - came up to Burly Guy with a clipboard and went over some things.

Later on, a gentleman was telling me about how $cn had tried to snare him, giving him a personality test that showed him with above-average IQ but dangerously low scores on everything else. He brought me over to the big sample personality test in the org window to show me what his test scores had been, and OSA-boy, who had been lurking in the window, immediately popped out the door and gave me a polite but tone-40 "I'm going to have to ask you to stay on the sidewalk." I pointed out (thanks, Bob!) that they let everyone else use the area as a general right-of-way, and that if he'd like to discriminate against me and ask the police to keep me on the sidewalk, he was welcome to. He gave me a very tone-40 "Thank you" back, and that was the end of it. (I prefer to stay on the sidewalk most of the time anyway, and was glad to go back there after the gentleman I was speaking with was done showing me the sign, but as I understand it, if they generally treat the area as a public area - and they do - they don't have grounds to keep me off it.)

Not long after that, we lost a bit of sidewalk space as a Scientologist pulled her car up onto the sidewalk and parked it there. She and her young son (perhaps 12?) spent quite a while loading mail cartons into the hatch of her car.

Other random moments:

I saw a young lady jogging by. I asked her if she was doing the Purif, but she said no.

I spent quite a while talking with a young black couple, who had a young child in a stroller. They were outraged to find out about $cn's refusal to pay minimum wage. (The woman said she had never noticed the Now Hiring sign, since $cn's window is so crowded with other signage.)

Another gentleman said he had gone in to interview for a job, but was told he had to work for free for three months first. I suggested he talk to the labor board.

My tape recorder fell off my picket sign again, TWICE, but each time when I picked it up, it was still recording. For a cheap $20 device, it's holding up remarkably well.

At least a couple of people had seen the story about Grady in the Chronicle that morning and mentioned it to me.

STORYVILLE

Once again, simply strolling around on the street with a picket sign elicited several amazing stories from passersby.

One young lady approached me and told me she was studying law, then said she had something I might be interested in. She said she and a friend had gone in to take the personality test one day, and the gentleman who was evaluating her test accidentally handed her the script he was using to "find her ruin." She offered to mail it to me. (Of course, we all know that everyone who talks to us during a picket is an OSA plant, so I'm sure I'll never actually get anything in the mail, but still.)

(That tech really makes the able more able, doesn't it?)

Two gentlemen with accents took fliers and asked questions. One said Scientologists had taken advantage of a friend of his when the friend was very vulnerable, and they got him to buy $500-700 worth of books. The other gentleman was from Brazil, and said "fortunately they are not in Brazil."

Another gentleman told me he had tried some auditing a long time ago, and that the auditor was so jaded, she paid only the most perfunctory attention to the needle-reads. "I was really unimpressed," he said. "L. Ron hubbard's a hell of a huckster." He told me he had crossed the street just to tell me he supported our picket, and he gladly took an AG postcard.

The most amazing story, though, came from a dapper-looking black gentleman. I told him about Lisa McPherson and my other concerns. Here's what he told me:

"In the 70s, I had a girlfriend who belonged to $cientology. I went to visit her at their live-in house. When they found out that the guy that she was seeing was black, SHE was locked up. And I stopped seeing her just because of the way they were treating her. She wasn't going to leave the organization. I didn't want to bring her any more abuse from them." He was dubious about the usefulness of the AG postcards, since, he said, they hadn't done anything radical like stockpiling weapons. I mentioned Andre Tabayoyon's affidavit, and he grew even more interested. As he turned to go, he said, "I'm glad I came this way today."

FAIR USE QUOTES

Some of the supportive comments logged on my tape recorder:

"Go get 'em!"
"Jesus is the way - I support you!"
"Good for you - I was in a cult myself" (from a gentleman who had been involved in the Divine Light Mission)
"They're all a bunch of criminals"
"I've known about them for a long time - they ripped my brother-in-law off 20 years ago"
"I know they've been breaking the law. They mess your mind up, too. I know a girl - she went to $cn for about 5 years, and her head is all messed up."
"I think it's really good what you're doing."

and from a couple who declined fliers: "You gave us one a couple weeks ago. That man was following you with that video camera."

Yep - that's the picture San Franciscans are getting of Scientologists - when they're not picketing residences, they're following people around with video cameras. I'm sure that's making them feel real warm and fuzzy about $cientology.

WHO'LL GET THE BILL?

As other picket reports have already noted, we had a new handler today. He started out talking with Elvis. I figured he was just another interested passerby, but Peaches told me he was an OT5 and had been in for 25 years.

At one point, I heard him ask Elvis why we only present one side of things. I whipped out one of my fliers and pointed out that I usually include the URL for $cn's web site on my fliers. "Yes, I've seen that," he said. (So why does he say we only present one side? ... Later, I mentioned that in my opinion $cn was the king of only presenting one side. Geez.)

I went on picketing. I did interrupt once again to ask whether I could have a conversation with him when he was done talking with Elvis. (He said "sure".) Off in the background, I could hear Elvis explaining Operation Freakout to him; apparently he'd never heard of it.

Later, Elvis called me over to see if I had my underlined copy of Dianetics with me. Alas, I did not. Since none of our handlers have ever expressed the slightest interest in seeing it, I usually don't bring it along anymore. Our OT5 wanted to know what, specifically, we thought was incorrect in the book. All I could remember off the top of my head was Hubbard's assertion that the root of criminal behavior was attempted abortion. He asked how I knew that was false. I mentioned the causes I'd seen in more recent, actually scientific studies: poverty sprang immediately to mind. Other picketers chipped in with other common causes (like being young or being stupid). He said, "So you can't say you're completely right or he was completely wrong." I said, "I can categorically state that he was completely wrong."

At this point he and I actually did get into the conversation he had promised. I asked him his name, and he introduced himself as Bill Crawford; I told him I was Kristi. He asked me to write up a list of the things I thought were incorrect in Dianetics, and I told him I would, and that I'd include my other concerns, since the falsehoods in Dianetics were not actually my main point of protest.

I offered to email him the information and pointed out that all my concerns are thoroughly spelled out on my web page, but he admitted that he hasn't taken a flying leap into the computer age and didn't have an email address. (He said he had looked around on the web a little bit, and that the critical stories he'd come across struck him as distorted.)

He said he had been in $cn for 25 years and had spent 11 years on staff (but it's been 13 years since he's been on staff). (I don't actually understand this - he says he currently "pulls overts and withholds" and runs sec checks in the evenings. So I wonder if that's a volunteer thing - yes, I know they're all supposedly volunteers - or what.) He said he's seen it help a lot of people and done a lot for him. I told him I was glad that had been his experience, but expressed my concerns over the allegations of illegal activity.

We got into a discussion of breaking the law - he tried to assert that individuals may be breaking the law, but I repeatedly said that I've seen POLICIES calling for illegal activity, specifically the Introspection Rundown. Like so many of my other handlers, he's never read it, but he said he would. Having reread it so many times myself, though, I was able to paraphrase pretty darn closely and I told him about the step where the case supervisor asks the processee for a statement of responsibility and, if it isn't good enough for the C/S, s/he says, "Sorry, Joe, but no go on coming out of isolation." He did agree that $cn isn't authorized to incarcerate people.

He wanted to know what other things I'd protested, and I mentioned that I'd gone to rallies against the war in Iraq (he said he had too, and said he'd almost gotten beaten up at a ballgame for refusing to stand up during the national anthem during the Gulf War; I congratulated him on being a non-conformist). (Upon reflection, though, assuming the ballgame was in the Bay Area, he may have been being conformist. <grin>) I mentioned my longtime involvement in Amnesty International, and he said he used to be a member, too, but couldn't afford it anymore. I noted that he could still write letters (a big part of AI activism, for those unfamiliar with it - it's a wonderful, radical idea: write to dictators and jailers and politely ask them to free political prisoners and to stop torturing people).

He said that he had been an ethics officer for 7 or 8 years and he had never incarcerated anyone (I don't actually think it's the ethics officer who assigns someone the IR, I think it's usually the C/S. Anyone?). He surprised me by telling me about a woman who was suicidal; he said he sat with her "forever" and Sarge Gerbode* got her put into a minimum security psychiatric ward with soporifics for treatment, but no shock. Could this be true - Scientologists actually referring a woman for psychiatric help?

(*Although I had seen the name "Gerbode" on a.r.s., I had no idea who he was talking about. I just did a search and found a bit of background. I'm now especially interested in reading Gerbode's resignation letter and finding out what happened in the lawsuit, when Gerbode tried to assert his freedom to practice his religion. IIRC, Bill said he had worked closely with both Gerbode and Mayo, and that although he didn't agree with what they did, he respected them.)

Bill told me that he didn't personally know anyone that $cn had grievously hurt. I responded by telling him about my most recent picket, when I had been discussing incarceration with someone and Stacy Young happened to come up and interject, "I was incarcerated for eight months." As I told Bill, that sort of thing has a powerful effect on me. I told him about the reports I had read of people being picked up by big burly guys and taken off to RPF, and of people in chains at Flag. Bill said he'd never seen any such thing ("and I've been to Flag a lot"), and he seemed unable to imagine a world in which things he'd never seen might actually have taken place. (I must rehearse the response that occurred to me later: "I've lived in America all my life, and I've never seen a parent abuse a child. Does that mean it doesn't happen here?")

I happened to ask him whether he knew much about me (he admitted to knowing "a little"), and he said that he knew about our (my?) pickets, and had asked the org staff to let him know when we (I?) came out to picket, because he wanted to come talk to us (me?). (Darned English doesn't have separate words for second person singular and plural.) I thanked him for his interest in talking with us. He did mention that he might picket us; I told him it wouldn't surprise me, as I'd been picketed before. It was at about this point that he and Elvis and Jim got into the discussion about whether it was appropriate to picket people who weren't even involved in the dispute, such as Stacy's family members and Bob's business associates. (He maintained that there was nothing wrong with it.) I asked him if he thought it was a good idea, given the bad PR it's garnering them. He said he hadn't noticed any bad PR, once again referring to his own world - saying his co-workers hadn't commented to him about it. I, of course, was talking about the people on my street and in other residential areas who, when they find out who the picketers are, are disgusted, as well as the reporters who have visited the South Bay pickets, but apparently he didn't think these people might be getting a negative view of $cn from the pickets. (I do think it's extremely telling that none of the pickets or the fliers carry ANY mention of $cn.)

Finally, Bill hit me with what he appeared to think was the question that would stop me in my tracks: "If $cn really is breaking the law, why aren't people getting arrested?" I immediately asked him why Heber Jentsch had jumped bail, and mentioned the convictions in Canada. He waved all that off, implying that, you know, those silly laws in other countries don't apply.

My final question to him was, if he didn't want me to picket, what other way he would suggest for me to express my concerns. He suggested I write to $cn. I told him I had, and had heard nothing. We got into a little discussion of deadfiling. (I told him I figured I was probably deadfiled and he sort of concurred that I probably was, then said, "But you're still alive!" - but when I came back and said I thought critics were often deadfiled, he agreed. I pointed out that that makes communication kind of difficult.) He still felt I should write to the International Justice Chief. I asked which address to use, and of course he said I could buy a book to get the address. (Hah.) So, I might just write to the IJC, if I can find the address, the time, and the inclination.

We were all reaching the point of being ready for some refreshment, so I thanked him again for coming out and talking with us, and promised to get that packet of information to him. We started to head off to the cafe, but Jim wasn't sure where it was and was still talking with Bill, so I hung around to wait for him. I eventually got restless and started to just give him directions (it's just a block away), but he wrapped up his conversation with Bill and we went off to the cafe.

WOULDN'T YOU RATHER TAKE A PICTURE THAN A PERSONALITY TEST?

We adjourned to the usual place and enjoyed some light refreshment and the usual mix of picket-talk and personal notes.

Afterwards, I wanted to get a group photo. A young lady was sitting outside the cafe, and I approached her to ask if she would take a picture:

"Excuse me - would you be so kind as"
"I'm not interested."
"... to take a picture of us?"

She looked up at the camera, then the signs, then said, "Oh! Sure! I thought you were one of them!"

We all had a good laugh, then we posed and she snapped two photos for me.

Maybe I should make a big red hat that says "I AM NOT A SCIENTOLOGIST", or something.

NEW AND IMPROVED LIBEL

Although I don't know whether I was picketed, later in the day (around 5 pm) I was in the foyer of my apartment building and saw a crumpled wad of paper. Being litter concious, I picked it up, and discovered a few copies of a new DA flier on me. This one was very similar to the ones distributed on August 26, except it was on white paper instead of yellow, and they've added the libel that I'm a hate monger and removed the "don't criticize what you can't understand".

If they did picket me, I'm not sure what they're trying to accomplish. If they're trying to intimidate me, I would suggest they make an effort to let me know for sure I've been picketed. (I'd love to see a picket report. I'd bet five bucks they didn't distribute as many fliers as I did.) For all I know, someone just stopped by and threw the fliers through the gate. (Of course, as they've already seen, picketing me won't make me stop picketing $cn. Maybe they just want to annoy my neighbors, in which case it doesn't matter whether I know about their pickets or not.)

WELCOME TO MY WORKING WEEK

Nowadays, I come in to a client's office to do some work, and my colleagues greet me, "So, how was your weekend? Did you picket?" I try not to bore them with too many details, but it's always fun to answer their questions.

Special thanks to Elvis and Jim for coming up to San Francisco today - it was great to meet you both! Hugs to Peaches and Phr, both of whom I'm always happy to see.

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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