Picket reports

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Subject: Picket Report, Mesa AZ, 4/2/98
From: bpetty@primenet.com (BP)

Well, after a 2 week+ break caused by the LA picket and the interminable storms of The Boy Child, we are back at 2111 W. University Drive.

Kathy and I picketed from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, getting the early rush hour traffic. There were 6 cars in the lot when we arrived, and one came in about 4:40. We had lots of honks from the traffic and 6 pedestrians expressed support.
No one ventured from inside the org. It was as still as death.

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Subject:San Jose org
From: bstone@kudonet.com (Brent Stone)
Date: Sat, 04 Apr 1998

While I was out there walking around on Saturday, I noticed something very curious at the San Jose org. I just can't understand why they would have two handicapped parking spaces in the lot. I've never seen anyone parked there, and I would think that a super "ethical" "religion" like Scientology would just go right down to whatever government office requires these things and explain that there is no need for "downstat" parking at such an "upstat" place.

I mean, what was the government _thinking_ when they required Scientology to put these parking places in? Don't they realize that Scientology wouldn't accept a "downstat" who had "pulled in" a handicapped condition?

I think maybe Darlene should take charge here and march right down too the govt offices and explain to them how confused they are to think that Scientology might actually try to help someone "downstat" like that. - Brent

Oops, I spoke too soon. I guess I'm just going to have to break down and apologize to the San Jose Org for this one. I was back there today (1:00-3:00), and it appears that my statements above are not correct. It seems that *between* the two handicapped spots is a cross-hatched area that I assumed was for wheelchair access. I must have been wrong, it seems that they use *that* area for a parking space (at least today they did). I hope they can forgive me for suggesting that they didn't use the handicapped parking area. - Brent
PS: 30 cars, no sprinklers, no photos, pretty boring

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Subject: San Jose picket 4/6/98
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

I happened to be down that direction, so this afternoon I put in an hour picket 2:45-3:45. No sprinklers. There were 33 cars there, but I know my count is off some because one of them was a guy working on the construction project to the east, and at least 2 seem to have been people who were in the center for homeless and battered women to the west.

I think Darlene went in (only saw her back) but no photographs.
The staff people watch out for me talking to one of the suckers on their way in or out. This time a middle aged black woman stoped to ask what my signs were about. When I said scientology was a cult, she indicated she had come to much the same conclusion. I asked the staffer who came out to demonstrated he could say xenu, and of course, he could not. The woman took a Lisa and a Xenu flyer inside. Reminded me of the way ants will take poison inside the nest.

I think this is nine pickets in the last nine days, but it might be higher if Brent or one of the others went by today. Keith Henson

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Subject: Re: San Jose picket 4/7/98
From: bstone@kudonet.com (Brent Stone) and, Keith Henson

> Ten minutes mid afternoon. 33 cars there. Keith Henson

Plus an hour 6-7PM ... 42 cars.

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Subject: San Jose 4/8/98
From: bstone@kudonet.com (Brent Stone)

All out of time cards, so I gotta report it here and hope payroll reads it:

One hour 4:30-5:30 20 cars. "Sprinkler Tech" active.

Expenses: 0.59 Used up another sheet of poster board
18.00 Had to get another set of flyers printed (man they
seem to be going fast all of a sudden) - Brent

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Subject: San Jose 4/11/98
From: bstone@kudonet.com (Brent Stone)

Just a short report. It was raining when I got there at 10:45, by the time a second picketer arrived the rain had stopped. No sprinklers on, no scienos to be seen outside. They stayed inside until about 12:30 (I only saw one come out until then). Someone was parked in my 'usual' space, so I had to park directly across the street from their entrance. I don't think they liked my signs, they would look away and gun it out of the lot to keep from seeing anything enturbulating. No trace of Darlene, no photos taken of us, pretty much looks like OT powers over us have vanished from the suppressive atmosphere that hangs over the org when we're there.

We went to lunch around 12:45, returned afterward and picketed until a bit after 2:00. 34 cars in the lot, not much activity at all to be seen. - Brent

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Subject: Picket report SF - April 15th
From: taniwha taniwha@taniwha.com

[1/3] Well we went out and picketed the SF org for lunch time again today, it was warm and sunny.

They had the "free stress test" table out in front set up before we arrived and onc we got there a body router came out to hand out (I guess "Orientation") tickets. While we were there they got only one customer at their table.

There were 4 of us there this time: myself, Peaches, phr and Jour - an ARS lurker there at her first picket. Our weekday picket numbers seem to just keep on growing - we'll be doing more of these if you want to join in please let me know. We got lots of comments from people on the street as usuall - the Co$ vs. Germany issue seems to be getting around with several people commenting on it.

I'm continually amazed at the mount the public seems to know about Co$ - having a random person come up on the street tell us what a great job we're doing then start arguing "Xenu" vs. "Xemu" was kind of mind blowing :-)
I want to thank everyone for coming - we'll be back again soon. Taniwha
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Subject: SF Picket Report, 4-15-98
From: realpch@aol.com (Realpch)

[2/3] Tani and I showed up at about noon to picket the SF Scientology Office. We were shortly joined by Jour, and later by Phr.

When we got there, the Free Stress Test table was already in place, and manned by the woman who had sketched our visiting SP the last time I was there. She must regularly draw this duty, as quite a few of the street regulars seemed to know her. I noticed that she had two takers for the Stress Test this time, though neither of the individuals seemed to be well-heeled enough to be candidates for Scientology.

Tani had brought the famous Xenu flier, on blue paper, and the Lisa flier on pink. Jour had made a few of her own fliers explaining why she was picketing. They were pretty darn good fliers, though she said she had just thrown them together. She had also brought her marked copy of Dianetics for useful reference.

We passed out something over 50 fliers, less than the last time. We did get more comments this time from passers-by, indicating support of our efforts. Some of the people I spoke to were remarkably well-informed, and several mentioned Germany.

The Scientologists from the office once again mainly ignored us, though they did come out to enjoy the show on their cigarette breaks. There was one exchange between our lady of the Stress Test table and a fellow who loudly expressed his opinion that some folks are not able to grant religious freedom to others. I wish he had discussed this point with me, for I feel he may have been judging us unfairly. I myself was there in a consumer information capacity.

On a fashion note, I decided to go so far as to wear a shirt and little heels this time. I looked as corporate as it is possible for me to look. I was so glad I had dressed up, when I was informed that the two impeccably groomed stewardesses who had walked by were actually Sea Org members. One must do ones best to impress the Sea Org.

The picketers adjourned around one and repaired to a nearby cafe to admire Phr's adorable little computer and log onto irc. realpch
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Subject: San Jose picket 4/15/98
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

[3/3] Not being sure I could make it to the IRS picket this evening, and being inspired by the San Francisco picket today, I put in 45 minutes at the San Jose org.

Car count at 3:45 was 34 cars. In order to count the cars in the back parking area one of us has walked back on the vacant lot to the east every time we have been there for the last year. Today Darlene came out and said scientology owned the lot and they would call the cops on us for trespassing if we did it again.

I would appreciate someone taking a look in the county records to find out if the org at 80 E. Rosemary actually owns the lot to the east.

The picket was otherwise notable for a long and fairly intense conversation between a staff member and a guy in a purple/blue jacket who drove up, left his car running, took an envelope inside, and came right back out. He was followed by a scn staff member in a white shirt and tie who kept the first guy there talking for close to 15 minutes. Was I observing "parking lot" regging tech by a FSM? No idea, they both avoided looking at me, and there was enough wind to prevent hearing a thing.

A preschool van pulled in while I was there. Before I name the preschool, I am going to check if they were just delivering staff or member kids or are a Hubbard tech outfit. Keith Henson

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Subject: Picket report Mesa AZ, 18 April 1998
From: bpetty@primenet.com (BP)

What a beautiful day in Phoenix!
Kathy and I picketed from about 11:30 to 12:30 today.
There were 8 cars in the lot to start, 6 when we left.

I handed out pamphlets that were left over from the LA pickets. ( for those who saw them they were the orange ones with the title "The Church of $cientology's Alien $pace $cam - Dead Aliens in our Bodies?" ) After I handed out three to pedestrians, an emissary came out from the org and requested one. I made sure that he was at least an OT3, since I do not want to give pneumonia to someone via the well-documented "voodoo curse" self hypnosis syndrome. :-)

Phoenix may be the birthplace of Scientology geographically, but I predict that here will be NO missions or orgs in the Valley of the Sun by 2000. Start the clock.

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Subject: San Jose picket report, 18 April 1998
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

I tried to get there somewhat early to see the sprinklers turned on. Didn't get there as early as as the others, but did catch the old man come out and turn on the sprinklers.

Shortly after that, Darlene came back along with 5 other scns who had been picking up trash on the highway (from the orange safety vests they were wearing). They parked the truck they were using right where the sprinkler spray would get it.

Brent did a car count, I think the number was 34 that morning. It was the usual walking up and down, honks from passing cars, and giving out a very few Flyers (this time the nice town, sorry about the cult).
I had things which called, so I left a bit early. Keith Henson

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Subject: San Jose picket report 4/21/98
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

39 cars, maybe 20 min of picketing, about 2:30. Found out where one of the body routers hangs out, over on First Ave, trolling for kids getting on the light rail. He did a trip around my car on the way back. The guy is an older surly carrot top. I suppose he could be Robin's father.

Speaking of Robin, I have not seen her since mentioning her need for eye treatment on the net.

Tomorrow (April 22) at 2pm is the big meeting in Judge Whyte's court. All three of us have said combining the case is a bad idea, I suggested that if the court really wanted to combine cases, mine and Dennis's are a lot more similar than Grady's is to either of us, and that further, some of the arguments Dennis is making might moot my case. (Standing to sue issue.)
Today's picketing was after delivering papers to Hogan's office about 1:30 pm. Keith Henson

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Subject: San Francisco Picket report - April 22nd
From: taniwha taniwha@taniwha.com

[1/2] Three of us - Peaches, Jour and myself picketed the SF org again this lunch time for about 1 1/2 hours.

They had the 'stress test' table out again - and 2 body routers handing out 'orientation' invites - I guess business is getting slow when we're there.

This time around there were lots of people taking 'stress tests' - but it was pretty obvious that most were shills, people would come out of the org, wander around for a bit then sit down to take a 'test' as if they were off of the street.

We got the usual people on the street encouraging us and telling us what they thought of Co$ - one guy came up and told us his brother had died in Sacramento doing the purif (anyone know of this case?).
Otherwise things were pretty uneventful. Taniwha
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Subject: Picket Report, San Francisco, Apr 22
From: jour0@aol.com (http://members.aol.com/jour0/)(Jour0) (Kristi Wachter)

Full Report

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Subject: San Jose Picket Report 4/25/98
From: SPAMBLOCKjwissick@pacbell.net (Jim Wissick)

Not a whole hellova lost to report today. 39 cars in the lot.... Sprinklers were on again.. but they were cleared to spray the sidewalk more effectively.

Was there from aprox 11:15am to 2:30ish.
We get alot of public support for what little traffic comes though the area.

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Subject: PICKET REPORT: Minneapolis, 4/25/98, Saturday
From: Xenubat@primenet.com (Xenubat (Sue M.))

(Any quotes I use here are basically paraphrased)
I took the bus downtown; I had my picket sign in a garbage bag so I wouldn't be too conspicuous (and actually it was helpful to have as it started to rain a little while I was waiting for the bus, and thus my sign didn't get wet). Me and Reverend Reversible (who was visiting Minneapolis this weekend) met around 6 pm at this little park area next to Orchestra Hall (which is on 11th Street and Nicollet Mall, right across the street from the Scn church which is at 1011 Nicollet Mall). We were joined by Sam who was going to be taking pictures of the picket.

Rev. was wearing a "Scientology Kills" T-shirt. I had a new T-shirt I just got earlier this week from the Weekly World News; it has a picture of an American flag, and on top of the stars, there's a picture of an alien head. On the bottom, it says, "The truth unfolds...". My sign said "Scientology: Space Alien Scam" on one side, and I changed the sign on the other side to say "Does the Bridge really cost $360,000?" (I got that idea from Ted Mayett, who has that sign). Rev.'s sign said "Did 100% Standard Tech kill Lisa McPherson? www.xenu.com" on one side and "$cientology hates freedom of speech" on the other; he also had a drawing of a clam on the sign and something about "snap, snap go the clams--see Operation Clambake" (I'm not sure of the exact words).

Rev. had Xeroxed a bunch of copies of the Xemu flyer. I had the Xemu flyer, the Lisa flyer, the Scam flyer and a Minneapolis version of the Poole flyer (which I have on (http://members.cox.net/batchild1/) my site); I had changed the title to "Scientology's Secrets" and added a picture of a Minneapolis logo which I stole from a web site. I even managed to come up with a fancy-schmancy fold-in-half booklet type version by stealing the format of the Xemu/Lisa flyers and adding in the text of the Poole flyer (I sure steal a lot, don't I?); it takes three sheets of paper (text on both sides, of course) for each flyer and I had to staple each one together but I thought it really looked sharp! (and I print all my flyers in color, too)

I'm sure the Scienos were already prepared for our visit seeing that Rev. had posted on ARS that he was going to be in Minneapolis this weekend, and apparently just before we started picketing a Scieno was seen leaving the org and then roaming around the general vicinity, presumably looking for people with picket signs, and then went back in later.

Well, about 1 minute after we started walking up and down Nicollet Mall with our signs, a man and a lady Scieno come up to us and start asking us questions. The lady Scieno had a clipboard with her and was writing down all of our answers. It seems they must have thought Rev. was the one in charge so they asked him everything first, then they'd say to me, "Well, what about you?"; of course I'm so damn quiet it's easy to see why they thought that, though! :) They wanted to know where we got our information about Scn, and do we believe everything we read on the Internet. They wanted to know why we were opposed to Scn. Rev. told about how he got pulled in after hearing about the spam attacks and the rm-group attempt on ARS and their attacks on freedom of speech. I told them how I had almost joined Scn and had even gone to the Mpls. org a few years ago and taken the personality test, but then read the "Time" magazine article at the library a couple days after that and found out about Xenu and decided it was a scam. They asked if we'd read any of LRH's books; Rev. said he hadn't read any, I said I'd read part of "Dianetics"; they asked Rev. how he could judge Scn if he hadn't read any of Hubbard's works. They wanted to know what our names were but we only gave our first names; when they asked what our last names were, Rev. said, "Well I don't want to give that out, I don't want to be Fair Gamed!", and said, "One of your PIs, Gene Ingram, went to one critic's mother's house and got pictures of her grandchildren." I chimed in, "Yeah, that was Grady Ward's mother!" Rev. said, "That's the policy you guys claim to have canceled, but you still practice that." Then they took our pictures; I kind of half-smiled and held up my sign so they could see it; Rev. and Sam both took pictures of them taking our pictures; I had my sunglasses on the whole time like I always do when I'm outside (except at night, of course). The lady Scieno went back inside; the male Scieno stayed out with us. He saw Sam taking pictures of us and wanted to know who that was. Rev. said, "He's with us." We then told the guy about how Roland and Keith were both physically assaulted by Scienos while picketing and that that's why we had a photographer with, to document it in case some Scieno tried to do that to one of us. The guy then went back in the org a couple minutes later.

Nicollet Mall is closed to motor vehicles except for buses, taxis and authorized vehicles such as cop cars so we didn't get any car honks, but we got quite a few acks from pedestrians and bicyclists. Two people walking by across the street even started applauding when they saw my "Space Alien Scam" sign! There were a number of other people who would make comments like, "Yeah, it's a scam, all right!" or "I agree!" One guy on his bike stopped and told about he'd read the "Time" magazine article and was saying, "Yeah, it sure is a scam! They're really a nasty group!" One guy told us about a friend of his who almost got sucked into the cult; he'd taken the personality test and seen one of their orientation films, and they did such a number on him with their sales pitch afterward that he was ready to whip out his checkbook and sign up for one of their courses, but fortunately he didn't.

Rev. really did a good job at handing out flyers; I'm guessing he handed out at least 40-50 Xemu flyers, maybe more?? (I know I probably handed out between 25-30 Mpls. flyers and I know for sure he handed out more than that of the Xemu flyers). He'd say to people as they were walking by, "You're covered with dead space aliens! Read all about it here!" or "Save $360,000 by reading these flyers!" The Scn church had their main door propped open. After about maybe a half hour or so, someone came from inside and pulled the door shut and they kept it shut the rest of the time we were there. The guy seemed to make a point of being obvious and noisy about it so we'd get the message; do you think maybe they got tired of hearing Rev. talk about people being covered by dead space aliens? :)

Several people stopped to talk with us; Rev. would tell them the story about how Lisa McPherson died during the Introspection Rundown (I gave some Lisa flyers to people too), about OSA, about how LRH was hiding from the law the last years of his life and that Heber Jentzsch is a wanted criminal in Spain, about how the auditing makes some people feel really good at first and that's how they get hooked into Scn, and about how LRH says we're descended from clams and that seeing someone make a clam snapping motion with their hand is supposed to cause people to have severe jaw pain, among other topics. I must say Rev. is really good to have on a picket cuz he's friendly and outgoing and he's real good at explaining to people about Scn (I would chime in with something here and there).

One middle aged guy walking by us said, "You guys are full of shit!" Rev. said, "No, we're AGAINST Scientology!" The guy says, "Well, I'm a Scientologist!" and so we were like, "Oh, OK." Rev. asked the guy if he thought we were lying about how Lisa McPherson died from an embolism caused by dehydration and he said, "Oh, that story's a bunch of bullshit!" and went into the org.

They had their "Help Wanted--Inquire at Reception Desk" sign in the window. There were at (I think) two passersby who mentioned working for them and then quitting when they got their puny paycheck. One guy said that happened to him a few years ago or so, how he got a check for like $8 or something for working 30 hours; he said he quit and then afterwards at one time he would stand outside the org and hand out flyers and tell people what happened, and that Scn told him he couldn't do that and that he had to quit it!

It was funny; I always thought we were supposed to keep moving all the time and that we could get in trouble for loitering or something if we stood in the same spot, but there were at least two cop cars that drove by us and they didn't even bother with us. So basically we just stood there in front of the org the whole time with our signs, and that was for almost an hour and a half!

Rev. had something else to do so at 7:30 we called it quits. I definitely had a good time tonight, and hopefully Rev. will come to Minneapolis more often because I enjoyed picketing with him!

I know I keep writing these picket reports that are 10 zillion words long, but I'm still pretty new at picketing so everything is still a novelty to me; maybe once I've picketed more, it will be pretty routine so my reports will eventually be shorter! :) Sue (SP3) -----
Subject: PICKET REPORT: Minneapolis, 4/25/98, Saturday
From: Reverend Reversible revrev@mail.execpc.com

Thanks very much to Xenubat for the report on our picket. She stole all my fire - errr - make that saved me a lot of work typing :) She got most of the details. I guess I will add a few impressions.

I gave away LOTS of Xemu fliers. At least 100. I feel like I'm giving away free inoculations against a dangerous virus. Warm fuzzies.

My "100% Standard $cientology "Tech" Killed Lisa McPherson" sign is the one that seemed to draw people into conversation with me. Quite a few of them seemed a little put off by it, as it is a very large claim to make and they wanted me to justify it. After talking with them, they invariably changed their tone to one of commiseration and support. Thank goodness the $cieno's kept logs as she died. Makes it pretty easy to convince the public.

The other side of my sign said "$cientology Hates Free Speech". That one was easier to read and I noticed quite a few people noticing it. It seemed that many of them took that as a given, so they didn't feel the need to talk to me about it.

One gentleman from Holland talked for a few minutes (I had guessed incorrectly that his accent was German). He too seemed a bit put off at first and expected me to defend my statements. As we talked, the topic moved to the claims that $cientology makes that they are being persecuted like the Jews were by the Nazis. This is really a hot button for me (I was married to a Jew who's father is Armenian - don't try to minimize the Holocaust when _I'm_ around). I could feel my voice grow louder as I said that I found those claims "ABSOLUTELY REPUGNANT!!" It was at that point that this man switched to the supportive mode. He said he agreed completely. Holocaust revisionism seems to be mostly ignored here in the states, but I have the impression from speaking with this man, visiting Europe, and from speaking with other Europeans that they are much more concerned about it than are we.

The $cieno who spent the most time with us gave me a few laughs. I asked him what he thought of the Xemu story. He said he'd never heard of it, so I replied, "oh, you're not OT then?" He answered, "I wouldn't discuss my case level with _you_.) I asked him what he thought of the claims I was making on my picket sign. He claimed he hadn't read them!!!!!! As if I hadn't noticed him looking at it. He tried for a while to position himself between me and the flow of traffic. I moved across the sidewalk a couple of times, leaving him with Xenubat. I think she didn't like that, so she kept following me, letting him block me again. We went back and forth a couple times while we talked. He made a few attempts to answer my claims, but praise "Bob", I've been reading a.r.s. long enough that I had an answer for just about everything he tried.

He claimed that Fair Game was something from the distant past, that it was revoked. I countered with the fact that the pertinant HCOPL merely rescinded the use of the term, not the policy, and pointed out that fair game attacks were ongoing and well known to the 'net community. I gave a few examples (theft of photos, following children), but later that night I was kicking myself over all the really good examples I should have been mentioning - dead cats and dogs, etc, etc.

Eventually (maybe 30 min after we arrived) he gave up and headed in. As he did so, he was saying, "that's just fantastic....incredible..." I think what he meant was that he didn't believe anything I was saying, but he clearly didn't have the confront to stand up to me.

Our stealth security personnel, who stayed mostly out of sight, reported that they could see that one of the staff got on the phone as soon as we showed up and stayed on it for the duration. They also noticed people peeking out at us from the upstairs windows, behind drawn curtains.

After we called it a day, I walked back to my friend's car (while discretely watching my back) and stowed my sign under her car (didn't have the keys and she was elsewhere). On my way back to the area of the org (on my way to the symphony) I noticed the guy whom I think is in charge of the org. He was out looking around and seemed quite harried. We each studiously failed to notice the other, then I doubled back to try to see what he was up to. He ducked into an alley and I lost track of him. I figure he was out looking for cars with Wisconsin plates (I had told him I am from Wis.) I didn't want him to spot my sign by my friend's car, so I headed back there and tossed it in the garbage. Only a couple of bucks, and the next one will be better.

Again, thanks Sue/Xenubat for covering most of the details, and for doing the picket with me. As I noted above, I get a warm fuzzy feeling over this - I feel like I'm exercising my civil rights, trying to help the public and make this a better world. To top that off, I went out to the Minneapolis Symphony for an evening of Prokofiev and Schubert. Between the charge of civil liberty and culture, my head was swimming. BIG WIN! WOGS AT CAUSE!

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Subject: PICKET REPORT: San Diego, 4/28/98, Tuesday
From: Xenubat@primenet.com (Xenubat (Sue M.))

I was in San Diego for a couple of days; I decided as long as I was there I might as well picket their org again. I had made a San Diego version of the Poole flyer
(available on my (http://members.cox.net/batchild1/)
web site) which I printed off and took on my trip, along with my other flyers that I already had (Xemu, Scam, Lisa). I went to a store the day before in San Diego and bought sign materials; I used the same message I had on my sign at the Minneapolis picket last Saturday ("SCIENTOLOGY: SPACE ALIEN SCAM" and "DOES THE BRIDGE REALLY COST $360,000?").

The cab driver who had driven me to the org and waited for me on my last visit had given me his card and said to give him a call if I was in San Diego again and wanted to picket again, so I did that. We arranged to have him pick me up at my hotel at about 5 p.m.; he was there about 10 min early. He told me he had heard more stuff about Scientology. He said he'd heard Howard Stern talking on his radio show about the Scieno celebs, no doubt talking about what a bunch of idiots they were! He didn't remember what the exact address of the org was but knew what general area it was in; I didn't have the exact address either but I said I thought it was on 4th Av. and "C" Street (?) but I wasn't sure; then he saw their stupid gold-"S"-inside-the-two-triangles logo on the side of their building and said, "Oh, there it is!" and parked across the street (he already had quarters for the meter).

I had rented a cell phone which I took with me and carried around with me while I was out picketing, pretending to be talking to someone. About 15-20 min after I started picketing, two Scieno women, the witch that had harassed me at my last picket (who I will refer to as the Sea Witch) and another woman, came out; they were standing by the bus shelter which is in front of the org, and they took my picture as I walked by; I held up my sign and half-smiled at them (wearing my sunglasses again, of course); I also made a point of waving across the street at the general direction of the cab driver. So lucky me, I had my picture taken by people from two different Scieno orgs in three days! :)

I got to the end of the block and was digging out my camera (I wanted to get a picture of them taking my picture if they did it again). Two passersby were at the corner; one of them was on her way to the bus stop and she took the Xemu and San Diego flyers that I offered her. A minute later, holding my camera up in one hand, I start walking back down the street past the bus stop again, and I notice that the Sea Witch must have gotten the woman waiting for the bus to give HER the flyers. The Sea Witch apparently must have also asked the bus rider to try to get my attention, because the bus rider said, "Excuse me," while I walked by her; I just kept walking and didn't answer her. I saw the Sea Witch reading the San Diego flyer, looking pissed off as hell! :) A minute later the bus came and the bus rider got on it. The Scienos didn't take any more pictures of me, though, nor did they confront me the rest of the time I was out there. I had seen three men in dress shirts and ties standing out on the corner across the street for several minutes; at first I thought they were Scienos, too, but then I saw them go back in the building across the street.

I thought there would be more pedestrian traffic, being a weekday during rush hour, but I only saw a few people; one pedestrian didn't want any of my flyers but said he walked by, "First Amendment," and I answered, "Yep!" I only managed to give out a few flyers (I gave both the Xemu and San Diego flyers); one guy seemed to be really interested in the Xemu flyer; as I saw him walk off, he was reading it the whole time as he was walking away. Otherwise, it was uneventful, with several car honks and smiles from people, and about 5:25 I went back to the cab and we headed back to the hotel.

The cab driver said, "I see you got more attention this time!" (he'd seen the Sea Witch and her friend take my picture and he'd seen those three guys on the corner and had also thought those guys were Scienos). He asked, "So who's behind all this (Scientology)?" and I answered, "L. Ron Hubbard; he died in 1986 but they're still carrying on," and told about how Hubbard was once a science fiction writer who decided "The best way to make money is to start your own religion". We got back to the hotel; I gave him a copy of the San Diego flyer, gave him another larger than normal tip, and he said if I'm in San Diego again and want to picket to give him a call again. Sue (SP3)

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Subject: Picket Report, Mesa AZ, 4/28
From: bpetty@primenet.com (BP)

I hit the early rush hour Wednesday, picketing from 3:30 to 4:30. There were 7 cars at the mission. I had a brief conversation with one of the members, in reguards to my sign message "Scientology Hurts People". Scientologists always claim that you can't know what the church is about if you haven't taken the courses - I pointed out that they try to keep most of the advanced material a secret. I also mentioned the latest insult to members: the website filter. There was no response.

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Subject: Picket Report, San Jose 4/29/98
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

5:00 p.m. to 5:25, 37 cars. There seemed to be some cleanout or consolidation going on, as I watched a guy sticking a functional looking 8 foot folding table in their dumpster. Silly clams! Any number of service agencies such as Goodwill would have been glad to take the table.

It is amusing to watch the scns driving by me going in or out. They completely avoid eye contact, being so careful about it that you know they are having to work hard.

I think this was the *second* picket of the day. I was going to picket earlier with someone, but got delayed filing legal papers for Graham. Keith Henson
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Subject: picket report, San Jose, Apr 29, 1 1/2 hours
From: jour0@aol.com (http://members.aol.com/jour0/)(Jour0) (Kristi Wachter)

Full Report

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Subject: Re: picket report, San Jose, Apr 29, 1 1/2 hours
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

Very cool report Jour! I got in almost half an hour of picket later that day, and 40 minutes on April 30 after the hearing (with another person). 18 cars at 5:15 today, sprinkler tech in use. Keith Henson