Picket reports

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Subject: Picketing with Phil, SLC Org, September 1, 1998
From: mirele@newsguy.com (Deana Marie Holmes)

I arrived at the bOrg just before 5:30 p.m. I didn't like the way the parking was on 11th East, so I whipped around the corner and parked on Ramona, got my sign and binder out and headed off to picket.

As I picketed, I thought of various things. One thing I though about was that sign in front of the bOrg that says "Hubbard Dianetics Foundation." It really is ratty. The Dianetics triangle on the south side of the side is faded, and the nails are rusting into the paint. What a rotten example of Scientology. I know that if the public at the bOrg wanted to, they could take up a collection and put up a really nice sign saying "Church of Scientology." So why hasn't it happened?

I also noticed there was nobody in the lobby today and wondered about that. However, I did notice one of Sea bOrg women walking towards me from 21st South. I greeted her and asked her if she was going to have to write a KR about seeing me? No acknowledgment. I said to her that if she did have to write a KR, to please spell my name correctly and I spelled it for her. Unfortunately I forgot to tell her "Revenimus." I'll try not to forget for the future.

So I'm picketing along and noticing the cars and the people looking at my sign and that sort of thing, and thinking about the many lies of Hubbard and the organization run today to perpetuate his disaster masquerading as religion, when guess who should drive up?

It was Phil, our OTVIII handler. Phil's full name is Phillip Earl Parke, and he runs Overnight Graphics here in Salt Lake City. He's also got a spam website at:
(http://www.our-home.org/phillipeparke/index.htm)
I said hello to him, calling him by his full name. It appears that someone in the bOrg called him and told him to get down here. I believe he has been hatted to handle me. Fine, we'll have interesting chats for as long as he wants to keep walking with me. I asked him sweetly as we were picketing if, since the bOrg was open 7 days a week (pointing to the sign on the glass) if the people inside would have to call him if I were to, say, show up for a picket on Sunday at 1 p.m. He didn't know. Maybe we'll test this.

One thing that's frustrating about these Scientologist handlers is how they're unwilling to admit anything. He won't tell me about his wins (what, embarrassed?), and he really doesn't know anything. My picket is not about the beliefs of Scientology, but about the practices of same, and I do not feel like I want to discuss the OTVIII cognition.

He was very curious as to why I picket. I told him again, it was because Scn came on the net and tried to shut down the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. I could have lived my entire life not knowing about Scn, but the Fates determined that it was not to be.

He also really wants me to leave and not come back. Sorry, Phil, not going to happen.

Oh yes, and this is something that annoyed me. I happen to live in the neighborhood, only 6 blocks from the org. I do resent any sort of implication that the neighborhood is somehow "unsafe." I don't need that sort of patronization. He claimed he was out there to protect me. Bull! and I told him so. I've lived in terribly unsafe neighborhoods, and Sugarhouse is very safe by comparison.

I gave Phil a copy of the False Data Stripping flyer, and noted that I had a copy of the first page of OTIII in Hubbard's handwriting in my binder. Phil was a bit unhappy about that. He thought it could restimulate people. I burst out into peals of laughter. Restimulate--only if you believe in it first!

Another thing that really annoyed me about Phil was his attempt to somehow divide Scientology into groups. It wasn't Scientology staff that picketed me, it was "some Scientologists." "Public," I retorted. He seems to think that this insulates the bOrg. As I noted, the orders to picket me are coming from higher up. Who does Phil think he's fooling by his attempts to sidestep the reality that SLC Org is not really run in and by SLC people, but by orders from above? He'd like me to think that, but I know this is not the truth.

He seems to think I'm getting orders too. The only orders I'm getting are from my conscience ("keep it up girl") and my feet ("man, we *hurt*"), not from some mythical arscc or somesuch. Why is Scientology looking for a conspiracy?

Something that I suspect I'll be doing, because Phil denies that Scientology and Scientologists tell lies will be something like, "1000 Lies of Hubbard and Scientology." You know, go through Hubbard's life and list all his lies, with the reality of the matter. I am tired of these little evasions.

And finally, just to get this On The Record:
Phil said that it was likely my place would be picketed again.

I'd like to remind Phil, the rest of the SLC publics that picketed my home, the staff of SLC bOrg, the Sea bOrgers currently in residence, and those higher up in Los Angeles and Clearwater that picketing of a residence in Salt Lake City is illegal.

As the SLC bOrg has already organized two pickets against me, I would say that they have shown that they can do it. This information will of course be reported to the proper authorities for them to use as they see fit.

And the pickets from my side of the SLC bOrg, the business of Scientology, "Open 7 Days" as it says on the door, will continue indefinitely....

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Subject: Picket, SLC Org, September 2, 1998
From: mirele@newsguy.com (Deana Marie Holmes)

I got there at the usual time, and I didn't have to wait very long at all for Phil to come out. In fact, I did maybe one or two turns with the sign and he was out there. He's now got a nifty sign too. Too bad it has LRH platitudes on it, and totally doesn't even answer what my sign says. One side was, "Love and help children." Amazingly enough, it didn't even acknowledge the Source of the quotes as being LRH. Bad, bad, bad! But that's so typical of the Salt Lake City bOrg; they're always hiding.

We did some turns and I dug out my copy of the LRH coroner's report. I read to him the most interesting parts (to me) which were the unkempt nails and hair, the 10 injection sites, and the presence of Vistaril in the blood stream.

I also mentioned the OT 8 cognition to him. I prefaced it with a bit about being fairly certain I couldn't cave him by mentioning it to him, but gee, when I did, did I detect a slight bit of unhappiness on his part? He mentioned that he would have to write a KR now that I mentioned caving him. Geesh. It's like I told him, "Aren't most religions about telling you who you are not, and teaching you how to find out who you are?" I believe that's what most religions are about.

Most of the conversation was pleasant chit-chat. I did tell him, very heatedly, at one point, that I was very much opposed to the work of CCHR because I have a relative who is a schizophrenic, and she has benefitted greatly from those so-called "eeeeeeevil psych meds." I should have mentioned that Of Course Scientology can't help anyone who has taken eeeevil psych meds, but I forgot. I also told him that the Purif was bogus and dangerous, and involved taking massive, toxic doses of niacin. He thinks the Purif helped heal an alleged liver ailment of his.

I didn't see any Sea bOrgers today, but Phil said one was still there. I did note more activity around the org today than I have seen for a long time. I was unhappy to see a woman eating her dinner in her car, parked on the Ramona St. side of the bOrg. Why does she have to eat in her car? Doesn't the bOrg have a lunch room? What will she do come winter?

I tried something new today. I parked along the side of the bOrg, and put a sign in my window that reported to the people in the basement course room that LRH died with Vistaril (a psych drug) in his veins. Dunno if it did anything, but I might have to try signs in my other windows if people are going to eat in their cars....

And finally, Phil is just so terribly perturbed that I would be out there picketing. I have explained to him several times that I'm out there because of censorship. Maybe I haven't made myself clear, but the thing is, Scientology is involved in censorship and keeping information from its own people as well as the general public.

Additionally, it's worth noting that I'm not being paid to do this. I do this because, as amazing as it sounds, it needs to be done. Anyone who knows me knows that I've picketed other places due to censorship. I picketed HEB back in 1989 when they kicked the Austin Chronicle out of their stores, for example. I certainly wasn't paid to do that, either. To me, the First Amendment isn't worth the paper it's written on if people don't actively go out and use it.

I wrapped up the picket just shy of 50 minutes and went home. I told Phil I'd be back tomorrow. (Wouldn't it be a shame if maybe I didn't come?) I think tomorrow we will discuss LRH's piss-poor college performance. Or I will take suggestions for another of the 1001 Lies of Scientology for future pickets.

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Subject: San Jose Picket Report 9/1/98 From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

5:25-5:40 As I arrived three cars left bringing the total at 5:30 to 18. This is as low as I have ever seen the parking lot.

Little to report, the place is really dead. John M (the body router) was not there either. Is this because they are on vacation or has those on lines really fallen this far?

Home at 6:05. No evidence of being picketed today. Ahead 11 pickets. Keith Henson

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[multiple reports]
Subject: Picket report, Minneapolis, 9/2/98
From: Xenubat@primenet.com (Bat Child (Sue M.))

(Seeing that I still have my reactive mind and thus have a less than perfect memory, the events I describe may not be in exact chronological order, and any conversations described below are paraphrased.)

I met Chris, another SP picketer, at Peavey Plaza outside Orchestra Hall about 12:00 noon. I was wearing my newest Weekly World News T-shirt which had the cover picture and headline "Rush Limbaugh Meets With Space Aliens!". I had my usual sign with "Scientology: Space Alien Scam" on one side and "Does the Bridge really cost $360,000?" on the other side. Chris had a big sign with the message "Scientology $360,000 Space Cootie Scam" on one side and on the other side it had LRH's college grades (calculus--D; English, Short Stories--B; Physics--D; Nuclear Physics--F). I had brought along extras of my usual flyers (Xemu, Lisa, Scam), but he said he probably would need to use both hands for his sign (especially as it was rather windy out today--nice and sunny, but windy), so I was unofficially hatted to hand out the flyers.

We made one pass down Nicollet from 11th St. to 10th St., then Chris suggested that we just stand outside the church with our signs. I said that sounded good to me, so he stood on one side of the sidewalk (the side closest to the church building) and I stood on the opposite side.

About a minute later one guy starts talking to Chris; I didn't really get to hear the conversation that they had. Then the guy starts talking to me; he wanted to know what I was handing out (I had copies of the Xemu flyer in my hand) and I let him look at one of the flyers, and he asked me where I got this information from; by then I had figured out he was a Scieno. I said that ex-members have confirmed the validity of this material. He asked if there were other levels like this and then I mentioned OT-5 (NOTs) about auditing one's body thetans and mentioned how NOTs 34 was claimed to be able to cure medical illnesses, and also mentioned the "thetan hand technique", about how one can supposedly scoop up a handful of one's body thetans. He said his name was Mike and he wanted to know my full name; I would only give him my first name and said I wouldn't ask him for his last name either. He then took off; I'm guessing he went back inside the org; I didn't see where he went. Chris then told me that when Mike asked him what his name was, Chris told him it was "Bob Minton"! :-)

A minute or so later a woman comes out of the org, carrying a camera; I responded by pulling my camera out of my bag. She didn't say anything to me but she started giving the third degree to Chris, wanting to know what he was doing there, etc. (I only heard parts of the conversation as there was quite a bit of background noise from buses going by, etc., plus I was still standing on the other side of the sidewalk). Apparently Chris also told her that he was "Bob Minton" but she didn't buy that, nor did she believe it when he told her he was "Vaughn Young" or any of the other names he gave her (I'm not positive, but I think he might have also told her he was "Lisa McPherson" and "Susan Meister", among other names). Well, this woman (her name is Diane something-or-other according to Chris) starts getting all enturbulated and kept demanding that Chris give his full name and show her his ID! Of course he wouldn't, and she kept going on and on about how she wasn't afraid to give her full name so why should he be, that she was sure if they investigated him they'd find out about his criminal past, and that if he was going to stand outside and protest, he should "either give me your full name or get the fuck out of here!" She also asked him why his hands were shaking, was he nervous? Well, he was holding a big heavy picket sign, that's probably why! :-) (I later told Chris that this Scieno witch in San Diego said the same thing to me when I picketed there, about "Why are your hands shaking? Are you on drugs?", etc.). Well, eventually Diane realized she wasn't going to get anywhere with Chris and decided to go inside. During this whole conversation I was watching them and holding my camera (while trying to hand out a few flyers here and there), but had politely refrained from taking any pictures of Diane unless she started taking pictures of me or Chris. Well, she did take a picture of me after she finished talking to Chris, so I got my camera ready and I then took a picture of her taking another picture of me, and then another picture of her walking back inside the org.

During the rest of the time we were standing out there, three other Scienos came out to talk with us. One of them was an older gentleman, I didn't get his name, a public who lived in Wisconsin but came to the Minneapolis org for his courses/auditing. He spent most of the time talking to Chris and I didn't hear a whole lot of what they talked about--I think they were talking about Ethics and SPs at one point. Apparently he's a Clear (not sure how long he's been in Scn) and said that Scn really works for him, and that Scn is anti-drug, unlike the psychs who are experimenting with giving Ritalin to 6-month-old babies, according to him. I mentioned that Lisa McPherson also was against psychiatry, being a faithful Scientologist, and that she wound up dead after 17 days of the Introspection Rundown. He'd said he heard of Lisa McPherson, and asked where this happened; we told him it happened at Flag, the home of 100% Standard Tech. I think another Scieno had started talking to me at this point so I didn't know how that conversation continued between Chris and the man.

Another young woman started talking to me; she told me that she recently joined Scn, had just joined staff, and that she used to really have trouble with school before joining Scn, but that studying is a lot easier for her now with Scn's techniques. I acknowledged that some of Scn's Study Tech might indeed be helpful (I wouldn't know myself personally, but I've heard others say that). She asked if I ever had any auditing, and I admitted that I hadn't and that quite a few people say that the tech works and that they may very well be right so I certainly wasn't going to dispute them, but I was against all the other garbage that came with the Scn package (high prices, Fair Game, etc.). I said that one of my main complaints about Scn was that they lie to people about what they represent; I showed her one of my Xemu flyers, mentioning that a sample of LRH's handwriting was on it, and said that I had almost joined Scn myself, that I had started reading "Dianetics" and had gone to take their Personality Test several years ago, and then found out about Xemu after reading the "Time" magazine article. I said that they never told me about the Xemu story when I'd gone there to take their test and that they don't tell their members till they reach the OT-3 level, that they tell members that if people find out before they reach that level that they can get sick and die, and that a number of members wound up leaving the church when they found out what LRH's big "Wall of Fire" actually was. I said if she wanted to she could take a copy of the flyer and ask a higher-up in the church if this story was true, but she declined. I then mentioned about how Scn claims that they're compatible with Christianity but that LRH said in one of his lectures "There was no Christ" (and showed her the section in the "Scam" flyer that has that quote). I also mentioned that I was opposed to Scn's Fair Game policy against their critics, and that I had no problem with Freezoners, and that if Scn behaved more like the Freezoners did (practicing the tech without harassing critics), I wouldn't be so against them.

Another woman told us that she's been in Scn for 34 years (she's a public, I believe she said she's now 71). I'm guessing she's at least OT3 as she knew the contents of my Xemu flyer, but she didn't say what level she was at. She told me that her name was Dr. Laurie [forgot the last name but think it started with a Z] but then told Chris a few minutes later that that wasn't her real name! She wanted to know why we were out protesting the church, and we gave her our spiels about how we think it's an overpriced scam, etc. She said that people who criticize Scn do so because they have committed crimes in their past, that LRH said this and that this has always been proven to be true, and wanted to know what our crimes were; I think I admitted to running a red light once about 12 years ago but that was it, Chris denied any criminal wrongdoings. She asked if we had a permit to picket and said she'd call the police. We said as far as we knew, we didn't need a permit (not with just two people), and I said I had spoken to the police before about picketing and was told that as long as we didn't block people's way and weren't disturbing the peace, we could picket, but that she was more than welcome to call the police if she wanted to. She wanted to write down on her note pad that she had with her what the message said on my sign so I helpfully showed her both sides of my sign (even flipping it back over again so she could see the first side again). She wanted to know what group we represented; we said we were just representing ourselves. She wanted to know what I was handing out so I showed her one of my Xemu flyers. She said I was violating copyright laws by handing out the flyers and that I could get sued, that plenty of other people have been sued by Scn for copyright violations and that Scn has been very successful in the courts; we said no, the Xemu flyer was not violating copyrights, that the small sample of LRH's handwriting on the flyer was Fair Use, and that anyway the Xemu flyer was in the public domain and never belonged to Scn in the first place! :-)

Chris was engaged in a conversation with the man from Wisconsin, so "Laurie" starts asking me more about why I was against Scn. I told her what I told the young woman earlier about how I had almost joined myself, had read part of "Dianetics" and thought the stuff about the reactive mind sounded really interesting, and that I'd gone and taken the Personality Test, but then changed my mind about joining Scn after reading the article in "Time" magazine. She said that the "Time" magazine article was full of inaccuracies, that she spotted them right away, and also that "Time" was biased because they get advertising paid for by the psych drug companies. I acknowledged that there most likely are some incompetent psychiatrists out there practicing (like there are incompetent surgeons, etc.) but that psychiatrists have also helped people. She said, "How, by giving people shock treatment and giving them drugs?" I said that quite a few people have been helped with psych drugs and she said "Well, a lot of people have committed suicide after being put on psych drugs. They don't tell people about all the side effects that psych drugs have." She asked me if I took any drugs and seemed pleased when I told her I didn't.

I also mentioned what I'd said to the young woman that I'd talked with earlier about how I didn't have any problem if they wanted to believe in the tech, like the Freezoners did. She said, "Oh, so you're part of a squirrel group then?" I said no, I wasn't in any squirrel group. She said, "Those squirrel groups are stealing LRH's tech; they shouldn't be practicing it at all and they should be prosecuted for stealing it." I then said, "I thought LRH once said something like 'The work is free--keep it so.'" She didn't hear me the first time I said it so I repeated what I said. She apparently still thought that squirrel groups shouldn't be going around stealing LRH's tech.

I then mentioned that I was against how the management of the church is so abusive, that David Miscavige, according to ex-members' reports, was really nasty to the people that worked under him. That's when she said that she was a public and hadn't been on staff, that she had been down to Flag not too long ago and that the people there were as nice as could be to her, and that the staff members that she saw all looked so happy to her. I said, "Well, you may well be right, there probably are staff members that do get treated well." She then said that the ex-members who were criticizing the church were all SPs or something like that, and I asked how some ex-members, such as Vaughn Young and Gerry Armstrong, for example, managed to get so high up in the church organization without being spotted as being SPs. She said that ex-members criticize the church because they have overts, and was explaining that when people have overts against the church, they know they have committed a crime against the church, so instead of punishing themselves, they attack the church instead. I said, "Yeah, that sounds kind of like if I was going to divorce my husband, I'd be saying what a jerk he was and that I didn't want anything to do with him." She said, "Yes, that's right! Of course, just because you're getting a divorce and you're mad at your husband, it doesn't always mean that you did something bad to your husband; but that's what an overt is, blaming the other person!" and was pleased that I understood what she meant. She asked if I was married at all and I said no, I wasn't. She asked how old I was, said I looked really young, like in my 20s (grin!). I told her I was a little older than that! :-) She asked what I did when I wasn't picketing, did I have a job? I said that I did have a full time job, that this was just my day off. Shortly after she decided to go back inside and so both Chris and I wished her a good day.

As far as response from the general wog public went, it was pretty favorable. People seemed to like our signs, especially Chris' "Space Cootie" sign. I heard a few people say "It's about time people did something like this!" (regarding our picketing). I think I gave out between 15-25 Xemu flyers--I probably could have handed out more but I got sidetracked by all the Scienos that came out to "handle" us. A few people came up to me and asked me for one of my flyers.

Chris couldn't stay for that long, so at about 1:05 we called it a day. I managed to give out another Xemu flyer to someone at the bus stop.

I didn't mean to make this post so long, but I was certainly surprised to have so many Scn members out talking with us--the last couple times I've picketed they've either been totally non-confront or else maybe talked to me for about 2 minutes at the most. I will say I thought it was pretty interesting to talk to them, though. (http://members.cox.net/batchild1/) Sue Mullaney

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Subject: FWD: Picket report #2, Minneapolis, 9/2/98 From: Xenubat@primenet.com
This is a forwarded picket report from Chris:

(The events described did not necessarily occur in the exact order we describe them. All conversations described here are paraphrased and not verbatim.)

Sue had her usual sign ("Scientology: Space Alien Scam" and "Does the Bridge Really Cost $360,000?) and copies of the Xemu, Scam, Lisa, and Poole/Minneapolis flyers in her bag. She was joined by me, who carried a big sign saying "Scientology: $360,000 Space Cootie Scam" on one side, and a listing of L. Ron Hubbard's grades from George Washington University on the other side. Sue and I met by Orchestra Hall, across the street from the church, compared notes and then got done to business.

At first, we walked up and down the block, but then decided to simply hang out in front of church. As always, we were careful not to disrupt pedestrian traffic or block anyone's entering or leaving the church.

As often happens, the response from people was generally favorable. Since it was lunch hour, a lot of people saw us. We got many "thank yous", thumbs-up signs, and other expressions of approbation. Surprisingly, a lot of people enjoyed seeing Hubbard's grades on display, and one person thought the "space cootie" phrase was wonderful (thank YOU, William Barwell).

We can't say that the scienos enjoyed having all that entheta on display right where everyone in the building could see. We came in for more handling than we had previously experienced. A young man named Mike came out and talked to me. He asked the usual questions, what are you doing (raising public awareness of Scientology's fraudulent nature), what are you hiding (we're not hiding anything, we are revealing), and would you leave (sure, but not now). He also talked to Sue and then returned to me, saying "you know Ron graduated from George Washington University", to which I quickly rejoined, "No he didn't; he flunked out." Oops, almost forgot the best part: Mike asked me my name and I responded "Bob Minton." Mike quickly went inside.

Then came Dianne. She brought a lot more attitude to the conversation. As Mike did before, she tried to find out my name and got "Lisa McPherson," "Gerry Armstrong," "Robert Vaughan Young," "Hana Whitfield," "Dennis Erlich," "Paulette Cooper" and a host of other names of people who aren't exactly popular with the Church right now. Finally, I threw Dianne a bone and gave her my real first name. She immediately demanded to see my driver's license and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. The exchange went something like this:

Loop until hoarse do
"Show me your driver's license!"
"Nahhh..."
"Show it to me!"
"Nope!"
"Show it to me, you coward!"
"Nope!"
"You're a coward!"
"So you say."
Repeat

It should be mentioned that passersby enjoyed this bit of street theatre immensely. Dianne accused me of lying and withholding criminal activities, but I simply said, "I gave you those names to make a point." The point being, "I am making common cause with people who have revealed the truth about your church, many of whom paid a terrible price."

I then asked who would get this information, and Dianne wouldn't say. I then said, "Well, my full name is private data, and if I give it you, you might violate data privacy laws." Dianne then said that I shouldn't be picketing and to get the hell out. What's the matter with these people? Don't they enjoy a mystery? Isn't that why they hire private investigators? Finally, Dianne stomped back into the church.

Next came a couple of older scienos; one talked to me and the other talked to Sue. The one talking to Sue let it slip that the church will someday smash or strangle (don't recall the exact words) its critics. Whoa! Talk about letting the cat out of the bag! The one talking to me kept me busy with long rants about psychiatrists, drugs, and all of the other icky things that scienos say they're against. He said to me, "If you are against the church, you are for all these bad things," or words to that effect. I patiently explained that that was not the case, and that the scieno was jumping to conclusions, etc. I also talked about the hideous expense of the church's "benefits", the lack of efficacy of these "benefits," and how the church goes after its critics like a junk yard dog. It so happened that the scieno had never heard of RPF, so I told him about the long hours, the menial work, the lousy food and the mattress on the floor.

Sue talked quite a lot with "her" scieno about the Fair Game policy, the church's history of harassing critics by hiring private investigators and filing specious lawsuits; about the church's secretiveness regarding their teachings. When "her" scieno accused Sue of copyright violations, Sue was quick to inform her of the Fair Use doctrine. Sue also mentioned the Freezoners, people who believe in the tech but didn't like how the church is run, and can deliver the same services for much less money.

After an hour or so of picketing and talking, we called it a day. We debriefed each other, had a good laugh over some of the things that were said and made arrangements for getting this picket report written. Our intention going in was to be as friendly as possible with the scienos and we did our best to fulfill that intent. We assured the scienos that we bore no ill will toward them and they reciprocated. We hope we gave them some food for thought. Only time will tell.