Picket reports

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Subject: Scientology thugs attack Minton; Minton is arrested for defending himself.
From: grady@gradyward.com (Grady Ward)
Date: 10 Sep 1998

(http://www.xenutv.com/pickets.htm) RealVideo of this picket

We all knew that the criminal cult of scientology would provoke litigation against Bob Minton, its arch-enemy, now we know they have decided to use the Henson strategy of hooliganism and physical attack.

Earlier today Bob Minton and Jesse Prince decided to do a short *peaceful* picket at the Boston Org. Minton was surrounded by up to a dozen scientologists who proceeded to step on his feet and jostle him. They specifically targeted him leaving Jesse Prince picketing virtually alone. They had their objective in mind.

Jesse heard a loud slap; one of the thugs had hit Bob in the face. Scientologists think a fair fight is eight on one.

Bob defended himself from these thugs by pushing them away with his picket sign. (Remember, his sign was made of the light corrugated plastic and 1/2" *balsa* picket sticks. He doesn't even use staples -- the sign is put together with double stick tape).

Despite calling the police first and being first physically assaulted by the cult thugs, the police arrested Bob Minton (with a $25.00 bail) on assault. Apparently using *any*thing which could possibly be construed as a weapon forces the Boston police to take someone into custody.

Of course the cult showed the police the section of the videotape in which Bob used his sign to defend himself, not the portions in which they were assaulting and battering him preceding his defense.

Bob will have a hearing tomorrow. The criminal cult is asking for a $1,000,000.00 bail. Bob is out on bail now.

However the magistrate has not seen all the physical evidence which I am not currently at liberty to disclose, but it paints quite a different picture of who the assaulters and hooligans are here -- the scientologists.

At least they didn't beat him up as severely as Keith Henson in similar circumstances in Los Angeles.

Of course critics may say how foolish it is of him to picket with only one witness, Jesse or some other moan. But does a person have a right to protest only if they can afford bodyguards or videographers?

So the question is how can peaceful picketing survive when the picketers are physical provoked into defending themselves?

The analogy between the S.A. thugs of the 20's who physically broke up opponent's meetings and Miscavige's cult thugs of the 90's is getting by the day more exact.

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[Note: Scientology also tells what happened. What follows is not the truth]
Subject: Minton goes postal and ends up in the slammer
From: wgert@loop.com (wgert) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998

Just as predicted, Minton completely lost touch with reality and went postal outside the Boston Church today and was arrested by the Boston police and hauled off to jail.

Eyewitnesses stated that Minton and Jesse Prince showed up outside the Church drunk and ready to create violence following their threats and shoving of peaceful Scientologists protesting yesterday outside Minton's New Hampshire home.

Yesterday, Minton and Prince tried to intimidate members of the Church with axes and by throwing rocks at them.

Reports are that Minton began harassing Frank Offman outside the Church by stepping on his feet and shoving him. When Frank didn't respond in kind, Minton became more aggressive and hit a second Scientologist in the face with his picket sign. Minton broke part of his stick with the blow and he then completely lost it and hit Offman over the head with his stick, breaking it on Offman's head, giving him a concussion.

[Note: There was no concussion]

Luckily the whole thing was documented on video tape and when Minton and Prince tried to lie to the police about what happened, the video tape footage told the truth and Minton was taken away by the police in handcuffs.

Offman was taken away in an ambulance but is doing OK.
This is not the first time Minton has resorted to violence. According to members of his family, Minton badly beat his second wife.

Minton is the champion of the critics. He sets the example for all to follow. As long as he's throwing the money around the critics will defend and protect him no matter what he does.

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[Note: Another article by Scientology]
Subject: Minton outburst -
From: publicrelations@scientology.org (Public Relations)
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998

Re: Minton outburst -

Minton's violent and psychotic outburst of yesterday confirms everything we said about him from the beginning. Reeking of alcohol, he turned up outside the Church of Scientology carrying picket signs and started abusing our staff and parishioners. When two Scientologists tried to stop him, he thrust his sign into the face of one, knocking off his glasses. He finally smashed a stick over the head of the second, who was taken to hospital.

The police handcuffed and arrested Minton. He was arraigned on a felony assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charge and is now subject to a court order that he stay at least 100 yards away from the victim of his assault.

A year ago, Minton appeared out of nowhere to hand out millions of dollars to individuals found by federal courts to have been engaged in unlawful activities against the Church of Scientology.

We pointed out that he was unstable, had been institutionalized in the past and is currently on psychiatric medication. We warned that he could explode into violence at any time. He confirmed our fears a few weeks ago when he appeared with a shotgun and fired at three Scientologists who were on the road in front of his house.

Proclaiming himself a "free speech advocate", he apparently can't stand to let others enjoy *their* free speech rights without resorting to violence.

Minton has repeatedly lied to the media. For example, his present of a $260,000 house to a married woman was not a humanitarian act - as he claimed to the press while denying his affair -- but part of a plan to lure her away from her husband. He has now publicly abandoned his own wife and children for this other woman.

Minton is a hypocrite and a stranger to the truth. When his hatemongering against our parishioners was given prominence in the Boston media, our church was repeatedly vandalized. We said then that he was a trigger's width from an outburst of psychotic violence. Now he pulled the trigger.

Public Relations

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[Note: Bob Minton replies]
Subject: Re: Minton outburst -
From: bob@minton.org (Robert S. Minton)
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 22:15:57 GMT

On Sat, 12 Sep 1998 01:10:01 GMT, publicrelations@scientology.org (Public Relations) wrote:

> Re: Minton outburst -
Snip
> We pointed out that he was unstable, had been
> institutionalized in the past and
> is currently on psychiatric medication.
Snip

If the above is true, perhaps you would be willing to share with us how and where you got this information.

> Public Relations

Will you also tell us why you have tried unsucessfully on two occasions in the last 10 days to visit (in groups of 6 scieno/cchr scum) the Director of General Psychiatry at Harvard's Mass General Hospital in Boston to talk about me?

Let me guess--you're trying to be helpful to my family? or auditing does not work anymore? Bob Minton
http://holysmoke.org/face_of_bigotry.html more pictures

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[multiple reports]
San Jose, Palo Alto and Mt. View pickets 9/12/98
From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)

Because of Bob Minton, they got extra today. Except for travel and 20 minutes for lunch, I picketed from 9:30 to 2:30 today.

San Jose got most of it. 9:30-12:10. 43 cars, though the number fell off as the morning progressed. I had two handlers for about an hour of that time, my OT 5 John, and Red Shirt who would not identify himself. Because of what happened to Bob, I gave the SJ cops a heads up call this morning and one of them was nice enough to come by and check on how things were going. He was already up on their former "sprinkler tech." (BTW, sprinkler tech has been out for a long time now, the ivy is dying for lack of water. I can't help but wonder if the water bill is what ended sprinkler tech.)

Both John and Red Shirt broke off talking to me when I was distracted, the first time by folks in a van who wanted to talk and give support, and second time when I went over to my car to get Red Shirt a copy of the WSJ article on Judge Whyte and my case.

Mark (Marcus?) W. was out there with a camcorder. It was the first time I have seen a camera in months. I suspect they might have been planning a Minton type attack, but the cops coming by might have made them think twice.

Jim showed up close to noon so for a while there were two of us. I got a call that they were picketing my house, so (since I was about done) I decided to go home and check out the picketer (reported to be a woman). Jim wanted to get some pics of them so we both split for Palo Alto. No luck though, the woman left before we got there. I took a short lunch break and Jim picketed the PA mission. I joined him for a while then we went down to Mt. View. These two orgs got about 1:30 minutes between them, but I will let Jim post the details. Keith Henson

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San Jose picket 9/12/98 - From: me@primenet.com (kEvin)

I picketed San Jose from about 1:15 to 3:45 or so. (starting time is accurate, leaving time could be off by 15 minutes either way.) Red Shirt played spy vs. spy games trying to inconspicuously observe me from various distant vantage points. (hint - that shirt sticks out dude.) Little reaction other than that.

Some older dark gray haired guy came out and conspicuously took several photos of me after Brent left. I made goofy faces for a few shots and ignored him for the rest.

Hmmn. Brent was there when I showed up. If Jim was there when Brent started, they had a continuous picket for most of the day.

My sign was my PVC pipe design with white paper from a roll taped to it and written on it in thin black marker was "Why Does the 'Bridge' cost $360,000" on on side and the flip side had my personal favorite, "Stop being victims." I need to get a drill with a thin bit and drop some screws into the T-join to prevent the annoying rotation of the sign along that axis and I need to get a bigger marker to make the words legible from the distance.

Nothing much happened, although I spent at least half an hour at the end talking to a woman who worked at the motel across the street. She wanted to know what Scientology[tm] was, but since her husband had some involvement with another cult group with some serious family disruption, she was afraid to go in and see Orientation. I tried to give her an honest answer, and then got distracted by a long discussion about the Presley's and Travolta. I don't think she's at all likely to fall for Scientology[tm] since she's read _Cults in Our Midst_ and has spoken with Margaret Singer about her husband, but I had to warn her about getting taken by psychic scams, since she's apparently spent some serious money on one of those. She's still a believer, but has switched to a much cheaper one who doesn't pressure her for more money and is much cheaper. I suppose that's a win.

A bit later, I spoke with two neighborhood youths, one of whom had some impressive musculature and lots of big tattoos. They asked why I was picketing and we had a bit of a discussion. This was a little odd, since they were very much of the opinion that the way to deal with people who wronged one as badly as Scientology[tm] has wronged some people is to shoot Scientologists[tm]. ~sigh~. They gave me weird looks when I tried to explain how shootings reinforce the Scientology[tm] mind set and the organizations control over their members and that I though that violence was exactly the wrong way to fight them. I don't think I did a very good job of explaining Ghandi tech to them. The best argument I managed to throw at them was that some of the people I've met and like would have committed some of the abuses I'm protesting if they'd been ordered to when they were in and that the people caught up in it now are no different than my friends were then. I don't think I convinced them, but I doubt they'll get involved or any violence against the cult will result. (I'm afraid they might end up in violence against other groups though. Gangs are a real problem in San Jose. I wish I knew some easy way to solve that problem, but I don't.) kEvin

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From: hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)
Wow! San Jose got 6 hrs of picketing today from four people.
See what roughing up Minton got you? Keith Henson

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Subject: First picket of Europe OT Capital (Copenhagen) 12 sep 98
From: "Catarina Pamnell" stellaria@hotmail.com

It's a very good tactic to counterpicket critics personal homes and families, because it really keeps people from going picketing. This must be why I didn't call Ake and said "When do we leave for Copenhagen?" $cientology tech always works, right? It also would have made it impossible to convice Birgitta to come along (not that I think she would ever want to picket anyway, now that she has read the *real* truth about what happened to Lisa McPherson according to reliable sources within a certain three-letter organization). And this is how we know that the following picket report is pure fiction.

Why do three Swedes go west to picket in Copenhagen, Denmark? It's the Co$ center for Europe - there's an AOSH (Advanced org and Saint Hill org), New Era Publications, the CLO EU as well as a couple of local orgs, etc. And AFAIK, it had not yet had an ARSCC(wdne) picket! This had to be remedied.

After some picket sign production we headed for Denmark in Ake's car. We crossed over with the ferry at Helsingborg. Ake postulated that we'd catch the ferry, but we just missed it, which shed some doubt about his oatee abilities. He did also postulate rain, and that postulate stuck - thoroughly! After some deliberation I declared him to be a 50 percent oatee. We didn't have to wait very long for the next ferry, anyway, and succeded in meeting our ETA of 16.00 in Copenhagen (that is our *new* ETA after we had abandoned the old one of 15.00) .

When entering the city from the north, it's possible to pass through Store Kongensgade on the way to downtown, which we managed to do due to my outstanding map reading abilities. We just thought we'd drop by New Era Pubs to say "hi!" before getting to work at the AOSH. It's in a reasonably nice white building, with the Copenhagen class 5 org in part of it. Now the CLOEU has obviously also moved into the NEP building - they used to be in their own large building in the mid 80's. Must be that expansion thing we keep hearing about. They were just opening the gate to let a car with Swiss registration plates drive into the yard. We got out, Ake took some snapshots and Bid was waving some fliers, then we jumped right back into the car and went downtown, some people in navy-and-white scurrying around the street.

After some more of my mapreading (why don't they mark one-way-streets separately on maps?) we found OT Central at Jernbanegade (virtual tour available somewhere on http://www.scientology org ). Bid and I started with flier distribution while Ake parked the car. We had a doublesided flier Xenu/$cn crimes, and Lisa fliers - rough guess is 200 distributed. As observers we had Concerned Citizens X and Y in a car parked nearby. This street is a small side street, but there's a fair amount of foot traffic. It was a bit hard to get people to accept fliers though - at first they thought we were scientologists. It's so funny to see the total change of attitude in many people when they get it that we're *protesting* the Co$. When Ake arrived with the signs it was a bit more obvious. He had a Lisa "before and after" sign, I had "$cientology hurts people".

By now we had company, a guy obviously saw a pressing need for cleaning the windows of the entrance right where we were standing (did I say that the rain was pouring down? I don't clean windows when it's raining, and neither does Bid, but I guess we don't have the right tech.) He must have not liked what he saw, for soon a number of SO staff came out to join us. I don't have any exact recall of how many there were throughout the night, we rarely had less than 4-5 people around at a time, and not the same people (don't these guys have some stats to get up or something?). One of the first questions was "What organisation are you from?" Bid said "ARSCC which doesn't exist". The guy asked again, he didn't know what it was. Well, how could he have heard of a non-existant organisation? I was asked if I belonged to any religion. I believe they have some local opponents in a Christian organisation, could be the reason for that question, I don't know. Having consulted my "What is Scientology?" to refresh my memory, I was kind of hoping that we would get there in time for the Auditor's Day event. Seems they don't do the events on the correct day anymore, though - they have to wait for the video from the LA event to arrive. Sigh.

First contact with the Danish police force:
As expected it didn't take long for a patrol car to show up. Ake talked to the policemen - he had already before spoken to the local police on the phone to get their rules on picketing. He mentioned that he had earlier experiences of scientologists trying to steal fliers and pushing picketters around, and gave them copies of our fliers. They told us not to go inside the org (which we of course had no intention of doing in the first place) and to call if there was any trouble.

Now various familiar tactics were tried out to counter the picket. The "who are you, where do you come from" routine; picking leaflets out of the hands of people who just got one (stupid that one - really makes them look silly) and eventually the "parading students/plain clothes staff around and around the block, asking for fliers each time (and please can I get some for my friends?)". Funny - maybe they think we have some flier quota to meet and will go home when they have taken them all...? Ake gave some of them, and told some they couldn't have one (though I don't know if it really made them any more confused than they already were). And can OSA be really, really sure that all the fliers were turned in unread? ;-)

The nasty part I:
A young guy in a tan sweater came up to Bid to snatch her batch of fliers away. He pushed her really hard and nearly got her down on the ground, but she side-stepped and went against the window. Ake immediately grabbed the guy and held him in a tight grip while calling "Thief, criminal!" I quickly took Ake's picket sign away from the trouble zone to avoid any claims that he was using it for anything other than it's intended purpose, recent US incidents in mind. Bid was OK, thankfully, though naturally shaken. It was scary. This time it was us calling the police, who appeared within minutes - the same guys. The blond cop who had spoken to Ake before got the pile of fliers out from under the sweater of the scieno guy, and then proceeded to make it explicitely clear to him that at the slightest sign of more trouble from him, he'd be arrested. He then asked us to please stay on one side of the entrance door, and the scienos should stay on the other.

Things calmed down a bit. Ake attracted several OSA handlers and engaged in some communication, while Bid and I mostly kept going about our business. After an hour or more (I really didn't keep track of time, maybe we should have some ARSCC punch cards?) we decided to go for coffee. It had been raining more or less constantly, so it was tempting to get a bit warmed up. Ake invited the nice young dark-haired handler to join us, she was english and first gave one name (Watifa ? or something), but later I and Bid got to call her by her second name Julia as a privilege. A guy came along, don't remember if he gave his name so I'll call him Mr Silent as he wasn't doing much talking. We went into the mall in the opposite corner. I and Ake were still carrying our signs (we had nowhere to put them) and two security guards came up and told us we couldn't go in there. But when we explained that we were just going for coffee and we were not scientologists, they relaxed and asked us to put the signs where the guards were sitting. Julia asked if Marlene (?) could join us, and sent Mr Silent to get her. This turned out to be a blond woman with glasses, Bid thought it's the OSA head for Europe. It was "handle with communication" time.

We got our coffee, and it obviously Ake was chosen as their "Who" to be handled. Marlene and Julia were working hard to give him the *real* facts about Lisa McPherson, CAN and so on. He got faxes with Lisa info and a Freedom mag about CAN. Ake has the most unbelievable persistence, after hours of being handled he just keeps going and going and never runs out of arguments... He would have made a formidable registrar ;-) To be honest, I thought it was nice because the rest of us could peacefully get on with our socializing and exchanging news. Concerned Citizens X and Y had joined us, it was nice to meet Y who was a quiet guy but with some wonderful comments. He gave us the definite quote of the day:
Marlene: Why are you against our religion?
Y: I don't think it is a religion so how can I be against it?

At one point I asked Julia at what place they now keep the RPF. She looked me straight in the eye and said "We don't have an RPF." Some half hour later Ake asked Marlene about the RPF who said we could not go to see it, so I presume that in the meantime they had gotten an RPF together (maybe from the staff who had not succeded in taking all our fliers?).

Ake, now recognized as our SP Boss, in true form demanded that Bid and I leave the cosy warmth of the coffee shop to resume our hard labour in the drizzling rain. X and Y had to be off, so we continued our picketing without observers. Bid and I wanted to take a look at the Nordland (where some staff live) so we walked over there leafleting along the way. We really didn't go to picket at the Nordland, after having our look we started walking back. By now Ake had picked up two BTs. Soon they were 5. I and Bid tried walking in front and all 5 of them stayed back with Ake. He was playing some "Start-Change-Stop" on them - starting to walk, stopping, starting etc. - and they obediantly followed. One young guy was trying to get into his backpack, though, so I walked right behind Ake for a while. Now they trailed behind us and tried giving out "Freedom" mags to those we gave fliers to - which made for an interesting effect when we pointed out to people that those were scientologists stalking us.

Back at the AOSH we decided to go get something to eat. Ake pointed out that there might be some restaurant close to Store Kongensgade, which was of course just another trick to get us to do more picketing at New Era Pubs. We went to get the car in a parking garage just opposite the org. The BTs tried to follow, but when Ake called "You have no car down here, you're trespassing!" they jumped back. Wogs at cause. The garage had the funniest plan I've seen, with the cars in double rows and no possibility to get cars in the back out without moving one in front. Ake claimed that he could postulate the car out of the seemingly closed-in position, and what do you know, he soon turned up with a parking attendant who moved the stopping vehicle out of the way. Ake was upgraded to 75 percent oatee.

Although I mostly gave up the map reading in the dark, we found our way back to NEP. We had run out of film so there are some sights you will never see, such as the restaurant called "KGB" just around the corner of the org. I doubt the staff go there though, it looked expensive. We parked on that side street, and grabbed a few fliers. There was not much people out walking at this time (about 21.00, let's say) so we mostly talked to our handlers. Ake took on Marlene and some OT8 guy who had been called in, and Bid and I had a chat with Julia. She said her parents are scientologists, and she had been in for 13 or 14 years. She was really nice and polite while trying to question us about our background. When Bid said she had been picketing at Flag, she asked "Who paid your ticket?" Another standard question, I guess.
While she was of course just doing her job of "getting in comm and finding our ruin which is causing us to attack the church" or whatever, it was a bit interesting to see some things that made her react. When she got that Bid had many years of experience, had been in OSA, had done OT levels etc, her body language changed, she somehow looked much more respectful towards Bid. Guess it's different to be a real SP than a mere wog ;-)

She didn't seem to have many prepared arguments at all about the ScienoSitter, which we explained a little about. She went on a bit about distributing stolen copyrighted material, so I had to point out that you can't really copyright an idea, just a text, and this particular text was not out of the actual OT3 material (Praise the Xemu leaflet! - but I had also rewritten it a bit myself, trust an SP to alter-is) so she dropped that. Later Marlene angrily pointed at a "copyrighted" word on our Lisa leaflet - it was $cientology [sic]...

Bid spoke quite a bit to Julia about that there are many people doing scientology *outside* of the orgs, which also got her out of the well-rehersed lines.

Finally we managed to get Ake off discussion and into eating mode. There was a nice-looking little restaurant just across the street, so we could sit there and watch the scientologists watching us. And would you believe it, they had muslinger on the menu of the day (that's "clams" to you). Bid and I immediately went for it. The meal was nice, but not without interruptions.

The nasty part II:
After a short while, Ake got restless and felt that he should check the car. When he walked out we saw people starting to run back and forth. As he got around the corner to his car, the large covered Nordland van was parked right in front of it very close. The luggage compartment of his car was open and the handle broken. He moved the car to a spot right in front of the restaurant window, though it was a bit tight and he didn't put the car really straight along the curb. The OSA people had absolutely no idea about how it had happened, of course. We didn't call the cops, as we had not actually seen it happen.

Third encounter with Danish police:
We resumed our meal, but it didn't take very long before a police car pulled up. (Who had called to say there was a car badly parked, take a guess anyone?) Ake explained that since we had been picketing the Co$ and they had broken into his car, he now wanted to keep it within sight. The police said no more, just helped him to back the car up properly.

It was getting late and we still had a long way to go home, so we finally got going after 23.00. The trip home was uneventful (we had checked the car out for any "forgotten" items that could possibly have remained there after the break-in, as we had a border to cross). We even caught the ferry, so Ake is hereby reinstated as 100 percent oatee - provisional until he has proven that he can keep his postulates away from the weather department. Strangely enough it did stop raining after we had dropped Bid off. I will spare my judgement in this matter until later.

All in all, despite the "action" we had a good time. This could become a habit.

The nasty part III:
I do think that most of the people we were dealing with are pretty good people. The guy who jumped on Bid seemed really crazy, and Marlene was cold, but I do think little Julia believed in what she was doing. I told her: "You are probably a nice person, and yet you have to pay for what the people running your organization are doing. They are doing it in your name, too." But I don't think she can understand what I meant. Bid told her to call in case the unbelievable would ever happen and she would want out. God, I do wish that well-meaning people like that wouldn't be used by this kind of criminal organizations. Ake and I discussed this later, what if it had been a few years back, maybe he could have been having these talks with me or Bid defending the Co$. Please keep in mind that the scientologist you are talking to today could be tomorrow's ex-member... Catarina

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Subject: Picket Report-FCDC-13 Sept 1998
From: nukewaster@aol.com (NUKEWASTER)

Location: Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C.
Time: 12:05-14:00
Picketers: Just Me & my pocket V/A tape recorder
Security: 1 "Guardian Angel" w/ vid cam, 2 D.C Metro police bike patrol officers
Sign: Recycled Lisa McPherson double sider, c/o Stomps
Handouts: (approx)50 Scientology vs. the Internet Web Guides
175 Lisa McPherson info
135 "Hubbard on Homosexuality"

FCDC was taken unawares, my decision to picket having been inspired by word of Bid's treatment in Copenhagen in the early Sunday hours on IRC#scientology. My "Guardian Angel" and I hooked up at Metro, switching to ride the Red Line to DuPont Circle together. On arriving at DuPont Circle, I introduced myself to the local bike patrol; they know me well now and always get first copies of my handouts. I gave the Metro police officers the low-down on the latest CoS games against picketers.

I did a corner sweep of the Frasier Mansion sidewalks, noting 14 cars in the parking lot. Third floor (courseroom?) blinds were pulled down in the back of the org shortly after my arrival. I then took up position on the corner sidewalk between R Street and Constitution Avenue at 20th Street. A handy corner, with the potential for five-way pedestrian traffic. Shortly thereafter, a orientation film body router appeared. No-one else came out of the Mansion to distribute other Scn material. They didn't even play the "match that handout color" game. :(( A shame, since I have now switched to multiple paper colors, including a totaly cool rainbow striped sheet.

Had several deep discussions with pedestrians, mostly about the Scn views on homosexuals, and disposing of people "quietly and without sorrow." DuPont Circle is an active center of Washington, D.C.'s gay and lesbian community. Another long chat with a nearby apartment building manager who has several staffers as tenents. Fourth time we have spoken in great detail this year.

At about 12:30, I noticed a still photographer come out on the balconey of the front second floor. He either couldn't get clear shots of me thru the tree by the main entrance, or rapidly exhausted his film (maybe both). He stayed out less than 5 minutes and was the same youngster that tried to "handle" picketers on the LRH B-day picket by asking them "What are your sins?" A newbie back then, likely by now he knows the line should be "What are your crimes?" LOL

In the memorable words of ALerma, "OSA couldn't come out to play."
I refueled with an iced drink from the nearby Starbucks coffee house, treating myself to a oatmeal cookie. Casually met up with my "Guardian Angel" and we decided that since the temperature was approaching 95 degrees F, it was time to split. Navigating back to the Metro subway station, I noticed dozens of orientation film passes in/around the trash cans, but not even one of my fliers (that's a first for me)...indicating to me that folks are holding onto the info sheets for at least two blocks in that direction. ;)

No muss, no fuss. FCDC did not make any attempts to play the "push into violence" game, instead assiduously avoiding all contact with me as an ~apparent~ solo picketer. It may have been the obvious continuous circling by the bike cops on duty. Kudos to them for realizing my peaceful intent, and the potential for intimidation tactics by the Scns. Letters praising them both are enroute to the D.C. Police Commissioner's office in today's mail. Nuke