EUROPE Picket thread Sept 13 2008

[Free to shine]

LONDON
More pics: http://flickr.com/photos/30508252@N06/sets/72157607290080977/

BERLIN:
Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymouscensor/sets/72157607294720641/

AMSTERDAM
Pics: http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Vertigonius/Operation Schools closed/?start=0

PARIS
http://forums.enturbulation.org/191-europe/paris-anonymous-og-enturbulates-cc-our-face-osa-28966/
Bonjour!

I returned Zorro's visit to London, and went to Paris with the excellent French crew to the celeb centre.

Protester count roughly 15. About fifty/fifty OG and Anon, although only two Anons in masks, as near as I could make it out. At least, we did have enough still cameras (digital and, erhm, analogue). At times it seemed we
were trapped in the middle of a "photographers against $cientology" protest.

Zorro (Nono la patate) led the way from the assembly point and we took up station right across the street from the clam door. We had two megaphones with fired up speakers/chanters on them and gave the bOrg heck. Songs and chants mainly centered around who was expected to go to prison soon (see articles from last week about the suicide of Gloria Lopez).

A tall skinny clam came out and looked grumpy. A normal sized clam (Philippe) came out and didn't look grumpy.

Skinny grumpy clam tried a death stare, but I had to call him on it, and pointed out that he was almost (but not quite) smiling, at which point he stormed back in to my very loud encouragement to get a refund for a stare-nasty-people-out-of-existence-course which definitely had not worked.

I was told that this was only the second time we had been allowed across the street from the clams, and that there usually is loads and loads of police. This time, a squad car showed up with three what looked to my untrained eye like ordinary police people. We were careful to let rip with the megaphones as the police walked across and had a chat, so as not to hide anything.

The police were cool with where we were (as long as we didn't hold up traffic), the police was cool with the megaphones. The police was just cool

We switched off the megaphones out of respect for the people living in the street, and knocked off on time (thus neatly avoiding disturbing a funeral which was starting in the regular church around the corner as we left).

We were then treated to delicious cake and went and sat in a nearby park.

Philippe, the OSA clam, joined us in the park so that he could stand on our toes and wave his camera phone around our masked anons (who were less than terrified of being facefagged, but we made him work for the photos). He also wanted to whine about how his beliefs (whatever they were) were being trampled on by our protesting (or somesuch).

I had a great time, a dozen or so clams were exposed to protesting, and I'll be back!

I'm expecting great photos (of the others, not of me).

Best Regards

Jens

 

[asagai]

The Scientologist asking the questions in the video is Brian Daniels (CCHR spokesperson). Actually a very nice guy and has been very active over the past few years doing 'social betterment' (!) activities for the CoS.

Seems like he has been roped into helping out OSA now.

Axiom142

Well, his "TRs" were terrible!

Was he practicing sec checks?

He tried to get a second round of anons to line up against the wall to be sec checked. But he was a failure when I explained to each Anon that he asked that they would edit the answers to trick them into putting Anonymous in a bad light and they would post this on YouTube.

Having failed, Brian set off back to join his cameraman and I explained that we would be available for him whenever he decided to leave the CofS. He looked embarrased and smiled the false Scn smile, when I reminded him that he knew that most Scientologists leave in the end, most only lasting a short time. He rushed to get away from me, strangely unable to communicate with me. I did get a wave from him and the camerman as they hurried away up TCR while I reminded them that we would be there to help when they decide to leave.

In fact I got more waves from Scns than ever before! The public at QVS were called down into the basement, presumably for a rah rah breifing about what they had to do to defeat the evil ones across the road. After the briefing, they were a captive audience for my waves because they had to come back up the stairs facing the picket, through the glass doors across the street. I waved at every one of them and several waved back. There were about ten staff and about 15 public attending the briefing.

At TCR Stephania waved several times to me. Well at least it's a communication isn't it?

I also talked with a newbie OSA girl who was sent out up TCR to leaflet. She actually was quite brave, to do the dirty work of trying to combat our leaflets. We distributed 400 leaflets about children in the CofS, she handed out less than 10 Personality Test cards and every single person also got one of our leaflets. The poor girl tried her best to communicate with me but kept having to run away rather than engage in conversation. Very sad. I said "You've done a Comm Course, talk to me. Doesn't the fact that you can't talk to me tell you something?" She just kept walking away.

She knows we are here for her when she decides to leave, when she has a sec check too far. I wish her and all the other poor souls well!

 

[anonmom]

Well, his "TRs" were terrible!

Was he practicing sec checks?

He tried to get a second round of anons to line up against the wall to be sec checked. But he was a failure when I explained to each Anon that he asked that they would edit the answers to trick them into putting Anonymous in a bad light and they would post this on YouTube.

Having failed, Brian set off back to join his cameraman and I explained that we would be available for him whenever he decided to leave the CofS. He looked embarrased and smiled the false Scn smile, when I reminded him that he knew that most Scientologists leave in the end, most only lasting a short time. He rushed to get away from me, strangely unable to communicate with me. I did get a wave from him and the camerman as they hurried away up TCR while I reminded them that we would be there to help when they decide to leave.

In fact I got more waves from Scns than ever before! The public at QVS were called down into the basement, presumably for a rah rah breifing about what they had to do to defeat the evil ones across the road. After the briefing, they were a captive audience for my waves because they had to come back up the stairs facing the picket, through the glass doors across the street. I waved at every one of them and several waved back. There were about ten staff and about 15 public attending the briefing.

At TCR Stephania waved several times to me. Well at least it's a communication isn't it?

I also talked with a newbie OSA girl who was sent out up TCR to leaflet. She actually was quite brave, to do the dirty work of trying to combat our leaflets. We distributed 400 leaflets about children in the CofS, she handed out less than 10 Personality Test cards and every single person also got one of our leaflets. The poor girl tried her best to communicate with me but kept having to run away rather than engage in conversation. Very sad. I said "You've done a Comm Course, talk to me. Doesn't the fact that you can't talk to me tell you something?" She just kept walking away.

She knows we are here for her when she decides to leave, when she has a sec check too far. I wish her and all the other poor souls well!

400 leaflets to 10 personality test cards. No, it's more like . It would so suck to be that newbie OSA girl! It sounds like a great protest. Congratulations! The most that scientologists do around here is completely hide out to avoid getting enturbulated and maybe (if you're lucky) one or two will step outside and scowl a little at the anons. They do hire off duty cops who eats their snacks but refuse anon cake.

 

[asagai]

400 leaflets to 10 personality test cards. No, it's more like . It would so suck to be that newbie OSA girl! It sounds like a great protest. Congratulations! The most that scientologists do around here is completely hide out to avoid getting enturbulated and maybe (if you're lucky) one or two will step outside and scowl a little at the anons. They do hire off duty cops who eats their snacks but refuse anon cake.

Well, to be honest, the anons are losing momentum, in my opinion. There are fewer of them and there is less inventiveness. The protests are getting a little tired and I expect they will change some more.

Change is a good thing!

What was by far the most noticable thing was the public awareness of the cult. For every 10 leaflets handed out 3 or 4 said "No thanks, I'm with you already!" And the huge percentage of car honks and buses passing with people inside waving to us!

The OSA tactics have changed. Earlier this year they tried to keep the body routing line going. Then they went through several months of hiding inside during the picket. This time they went inside as the picket built up and they heard the taunts of them being PTS to DM and LRH. But as the afternoon went on they came back outside and smiled and tried to hand out personality test cards. Mostly the public just said "no" and walked past to collect our leaflets.

It is interesting to note that the OSA personnel have changed over the months, several earlier regulars have disappeared and new ones have replaced them.

Only Tom Shuster and Stephania seem to have survived. Shuster played a fairly effective game and violated the police guidelines by coming over to our side of the road and distributed anti-anon leaflets to us. It contained a collection of anon quotes saying silly things that were quite effective at putting them in a poor light.

Combined with the "interviews" that they got some anons to do, OSA were more effective this time.

But the over-riding thing is that the public are very aware of their true cult nature. Well done anonymous!

 

[Terril park]

Well, his "TRs" were terrible!

Was he practicing sec checks?

He tried to get a second round of anons to line up against the wall to be sec checked. But he was a failure when I explained to each Anon that he asked that they would edit the answers to trick them into putting Anonymous in a bad light and they would post this on YouTube.

Having failed, Brian set off back to join his cameraman and I explained that we would be available for him whenever he decided to leave the CofS. He looked embarrased and smiled the false Scn smile, when I reminded him that he knew that most Scientologists leave in the end, most only lasting a short time. He rushed to get away from me, strangely unable to communicate with me. I did get a wave from him and the camerman as they hurried away up TCR while I reminded them that we would be there to help when they decide to leave.

In fact I got more waves from Scns than ever before! The public at QVS were called down into the basement, presumably for a rah rah breifing about what they had to do to defeat the evil ones across the road. After the briefing, they were a captive audience for my waves because they had to come back up the stairs facing the picket, through the glass doors across the street. I waved at every one of them and several waved back. There were about ten staff and about 15 public attending the briefing.

At TCR Stephania waved several times to me. Well at least it's a communication isn't it?

I also talked with a newbie OSA girl who was sent out up TCR to leaflet. She actually was quite brave, to do the dirty work of trying to combat our leaflets. We distributed 400 leaflets about children in the CofS, she handed out less than 10 Personality Test cards and every single person also got one of our leaflets. The poor girl tried her best to communicate with me but kept having to run away rather than engage in conversation. Very sad. I said "You've done a Comm Course, talk to me. Doesn't the fact that you can't talk to me tell you something?" She just kept walking away.

She knows we are here for her when she decides to leave, when she has a sec check too far. I wish her and all the other poor souls well!

Well done on educating anons re the editing tricks.

I also went and did an interview, as i'm happy to talk to OSA and their volunteers. And I doubt I gave them anything they could use, validated by the fact that they didn't finish their standard loaded question list with me. However I was able as a scientologist to give them interesting questions and facts, and yes.... they seemed to have stable datums shook.

 

[anonmom]

Well, to be honest, the anons are losing momentum, in my opinion. There are fewer of them and there is less inventiveness. The protests are getting a little tired and I expect they will change some more.

Change is a good thing!

What was by far the most noticable thing was the public awareness of the cult. For every 10 leaflets handed out 3 or 4 said "No thanks, I'm with you already!" And the huge percentage of car honks and buses passing with people inside waving to us!

The OSA tactics have changed. Earlier this year they tried to keep the body routing line going. Then they went through several months of hiding inside during the picket. This time they went inside as the picket built up and they heard the taunts of them being PTS to DM and LRH. But as the afternoon went on they came back outside and smiled and tried to hand out personality test cards. Mostly the public just said "no" and walked past to collect our leaflets.

It is interesting to note that the OSA personnel have changed over the months, several earlier regulars have disappeared and new ones have replaced them.

Only Tom Shuster and Stephania seem to have survived. Shuster played a fairly effective game and violated the police guidelines by coming over to our side of the road and distributed anti-anon leaflets to us. It contained a collection of anon quotes saying silly things that were quite effective at putting them in a poor light.

Combined with the "interviews" that they got some anons to do, OSA were more effective this time.

But the over-riding thing is that the public are very aware of their true cult nature. Well done anonymous!

Good observations. I think that many people in anonymous were saying early in the game that it wouldn't take very long before the orgs closed their doors for good. If the protests got big enough, scientology would shut down. But as an ex-scn I know as many others do that the CoS is used to operating with a lot of oposition. It wasn't popular in the 80s when I was a scientologist but it was a hey-day compared with today.

The important thing is that anons have so increased the publics awareness about the dangers of this suposed "church". That has almost stopped their ability to bring in "raw meat". It is starving them off. And they need people to start on the intro courses and auditing that are completely ignorant of scientology, just like I was when I got involved. No way would I have gotten involved today. The CoS has been exposed for the cult they are.

Anonymous was the catalyst for me to finally find my voice after 20 years and speak out against the abuses. I saw on the internet that there was a huge anti-scientology movement going on the likes of which I have never witnessed before and I wanted to be part of it all. The CoS is definately shrinking and will die off, but it's going to take quite a bit of time. Anonymous if often kinder and more compassionate with scientologists than their own "church" is. I'm afraid they they are quite used to being treated like dirt.

 

[Nec_V20]

Well done on educating anons re the editing tricks.

I also went and did an interview, as i'm happy to talk to OSA and their volunteers. And I doubt I gave them anything they could use, validated by the fact that they didn't finish their standard loaded question list with me. However I was able as a scientologist to give them interesting questions and facts, and yes.... they seemed to have stable datums shook.

The only thing that I would consider what Germans call a "Wehmutstropfen" is the fact that we both talked to a moderator of EO after the protest and he had narry a clue about Scientology.

How does that make him different from the ignorami you criticise as still being in Co$?

As a critic of Scientology I strongly object to such a lack of substance daring to speak in my name.

I will support informed dissent. I will not however support ignorant opportunism.

 

[Pixie]

As I was going over the crossing to North Street I saw a splendid stand set up by anonymous, the green Anonymous flag gently billowing in the breeze and behind the stand one of my favorite SPs (Special people).Had big Hugs and said our Hello's and I changed into the rest of my Sea Org uniform.

I got out one of my 3 copies of Woman magazine with Astras' story and we encouraged people to read it.I explained to lots of people that Astra was one of the young women that set up Exscientologykids.com, pointing to my picket sign, which said:

Don't let mind control cults take your kids.
Exscientologykids.com

Had some very interesting conversations with a wide variety of people.The more people I talk to the more amazed I am at how many people are out there on the streets that have had experiences with Scientology, from someone who's taken one course right up to a CO.The very sad story from an elderly couple who had a pensioner friend that got into Scientology and was told to go to South Africa, spent all their savings and came back to England completely penniless.

Then of course theres the Magnus Magnusson,with his quick fire round of questions who found it all rather interesting and our conversation left me thinking I had been intereogated.Athiests,who had Scientology friends who were very nice normal people and also Jews, asked lots of questions, didn't wait to hear many answers but kept asking questions. Reminded me of my sister,asked questions but didn't want to know the answers.Too much "entheta" for an atheist?

If the person I met who had been on the Rehabilitation Project Force at St. Hill reads, this please do encourage your children to join ESK. We would all love to read their stories of life in the Sea Org.Whatever they are comfortable with, I know what a long hard journey it is recovering from life in the Sea Org.

It was fantastic to see Bonnie and Richard at the protest and gave renewed encouragement to us all.

The Brighton anons are a wonderful group of young people, who like anons all over the world give freely of their time and resources to bring to light the abuses and practices of the corporation of $cientology. I for one am very proud to stand a long side them.I got asked several times yesterday "I can understand why your'e here (me) but what are these young kids doing if they were never involved in Scientology". I explained about the TC video and the internet and Free Speech and followed with "Isn't it amazing".

Someone also said "Haven't you got something better to be doing with your time on a Saturday afternoon", this was aimed at the anons.My answer to this is: These young people are peacefully protesting against something they see to be wrong and injust, they are not standing about on street corners causing a nuisence, except to Scientology of course. They are not drugged up, drunk or violent.They are not vandels,not abusive and they are certainly NOT terrorists.Not the ones I have met at any rate.They have hearts of gold.

This was a fantastic day, I loved the Gullibilty meter, I love the fact that lots of really young people were interested in why we were there and how many of them had watched the John Sweeney Panorama and thought Scientology were horrible.I also love the fact that almost 2 years to the day and almost on exactly the same spot, I was standing protesting Scientology where 2 years ago I had seen the Scientologists with their E-meters and was transported back in time into a nightmare of life on the ocean waves in the Sea Org with L. Ron Hubbard on the Apollo.I have come a long way. Brighton anons you made my day.

Excellent stuff Tamasin! Yes I saw the article in the Woman magazine in a newsagent here in Spain and bought a few to hand out to my UK friends. It's wonderful too the young people are becoming more and more interested in what's going on. This is an amazing story Tamasin and thanks a million for posting it, I really enjoyed it!!

 

[Pixie]

Excellent videos, photos and information here!! Thanks for keeping us informed FTS.