I think Mark will post his version of the grand opening of the alley park in downtown Clearwater where my bricks were rejected. He was on the other end where the food and fun was. I was on the Cleveland Street entrance with my Lisa McPherson picket sign. I was there in place of my brick that would have said "Remember Lisa McPherson" except the Citizens for a Better Clearwater rejected that brick as being disharmonious to the community.

So I stood near the curb with my sign and flyers that explained why I was there. I only gave out one flyer. Had a nice chat with some citizens, and got nasty looks from others. It was essentially impossible to miss my sign if you were in the park because there are of course only 2 entrances into the park and it's just this little alley.

Antonio the Scientology security guy was all excited and videotaped the first 45 minutes of me standing there, then just watched the rest of the time. Paul Kellerhals came over and watched me quite a while, then came over with a copy of the injunction and claimed I was violating it! This seemed very strange to me because a) I was not picketing Scientology, b) I was not in front of Scientology property but rather a city park, and c) nothing I was doing violated the injunction anyway.

Clearwater police Lt. Hall came over a few minutes later, apparently called there by Scientology. He talked to me briefly, saw what I was doing, and told the nearby cops that I was fine.

After a bit a nice lady came and told me that my brick was now in the park! I was very surprised, and carefully went into the park to see for myself. Sure enough, it's right at the base of a bench, in a reasonably good location. I was elated and took a bit of video, then left the park lest I get in the way of any potential Scientologists around.

That's about it. Met some nice people, pissed off Scientology security (just by existing), got Lisa's memory into the event.
--- When a Scientology staffer used a syringe to force a mixture of aspirin, Benadryl and orange juice into McPherson's throat while others held her down, it was "spiritual sustenance," the church argues.

Go Back