Date: Saturday, October 7, 2000

Start and End Times: 11:55 - 2:00 pm
Location: San Francisco
Picketers: Peaches, Kristi Wachter
Handlers: Craig (photos and DA fliers)
Weather: moderate and overcast
Number of Handouts given away: 156 (downstat!) - includes both me and Peaches
Comments: nice to see Craig; no sign of Jeff Quiros


flier stats:

2 Xenu fliers
4 Lisa fliers
2 Rodney
9 Mint/Law
139 Tax-Exempt Status/What's Wrong w/ Scn
156 total This is the number of fliers given out by both of us.
----------------------------------------------- Familiar faces seen:

Craig
Mr. Get-Your-Facts-Straight
Lucretia
Ms. A
Guitarman
El Greco

Familiar faces not present during this picket:

Frank
Josh
Jeff Quiros
Burly Guy
Mr. Tall Thin Sea Org
Mr. Lady-I-Work-Here
Movie Star
Miss Pixie
-----------------------------------------------

Note: Quotes may not be exact, since I didn't listen to my tape recording at all. Also, I occasionally rearrange the chronology slightly to enhance the narrative flow.
Photos of Craig at http://www.scientology-lies.com/picketphotos.001007.html. (For picketer pics, see http://www.scientology-lies.com/picketphotos.000805.html.)

BEFORE AND AFTER
================
As always, before heading out, I called the police to let them know we were on our way. Nothing to report there.

I did a few minutes of picketing on the corner near my home while waiting for Peaches to pick me up.

Peaches and I got to the org right on time - just a minute or two after we started, we heard church bells tolling the noon hour.

I saw several policemen go by (as usual - the SF org is half a block from the police station, which is always a great comfort to me). One officer driving a van gave us a cheery wave. I didn't see any go into the org, so I'm not sure if they called the police this time or not.

WHENEVER I SEE YOUR SMILING FACE
================================
This was a fairly uneventful picket; just lots of strolling, waving, fliering, and chatting.

The biggest news is that we saw no sign of Jeff Quiros. Instead, we had a new handler - Craig.

(Peaches and I were concerned that Jeff might be subject to some kind of punishment for failing to handle us ... or possibly just off in LA or Clearwater for some advanced auditing or training. I hope Jeff is okay! Hey, Jeff - e-mail me and let me know how things are going!) Craig is a good-looking, tall (well, everyone is tall to me) black man who is best known to faithful readers of ars for having regularly revenge-picketed Peaches and me. Other Scientology home picketers have come and gone, but Craig has been stalwart: I believe he participated in one of my very first revenge pickets, back in August 1998, and he continues to this day.

Not too long into the picket, Peaches noticed Craig go into the org. A while later, he emerged with a camera and began taking pictures. He ignored my usual chipper chatter ("Craig! How are you?") and instead talked to Peaches, who has told him before that she's not interested in talking with him. While snapping pictures, he told Peaches that, when she was picketed, it was HIM doing the picketing, and she better talk to her neighbors and tell them to "cut it out". (He didn't specify what "it" was.) He said he'd talked to the police and if they didn't cut it out, they would be arrested. Peaches, sensibly, made no response other than to tell him, AGAIN, that she didn't want to talk to him.

Just about then, my tape ran out, so I switched it to the other side and asked Craig to repeat what he had said about her neighbors - but he went silent. (He did say something about how MY neighbors were civilized. As far as I can tell from my conversations with MY neighbors, they mostly ignore my revenge-picketers ... although they occasionally admit to a possibility that they'll, er, accidentally dump water on them <grin>.) I asked a few more questions and got no answers, so I reluctantly gave up on the opportunity to talk with Craig and went back to chatting with Peaches. At one point, he was clearly hoping for me to turn my sign around so he could photograph the other side. I asked if he wanted a picture of the other side, and THEN he said "Yes", so I obligingly turned it around and posed while he snapped a picture. I confess that I am dismayed by his unwillingness to engage in even the minimal civilized conversation that would make his own tasks easier, like simply asking to see the other side of my sign. <sigh>

In addition to the usual Obligatory Photo Shoot (OSA OPS!), Craig had a stack of DA fliers - some with my name and photo, and others showing Peaches. (Mine is similar, but not identical, to the scan here: http://www.scientology-lies.com/images/bigotflier.gif . The one given out today calls me a bigot, not a religious bigot, leaves out the "Your neighbor" part, and has the parishioners.org URL at the bottom. They STILL haven't put up a page about me at that site, though, right?) A bit later, I put down all my gear to get more fliers out of my backpack. Craig approached me and asked for one of my fliers. I was a little displeased that he hadn't even had the courtesy to tell me he didn't want to converse with me, so I said, "I'm sorry, I thought you didn't want to talk to me." He waited, then asked again. I said "When you can be nice and courteous, maybe then I'll be willing to talk to you." He said "I thought I WAS being nice." I laughed and said "You've got a lot to learn!" (And I pointed out that, when I said "be nice", I didn't mean he had to stop picketing my home; he has a right to do that in San Francisco, and I don't put that kind of condition on my willingness to talk.) He waited, then asked again. I said "No." He shook his head and rolled his eyes and walked away to continue handing out DA fliers to passersby.

A moment later I reconsidered and told him that I'd trade him one of my fliers for one of his Peaches fliers. He (wordlessly) accepted the deal and we swapped fliers. Peaches congratulated me on not being out-exchange with Craig. (I might point out that, as I understand it, failing to "ack" or acknowledge communication causes an ARC break. Is it really in keeping with the Code of a Scientologist to intentionally cause multiple ARC breaks with a member of the public?) I also ended up with three copies (I think) of my own DA flier, donated by passersby.

Craig made a half-hearted (3/4-hearted?) attempt to give a DA flier to everyone who took a flier from me. When we happened to be standing near one another, I would occasionally explain that he thought I was a bigot because I wanted the organization to stop breaking the law. Once, I told a passerby that Lisa had been held against her will for 17 days until she was dead, and that was why I was out picketing, he said, "That's a lie."

I was genuinely pleased to see Craig - it's been months since I personally laid eyes on him - but I'm truly disappointed that he was unwilling to be civil. I wish I could award him the coveted Kristi's Favorite Scientologist Award this month, but I'm afraid I just can't. To my dismay, no other Scientologists exhibited any endearing behavior to me this month - no Guitarman singing on the front ledge, no sweet Michelle managing polite conversation while handing out DA fliers ( ... in fact, I offered a flier to a gentleman who turned out to be a Scientologist, and he replied with a vehement "Fuck you!", although he at least acknowledged my subsequent "I hope you have a good afternoon, sir" semi-politely) - so I'm afraid the KFSA will have to go unawarded this month. The plaque will be melted down and reused next month, and the cash stipend will be donated to the Marcabian Home for Wayward Children, where it will no doubt be spent on Cap'n Billy's Whiz Bang and truckloads of Mars bars.

(Oh, about that topic header - I have, in fact, seen Craig smile, if all too rarely. I would very much like to see him smiling more. He has a GREAT smile.)
THESE MAGIC MOMENTS
===================
There's not much more to tell.

Most of the Scientologists ignored us, ignored even my occasional "Good afternoon!" greetings.

The lunch break brought a lot of Scientologists out to hang out in front of the building.

Mr. Get-Your-Facts-Straight came out for a cigarette; I wished him a good afternoon and asked how he'd been, and he muttered "Fine."

A Scientologist passed Peaches and asked her how much we were getting paid to picket. (Alas, they rarely stop to hear an answer.)

Lucretia strode past at the end of the picket, thankfully not bumping into Peaches.

I thought I glimpsed Guitarman standing inside the org at the reception desk.

"Ms. A" did an excellent job of thoroughly ignoring me - model not-ising.

Several of the other Scientologists in front of the building were new faces to me.

Oh, and also the Blue Angels (an Air Force precision flying team who visit the city each year for Fleet Week to zip around the skies in tight formations, doing stunts, making gigantic amounts of noise) were practicing/performing/whatever in San Francisco today. I didn't hear much of them during the picket, but we did hear them when we went to the cafe.
HOMEWARD BOUND
==============
Late in the picket, Peaches and I rounded the corner, then returned to the front of the org, where I spotted Craig, half a block away, heading for his car with his picket signs in his hand. He was off to picket one of us - me, as it turned out.

I arrived home about 3:30, and he was there in front of my apartment building. I greeted him, took a few pictures, told him I'd forgotten to mention how happy I was to see him again, wished him a good rest of the weekend, took the DA flier out of the gate, and went inside. He may well have put in two hours at my place. I'm glad I got to see him; so often I don't learn about his revenge pickets, but this time I got to see him firsthand.

It appears that, in the past several months, he's become less camera-shy - he always used to hide behind his sign when I would try to take his picture, but he didn't today. (Back when we were at the org, he did mention to a passerby that I had his picture up on the internet, so perhaps he's just grown accustomed to the idea.)

WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN?
==========================
The next regularly scheduled first-Saturday-of-every-month picket is November 4 from noon until 2 pm, rain or shine. Big thanks to Peaches for the ride and the EXCELLENT company!

See you next time!


Kristi --
Kristi Wachter
the activist formerly known as "Jour" (before $cientology outed me)

I think $cientology is hurting people and breaking the law, and I
want them to stop it. See http://www.scientology-lies.com for more.
Can you say "Xenu?" ... I knew that you could.

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