Scientology --- Minneapolis picket report

Minneapolis picket report

Well, I was waiting for Raptavio to do a report, but he seems to be otherwise occupied at the moment. Saturday was a windy, grey and drizzly day, but we did two and a quarter hours at the MSP org. Handed out nearly 200 Xenu leaflets to interested passersby. This was my first CO$ picket, so I was surprised by a number of things. Most of all, it was surprising how much support the public offered, and how many already knew about the cult. Took us a while to figure out that many thought we were *with* the cult and were avoiding the leaflets for that reason.

That led to a change of approach to "Hi, we're picketing Scientology, and here's why." Got lots of interest. Led to lots of interesting conversations, too, especially since the American Philosophical Assocation was meeting in a hotel right down the street.

The clams seemed unprepared for a picket, but after a half hour or so they got it together enough for "Helen" to come out and photograph us.

Another unnamed woman also came out to shoot photos later. The most interesting interaction, though, was when one of them assaulted Raptavio! This short dweeb left early in the picket. When he came back he walked up within a couple feet, said "Here's something you should read - you guys need to get jobs," and then threw a rolled-up employment newspaper in Rap's face with a loud thwack. He then ran into the org. We called the police after Rap was unable to do a citizen's arrest. An officer showed up and went into the org with Rap to identify the culprit. He IDed everyone involved and wrote up an assault report. It will be interesting to see if the city attorney prosecutes the little thug.

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|Rich Ahrens | Homepage: http://www.visi.com/~rma/ |
|rma@visi.com |-----------------------------------------------|
|"In a world full of people only some want to fly - isn't that crazy?" |
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> Oh, the sweet irony of a Ronbot using a newspaper as a weapon
> against a critic. And it was the employment section!, making the
> scene all the more pathetic for the poor auditieniac.
Not just an employment section, but a paper entirely devoted to employment. You should have seen the clams scrambling to distance themselves from the dweeb. According to Rap, they were all denying having ever seen him before, even though he was sitting in some kind of a class. He reportedly argued, "Sure you have - I was here yesterday too..."

> The clams seemed unprepared for a picket, but after a half hour or so
> they got it together enough for "Helen" to come out and photograph us.
Forgot to mention - when Helen took her photos, I told her, "This picket is for Keith Henson." "Who?" she said. "Keith Henson." "I'll make a note of that."

> "Rich Ahrens" <rma@visi.com> wrote...
>
> [...]
>
> > The clams seemed unprepared for a picket, but after a half hour or so
> > they got it together enough for "Helen" to come out and photograph us.
> > Another unnamed woman also came out to shoot photos later. The most
> > interesting interaction, though, was when one of them assaulted
> > Raptavio! This short dweeb left early in the picket. When he came back
> > he walked up within a couple feet, said "Here's something you should
> > read - you guys need to get jobs," and then threw a rolled-up employment
> > newspaper in Rap's face with a loud thwack. He then ran into the org.
>
> Wow! Someone didn't have their TRs in, that's for sure.
Definitely some unflattened buttons there.

> > We called the police after Rap was unable to do a citizen's arrest.
> > An officer showed up and went into the org with Rap to identify the
> > culprit. He IDed everyone involved and wrote up an assault report.
> > It will be interesting to see if the city attorney prosecutes the little
> > thug.
>
> I think if Rap wants to press charges, the DA has no choice in the matter.
> During the times I picketed there, I had a scieno go ballistic over
> Hubbard's "There is no Christ" quote, and my colleagues and I were
followed > several times, but nobody went so far as to smack any of us.
For one thing there is no DA in Minnesota - the county attornies handle felonies, the city attornies handle misdemeanors, for the city or county in question. Since this happened in downtown Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, and simple assault is a misdemeanor, the Minneapolis City Attorney's office handles such complaints.

For another thing these attorneys ALWAYS have a choice whether to prosecute.

They have limited resources and will only prosecute crimes where they believe A) the accused is guilty and B) they can prove it. My wife is a city attorney -- trust me on this.

> It's good to see signs of anti-Co$ activism on the frozen tundra again.
Yes - I hope Xenubat comes home sometime and joins us in another picket :)

From: heffer@scientologylies.com (Heffer)
Subject: Minneapolis Picket Report - May 5, 2001
Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 17:55:37 GMT
Organization: ARSCC
Message-ID: <3af6e0b0.18786124@news2.lightlink.com>
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.59.174.123 X-Original-Trace: 7 May 2001 13:56:11 -0400, 203.59.174.123 Subject: MINNEAPOLIS PICKET REPORT, MAY 5, 2001
– RAPTAVIO ASSAULTED BY SCIENTOLOGIST Attendees: Rich Ahrens, Raptavio It was a gray and drizzly day out, but Rich and I weren't going to let a little rain stop us from getting the word out. Neither of us had picketed before – I'd attended a picket in Toronto last August, but as an observer, not a participant – but we were determined to make this one count. We had both been harassed by Scientologists Dan Bryenton and Peter Ramsay via E-mail last December – they Emailed veiled threats at Rich, thinking he was me, before the Church of Scientology actually did identify me a few weeks later. This harassment brought Rich in as an active critic and fired us both up enough to picket the Minneapolis Org. While the picket was officially in Keith Henson's honor, let's remember – Dan and Peter, you pulled this one in.

We met at the Rock Bottom Cafe on 9th and Hennepin at noon to enjoy lunch before the picket. I recommend the Thai Chicken Pizza – it was tasty. After we ate and chatted, we headed to the Org, stopping at our cars to pick up jackets, sign and fliers. We arrived at the Org, located on Nicollet Avenue between 10th and 11th streets in downtown Minneapolis, at 12:55 pm.

Rich carried the picket sign, marked "SCIENTOLOGY KILLS – In memory of Lisa McPherson, Stacey Meyer, and others" on one side, and "SCIENTOLOGY LIES" with the famous judge's quote about Scientology's and LRH's bizarre combination of paranoia and schizophrenia written on it. This latter quote proved to cause many a passerby to stop and read. The fliers that I was handing out were the standard Xenu flier available on www.xenu.net, containing that site's web address.

About 20 minutes into the picket a woman came out wearing the nametag "HELEN", with a camera.

"Hi, Helen, how are you?" I said. "Hello," she said. "I'm Brian, this is Rich. But OSA's file on me may be listed as 'Raptavio,' if that helps." She made a note of this as we posed for her pictures. A few quick snaps and she darted back into the org.

About half the people I approached passing by accepted a flier. About half those who refused noted to me that they were well aware of Scientology's true nature. One attendee of a philosopher's conference stopped and engaged us in conversation about why we would target Scientology in particular as so many religions out there have comparable track records of brainwashing, deceit, threats, violence, even deaths. I won't bore you with Rich's take or my take on the matter, but it was an interesting conversation.

10 minutes after Helen came out, another woman comes out and asks me for a flier. Happy to oblige, I give her one, and say, "Of course.

Enjoy it." She replies, plastic smile on her face. "Oh, I don't think I'll enjoy it," as she hurries back towards the safety of the org. I reply, "Then read it, you might learn something," and was followed up by Rich calling after her retreating form, "Or you might die of pneumonia."

About 45 minutes into the picket some short, stout, bald man looking to be in his late thirties, wearing a yellow sweatshirt and bluejeans, walks past us. As I smiled and offered him a flier, he snarled "You guys don't know what you're talking about" while not even making eye contact. I was surprised he didn't walk into the org, but he just zipped past, not even stopping to engage us.

About half the fliers are gone an hour and ten minutes into the picket. Someone stops as I offer him a flier, saying "Oh! I thought you were WITH them! I was about to thank you for the flier and say it would make for some good ass- wipe!" I resolved at that point to make it clearer that we were PICKETING the cult. And it worked. 2/3 of the passersby from this point on accepted a flier, with half the remainder declining on the grounds of the fact they don't need any convincing. A chunk of people, however, just didn't want to know.

Another lady accepts a flier and promptly throws it in the trash, saying "I'm a member and it's the best thing that ever happened to me" as she briskly walks into the org. That's four non- confront people. Make remark and flee. None of the parishioners would dare stay and talk to us.

I felt bad about that. Y'all know how I love conversation. On the other hand, ten or so passersby throughout the day did stop to talk to us, which I appreciated. We got a lot of support from the public, which energized us.

Okay. So it was 2:10 pm, more than half the 200 fliers were handed out, and we're wondering if that was a good first picket – an hour spent handing out 100 or so fliers. Thinking of packing it in. Then up comes the little bald guy in the yellow sweatshirt. I didn't make the connection at first and offered him a flier.

Then I heard that whiney voice from before and remembered him. "Here, I got something for you guys. Get a job!" he sniveled, as he threw a rolled-up newspaper at me from about ten feet away. Taken by surprise, the rag bounced off my nose. Nice shot. It was rolled up pretty tightly and I initially thought something must have been wrapped in it because the thing hit me pretty solidly. But, alas, no foreign object was to be found.

Being the husband of a prosecutor, I know procedure. "Excuse me, Sir, hold it. You're under arrest," I said, trying to effect a citizen's arrest, but of course the valiant knight Sir Pasty fled into the safety of his org.

I shrugged, looked at Rich, and pulled the cell phone from my pocket. "Okay, if that's how he wants to play it," I said, as I dialed the police. I informed them that I wished to report an assault outside the Scientology org, and they said they'd send one over.

Handing out a few fliers with the tagline, "They even assaulted me to try and keep me from handing these out to you," including to the same philosopher from earlier, who seemed surprised, but ultimately unpersuaded.

About ten minutes after the phone call a squad car shows up. The officer listens to my story, and takes a description of the suspect before walking into the org. A few moments later he comes out again and invites me in to "identify the suspect". So, in what had to be the personal high moment of my picketing day, I walk, escorted by a police officer, into the Minneapolis Org of the Church of Scientology. If you're curious, I counted perhaps eight people inside. The front rooms were filled with LRH Dianetics and Scientology books on display shelves, and behind them was cubicle land on the left side of the building, an open area with a table on the right side. I didn't see any E- Meters out. There were stairs leading down to another area in front of that open space.

I saw Sir Pasty sitting at the aforementioned table with a few other people. It seemed to be some kind of seminar, and indeed I heard the word used describing the situation. I indicated Sir Pasty to the officer, who then approached the man, asking for his identification. Helen was up close to me, and I said, "I'm sorry, we just wanted to picket peacefully, but one of your parishioners chose to assault me." Both Helen and the lady who took the flier earlier denied to the police officer that they had seen Sir Pasty before that day. Sir Pasty protested "No, I was here just yesterday, remember??" and I had to chuckle. "They'll deny knowing you now, that's how the game is played..." Helen starts telling me, "No... no..." and raises her hand up as if she's going to try covering my mouth, but that would have been the height of foolhardy with a policeman standing next to me. And, indeed, wish a sideways glance at the officer, she realized it too, and didn't approach closer.

I shrugged at her and said "It happens all the time, you know."

The officer spoke to Sir Pasty a while longer, before I suggested to him I wait outside, which he agreed to. I walked unescorted back out of the Org as Rich asked me if he was in there. I said "Yep, he's there, officer's talking to him now." Rich said, "You realize you're really escalating things, and the Church isn't going to like you for this..." I said "Yeah, I know." But really, if we don't press charges on would-be thugs like this when they try messing with us just because they have the Big Scary Church backing them, then how will we ever effect a change? They have to be held accountable to the law.

Well, the officer took down my and Rich's identification and promised to send the incident to the city prosecutor's. He gave me a card with a case number. Yes, I will be calling the city prosecutor's office and pushing for criminal charges to be pressed.

After that we resolved to stay long enough to hand out the rest of the fliers – which we did.

We stayed until about 3:25, and handed out every last one. At about 3:00 Sir Pasty hurried out of the Org, and I waved after him and said "See you in court!"

The tally:

Picketers in attendance - 2 Fliers handed out - ~190 Scientologists being non-confront – 3 Scientologists questioned pending assault charges – 1 Critics thwacked in the nose by flying newspapers – 1 Critics entering the Org with police escort – 1 For the attack, I attest to SP5, endorsed by barbz and Arnie Lerma.

--Raptavio, SP5, King of ARSCC(wdne) Intelligentsia From: "Raptavio" <nobody@nowhere.com>
Subject: I ATTEST TO SP5
Message-ID: <1AFJ6.29278$V6.1197785@typhoon.mn.mediaone.net>
Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 22:45:17 GMT
For being the recipient of a physical assault in front of the Minneapolis Org of the Church of Scientology at approximately 2:10 pm on Saturday, May 5, 2001, I hereby attest to SP5.

barbz and Arnie Lerma have supported this attest. :)

From: "Raptavio" <nobody@nowhere.com>
Subject: Sir Pasty's Identity Revealed - The Guy who Flung a Newspaper at Raptavio
Message-ID: <co3K6.30059$V6.1257580@typhoon.mn.mediaone.net>
Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 04:07:36 GMT
His name is Kurt Robert Hagen, with an Eden Prairie Minnesota address. the only Kurt Hagen I can find in the book lives in Eagan, Minnesota, so oh well.

Aren't police reports beautiful things.

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