Types of picketing (response to Monica)

From: Jeff Jacobsen <cultxpt@primenet.com>
Subject: Types of picketing (response to Monica)
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 20:57:56 -0700
Message-ID: <dnpdfu4oiu2dinu0ipe9po27rcio59kpf9@4ax.com>

I'm mostly responding here to a previous post by Monica Pignotti in which she wrote:

"Given the angry, hostile way that Stacy, Bob and their followers were picketing, I'd have to agree with the judge here. What Stacy seems to be ignoring, however, is that there are many people who have done constructive, peaceful pickets against Scientology. A notable example was one that was done about 6 years ago at the NYC org by an Indian family who's son was involved in the Sea Org and refused to speak with anyone who had contrary information. The family and several others in their community peacefully picketed the org, in a non-confrontational manner and the result was that their son came out within 30 minutes with his suitcases. There were no screaming matches -- just a quiet, dignified expression of their protest. That is a very different kind of picketing than the yelling and screaming matches Minton and Co. got into."

First I was at some of those pickets that I think you are refereing to as "angry, hostile" pickets and I can tell you that those pickets were not angry nor hostile on the part of the picketers. The Mad Picket, for example, was when about 6 of us were picketing in front of the Ft. Harrison Hotel, being pretty mild, trying to chat a bit with the security dudes. Suddenly about 50 Scientologists came and yelled at us, pushed us, put gum on my camera lense, shut off Mark's camera, etc. It was not US who were angry and hostile, I can assure you. You can see the tape of that on lisatrust.net

I can't think of any picket I was at that the picketers were angry and hostile. The closest thing I can think of is Bob pushing Neil J.

O'Reilly Jr. back after Neil knocked Bob over in front of the Ft.

Harrison Hotel (a tussle ensued), and Bruce Pettycrew having a yelling match with a Scientologist who started yelling at Bruce. Actually, Bruce and the guy seemed to be enjoying it, but it's not my style for sure.

As you know, I promote Gandhi Tech, which is to picket legally, safely, and sort of serenely, letting the picket sign and handouts speak for you and showing by the contrast between what we do and what Scientology does that we are the "good" side. Gandhi Tech involves running the picket by consensus. However, when we call for a picket, sometimes up to 50 people have come out to picket with us. People have different styles of how to picket. I know the Brits like to yell and play tapes, etc. so they're kind of noisy to me. ptsc, Arnie, magoo and others used rolled up signs as megaphones in Clearwater and yelled things at the Ft. Harrison Hotel. I don't like this really, but it's not illegal, and I'm not really the boss, so what should be done? Should we say "Arnie you can't picket because you're being too noisy"? Arnie could simply say "Jeff you have to leave because you're not using your voice for free speech."

The few rules we have are common sense things like no violence, no weapons, don't fight, etc. If someone were to start a fight, for instance, we would break up the fight, call the cops, whatever we could to stop the wrong activity on our side. If a person was continuously doing things that violated the basic principles above, we would then have to show that we disowned that person somehow, by perhaps letting the cops know that, keeping our distance from the person, or... I don't know... keeping a "he's not with us!" sign handy for such situations. But we can't send them to the RPF or anything, right?

So, in essence, there are common sense rules that I'm sure we would all agree to in picketing. There are some things that not all of us would agree to, such as whether to shout slogans or to just stay quiet. The common sense rules (as I believe Gandhi Tech falls under) we could all agree to ahead of time. Maybe we could all agree to shouting slogans ahead of time or not, but if we can't, then we have to either tolerate each other's style or go home.

I would suggest you picket a few times if you haven't Monica. It's useful, it's a fun social experience hanging out with fellow critics, it's educational to the public and Scientology, it's legal, peaceful, and internationally recognized as a form of protest. If someone there is not picketing properly, take it up with the gang and decide what to do. So far, though, there have been few such problems at the many pickets I've been at.

http://www.primenet.com/~cultxpt/demo.htm