from Brad Hicks:

Meant to post this as a news item a week ago, just got caught up (and 
that only by taking a morning off of work): 
 
The police departements of Overland, MO and St. Ann, MO (two of the St.  
Louis suburbs) recently held a seminar for "concerned citizens."  One of 
the two spokesmen, Sgt. Jim Mantle of St. Ann, told the press before-
hand that he would be "dispelling rumors" about the danger of Satanism 
and the occult.  
 
Two officers spoke at the meeting.  The first one, Sgt. Tom Schulte of 
Overland, MO was somewhat reasonable, for someone who admits that his 
life's work is "fighting evil."  He spoke primarily about grafitti and 
vandalism in the Overland area which contained Satanic markings such as 
the Mark of the Beast, pentagrams, etc.  
 
The other officer, Sgt. Jim Mantle, went completely off the handle.  He 
"dispelled rumors" by repeating them over and over again, then following 
with "but so far it's unconfirmed."  Over an hour of anti-occult hate 
and fear.  Two quotes, both close paraphrases because we haven't yet 
gotten a recording: "I think this is going to be the problem that 
convinces everyone, once and for all, that we have got to bring some 
form of Christian religion back into the public schools," and "I warn 
you, there's a spiritual War coming up very soon between the 
Christianity and these Satanic cults, and you better start thinking 
about where you'll be then."  (A reporter I discussed this with 
afterwards replied, "At the bar--but I might show up to take a few 
pictures for the paper.")  And of course, he "dispelled rumors" by 
saying that "next time they might come for you!" 
 
The most amusing rumors had to do with published reports that all of 
world-wide Satanism is run from a back room at The Alchemist's Shop, an 
occult shop in Overland, and that the world-wide headquarters of 
Witchcraft is in Florissant, Missouri.  (I wonder if they're talking 
about me?  I live the next municipality over from Florissant, and use a 
Florissant P.O. box.) 
 
Don Wildegrube, of CAW fame, has tried in the past to talk some sense 
into this guy.  I warned him it would be futile; it was.  Don told 
Mantle that you generally can't get into a Wiccan coven unless you're 18 
or older, but (says Mantle) "a 16-year-old kid showed me on his computer 
how to dial the phone number and join the WICCA, so I knew right then 
that he was lying and I didn't believe a word he said."  That's right: 
according to Mantle, to join the WICCA you have to call WeirdBase.  Bet 
you didn't know I was running the whole thing, did you?  (Neither did 
I.) 
 
And yes, he does capitalize WICCA because he does believe in the Seven 
WICCA Letters.  He told people that he had proof that the WICCA exists; 
he waved around a few Church and School of Wicca pamphlets and a flyer 
for a Magical Weekend workshop sponsored by Coven of Uraeus, which he 
described as a "national meeting of the WICCA." 
 
He didn't, by the way, JUST trample the FIRST Amendement.  He also 
encouraged heavy surveillance of suspected occultists.  He asked people 
if they were going to let these people "hide behind their 'rights'".  He 
went on about this subject so long that at least one Christian in the 
room got up and read him the riot act.  
 
He boasted that police had the Aquino residence in South St. Louis under 
heavy surveillance.  He also boasted that he had a friend who was in San 
Francisco "when they raided two Satanic churches and rounded up over 50 
of them," and bragged that his friend was bringing him real photos of 
human sacrifice and sexual abuse victims which were seized there.  He 
admitted that "he didn't know this was true, but he believed it."  OTO 
folk take notice.  

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