Picket Report: San Francisco Mission, 406 Sutter Street Saturday April 27,1996

I had a new experience this Saturday. For the first time one of the staff members came outside and started trolling for new targets right in front of me. I appeared to be at a disadvantage because he could aggressively go after new victims while had to remain as a "passive" protester. He could walk up to anyone and engage them in a conversation. I on the other hand could only talk to those people who talked to me first. My intention is to get my message out not to intimidate or harass everyone who passes by. I only talk to those people who want more information than what's on my sign. Because of this he was able to make contact with some people and he even managed to lure a few inside. Fortunately I didn't observe anyone buy anything. All of them just looked at a few books, got some literature including the personality test and then left. A few of them even came up to ME afterwards to get MY opinions.

My policy was that if HE was talking to someone I would just leave them both alone. I figured that I'm there to get my message out not to make a scene or harass them or any of their PCs (Pre-Clams). As long as I stick to that policy the police can't get involved. Unfortunately most times when *I* was talking to someone he would come rushing over and butt in. He would immediately start spewing out all these lies, deceptions, distortions of truths and deliberately attempting to misdirect the person's attention. I found it a rather frustrating situation. I've gotten very good at turning people against Scientology when I have the person to myself. Now I have to increase my skills to be able to do it while a staff member is right there in my face trying to undermine everything I say. Cool! Give me a week or two and I'll be there.

At one point this recruiter came up to me with this big smile on his face and said, " Wayne, I really want to thank you for being out here. I really do. Ever since you started showing up more and more people have been coming in to ask about Scientology." I immediately responded with, "Great, now I'll be able to get my refund faster. Since you want me out here I think I'll show up more often. Sounds like a win - win situation." It was so cool. It blew him right out of the water. He didn't know what to say so he just repeated himself. This guy thought his "reverse processing" would drive me away. I know their game.

I must be getting to them. They're not trying to ignore me anymore like they have been all these weeks. Now they are actively trying to recruit new members right in front of me. Now they are running reverse processes on me to make me to go away. I guess I'm beginning to "impinge".

Stay tuned folks, this is starting to get interesting.

Wayne