Australian Critics of Scientology
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Picket Report - Canberra Org 14/5/2000

Lynton, Tue 16 May 2000


From: "ACT" <noclams@canberra.au>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Picket Report - Canberra Org 14/5/2000
Message-ID: <pXYT4.555$c5.1311@newsfeeds.bigpond.com>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 06:23:53 +1000

Hi all,

On Sunday a colleague and I picketed the Canberra Co$. Actually, I did the
picketing and the other fellow was my "bodyguard" in case things grew nasty.
Ten minutes and six flyers later, there was still no activity from inside
the Org. I was beginning to conclude that the lights upstairs were on for
security reasons. So, I pointed the camera aloft and said "Come out and be
on Xenu TV! Xenu TV for you!". That drove them into action. At first a
side-burned man in Sea Org uniform started scrutinising me inside the Org
doorway for thirty seconds, then quickly disappeared after I trained the
camera on him. I was getting really scared. I mean, I'm not a seasoned
picketer like you and Mark Bunker! To quote George Orwell's 1984 "<my>
bowels turned to water."

He emerged later and started the "Nazi Germany" argument, implying that I'm
a Nazi. Interesting, his answer to a totalitarian regime is to belong to one
himself! Most of my footage is of his hands as he refused to be filmed. Is
this unusual? I complied with his wish not to be filmed, as our libel /
defamation laws are much stricter here in Australia than the USA (God bless
your First Ammendment). So the Co$ answer to a totalitarian regime is to
create one for themselves?

Shortly afterwards a woman dressed in a leather trenchcoat, armed with a
camera and a JVC camcorder, took at least four photographs of me (without my
permission). "Why do you want pictures of me?" I asked. "They're for my
gallery." she replied. She engaged me in a relatively civilised
conversation, though I refused to disclose any personal details. My
colleague and I left, and discovered her stalking us. We hid in a niche
between two office blocks and surprised her, camera rolling. You should've
seen her face turn into a tomato! She even CONFESSED to stalking us.
However, the batteries on my camera ran out just before her confession. :-(

Overall, a productive day. I'm pretty scared though. The Church knows my
first name. It won't be long before they start harassing me and picketing
outside my house.

My parents are very worried about my welfare. Dad doesn't believe in
activism. Mum simply believes that if we leave them alone, they'll leave us
alone.


Find pictures of the Org from
http://www.thingy.apana.org.au/~fun/scn/orgs/canb/


Cheers,
"Lynton"

P.S. I'm very interested in meeting fellow Canberra Org picketers. Please
feel free to contact me.

[Demonstrations against Scientology]