I still can’t get on EO to post my report of the day, so I hope you’ll tolerate me putting it up here.
We started off at 10 AM at the Tustin org. Roan, it was delightful to see you there dealing expertly with the police and with one of the bullbaiters sent out who claimed he was “not a Scientologist,” but went straight into the building after his failed attempt with the crew. We were 2.5 hours there getting more great response from the public. We're really growing on the community here. Angry Gay Pope and Happy Smurf paid us a visit – AGP did as AGP does and within 30 minutes was told that if he didn’t stop yelling at the Scilons peeking out the windows at him that he’d be arrested. Delicious. I’mGlib, you were dearly missed. At least a dozen people asked about you.
Here’s the Tustin flash raid crew with a great sign aimed at a particular current issue:
One of the Anon guys had rented a van for the Hemet trip so we packed it up and headed out there. Here’s a shot of most of the crew upon our arrival at Golden Era Productions. We parked brazenly on a little dirt road on the west side of the street in between the creepy castle (in the background) and the front gates of Gold. We had seen the beat up old security Bronco (?) during our initial drive-by so we expected Danny Dunnagan to swoop down on us immediately. We were sadly disappointed. There was no sign of security or of the police, who we had called ourselves ahead of time.
Happy Smurf had a serious message to deliver, which he did magnificently dressed in RPF garb. Angry Gay Pope brought his A game, enturbulating with a breathtaking combination of obnoxious absurdity and precision oration.
After our initial photo op, we headed straight for the guard shack. There was no real plan of action, but nature quickly took its course. The crew spread out across the entire front entrance of Golden Era Productions to good view points for oncoming traffic in both directions (kinda tricky out there). AGP and I planted ourselves directly in front of the shack and started poking at the guys inside. AGP began to enthusiastically flex his vocal cords, which have been silenced from the LA raids, and I turned on the flirt machine. We tried our best to get those guys to come out and talk to us. But, no.
At this point, we were protesting on some of Scientology’s most hallowed ground (and getting great response from passersby, it should be noted), pestering the daylights out of the guards; yet to our utter disappointment, still no security truck, no Danny Dunnagan, and no police. We deserved better than that. Where was the magical “Anon handling tech” they had undoubtedly been drilled on?
Yes, we ladies were relentless with our signs. We never forgot what our #1 job was!
Finally, a couple of the guys came out of the guard booth and walked toward AGP. We were so delighted to finally receive the attention we so richly deserved! I thought one of those guys was about as cute as they come (baby blue shirt) so I really poured on the charm. I told him there was room in the van if he was ready to blow. But the guy was a rock. I chased him around the whole time trying to get a picture with him. He grinned a little, but he never let me catch him.*
(*According to Chuck Beatty, this guys name is Kenny Seybold.
http://flickr.com/photos/10235811@N07/2835897140/ Kenny, if you’re reading this, my offer still stands. I’ll even buy you a beer!)
A few minutes after the first two guys came out, the gate opened up again and, oh goody!, out marched the wall of fear! Oh wait, did I say the wall of fear? What I meant was, the wall of fun! Finally, our chance to observe the “Anon drill.” Boy, was it was intense. Our handlers gave us their best death stares and scary aggressive filming tactics to try and wrangle us into submission. Oh lawdy, how they tried, but things didn’t quite go their way. We were like kids in a candy store. The lulz went into full swing. They had no idea they were walking into a bunch of camera hogs. You never saw so much posing. It was only a short time before a couple of them started to break down and exhibit human-like qualities. Grins. Chuckles. Most were clearly entertained. (Flunk for laughing, guys!) And I *know* they enjoyed the flirt machine.
SciStern* was one of the British guys who I sparred with a couple of times. One of our conversations went like this:
Me: Hey, did you know Mike Rinder blew?
Him: (momentary flash of surprise, then) Who’s Mike Rinder?
Me: You really don’t know who Mike Rinder is?
Him: Do I look like an idiot to you?
Me: No, you actually look quite intelligent, which makes me wonder why are you’re wasting your time out here.
Him: *dirty look, walks away*
Later, I engaged him again. He wasn’t very friendly but I did have a chance to tell him why I was involved in the protests. I told him I didn’t care what Scientologist chose to believe, but that the abuse was an issue for me. He said, what abuse? Oh, I dunno, how ‘bout the SP room where your top 40 executives are locked up, disconnection, making people run around a pole for punishment, not letting people go home to see their families, a steady diet of rice and beans… He interrupted me to say he never had to eat rice and beans and that he had just gotten back from a 4-week visit with his family in England. I asked him what his job was. He balked. I persisted. What’s your rank? What’s your title? Finally he told me he was a member of the camera crew. So I said, well yeah, you probably don’t get treated too badly on the camera crew, but I was talking about the SO people and the RPF. Then I said I’d heard that David Miscavige hits people and yells at them and generally treats people badly. He got bugged-eyed and immediately tried to stop the flow. He pulled out the, “What’s your name?” card. What ev’. Just then I saw a camera float by so I turned to flash my big cheesy grin. Guess that else the camera caught…?
What’chu lookin’ at there, tough guy? Heh.
(*This guy’s name is John Stumpke and he really is a bully. No more cheese for you, you bully!
http://flickr.com/photos/10235811@N07/2835060467/)
A few minutes later a lone squad car came around the corner toward us. Thank you. It was about time. Sheesh. They spent quite a bit of time with a short dark-haired woman and two of the guards before coming over to us. The woman had a thick file she was trying to impress them with. All they said to us was to behave and be orderly. They emphasized that they were not “ordering” us to stay back, rather asking us to honor the expressed concerns of the Scilons and stay at least 20 feet back from their gate. It was
very obvious they had no problem with our being there. That was really sweet.
Funny thing, not long after we won that battle we got bored and started making our way back to the vehicles. It was shockingly hot out there (either that or I was having a three-hour hot flash) and I have new respect and sympathy for anyone who is forced to labor in that heat. The goons tried to assume the attitude that they had finally managed to chase us off, but that lie only worked amongst themselves. Before we left we sent Miscavige a message via that big giant XenuCam. We let him know we’d be coming back some day and invited him to come out and visit with us, maybe answer a few questions.
Poor little fella. He’s had a bad week.
Final note: I must have told scolded our guys (one in particular) a hundred times to watch their language and be nice. I even told the Scilons to be nice. When SciStern/John Stumpke tried to speak condescendingly to me I invited him to knock it off. I personally do not enjoy people mistreating each other in any way whatsoever. It just isn’t a necessary component of communication, in my opinion.
Otherwise, it was an awesome day and I had tremendous fun "flirturbulating." If nothing else, we broke an old taboo about protesting out at Gold. Maybe even planted some seeds of doubt. Ya just never know...
Thank for your nice comments, everyone!
BF
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