Picket Report, John Ritson

Scientology Lies > Pickets > Birmingham >Picket Report, John Ritson

From: John Ritson 
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: PICKET, Birmingham(England), 2000/March/3rd
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 16:39:14 +0000
Organization: British BodyThetan Society
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In article , Dave Bird
 writes
> Local demo so I get the privilege of turning up late, 12:15 to
> meet the people from train and coach arrivals.  Me, Jens, 
> Shellac, Martin,   JohnR, Hartley,   a local couple... later
> we're joined by another local woman (who has a go on the mic),
> plus the new guy and his wife.  
[snip description of layout and map]
> We set up halfway down Ethel St opposite the door, and tried out
> the boom-box which is now working fine (hooray!).  I gave them a
> few verses of the ElRonRon to wake them up.  Hartley suggested
> we move to the T junction with New St, next to a rotating advert
> which passing kids occasionally used as a slow speed roundabout.

Since we were playing Hubbard ranting, the Rondroids had to stay well
away from our boom-box.

> We were well provided with leaflets, and public response was good.

Very good indeed. This was the first picket when several people came up
to me and asked for leaflets that they would be handing out in future
(In Brighton, Poole and London we have had individuals joining in the
picket and handing out leaflets). The 'body-routing' - clams with
clipboards asking 'Have you the time to answer some questions' before
taking the victims into the 'org' for a 'personality test' that
'scientifically proves' you need a 'Communications Course' has really
annoyed the people who work in the area. The body-routers are so
'focused' on their task that an individual can get intercepted several
times a day.
Also their relative success at their old location in Birmingham, which
is presumably why they have shifted to this more expensive location,
means that there are now plenty of people, as in Poole, with personal
experience of friends or family being ripped off for thousands of pounds
by the cult.
Lots of people thanked us for being there, and hoped that we would come
back there soon - happy to oblige!
Both the physical layout - a pedestrianised shopping street, and the
reactions were very reminiscent of Poole before we crashed their stats.

>
> About ten minutes later five pods emerged from the pod-shop and
> assembled uncertainly behind the rotating sign.  We saw between 
> six and seven in all, including some who tried to go unseen.
> I noticed "Leatherjacket" (I think his name is Mark) hovering
> around, and he came over and tried to handle myself and Jens
> for a while.  Two women body-routers turned up and tried to
> work about 20ft further up.  They actually had a fellow clam 
> pretend to be a customer, which drew a bronx cheer from us.
> Plenty of amplified calls of "don't sign your life away to
> scientology," and "watch out for the pods with the clipboards --
> they're after all your money."  They told the cops we were 
> blocking their door -- which we hadn't been even when we were
> in Ethel St --  and the copcar pulled up in the middle of Ethel St
> to keep watch.

They were really enturbulated. At one stage, two of the body-routers ran
about 50 metres to get back into the 'org'. Perhaps the reason they
called the police was that at one stage they were routing someone with
an anti-Scientology leaflet in his hand, and had done the standard 'Can
I have a look at that for just a moment' spiel  to get it off him, when
a picketer went to the door to provide a spare leaflet. Or perhaps they
were unhappy because all the people they routed that afternoon had
already been inoculated against Scientology. Hint - routing a group of
blokes with bottles of strong cider in their hands is not a good idea,
however it may push up the 'stats'. One person  routed had had a go on
the e-meter and had sussed out the trick of how to make the meter give
'Very Good Indicators' immediately. "Biggest load of shite I've ever
seen" was his verdict.

The 'org' was fairly downstat. At their previous location we saw about
ten young students. Here there were two female body-routers, the man in
the leather jacket, somebody trying to take photographs from the org's
window, the obligatory nervous adolescent tasked with handing out the
"Are You Curious about Yourself" leaflet with "The Standard Oxford
Capacity Analysis" test (not standard, nothing to do with Oxford or
capacity) 
Q102 "Would it take a definite effort on your part to consider the
subject of suicide"
Q 129 "Have you made more than one loan which you were persuaded to do
against your wishes and were never repaid"
Q 195 "Do others push you around"
(Are we beginning to see a pattern here?)
Q 200 "Do you consider you have many warm friends" (as opposed to cold
friends? - who are they trying to recruit? - Hannibal Lecter? - they
already have Charles Manson)

Plus a couple of people ostentatiously being friendly to the body-
routers. But all very non-confront. 

If I were Scientology's landlord, I would be getting nervous.


>  We packed in at 15:30 anyway, because of the cold.
>
> Later we went some distance over by Colmore Row, and there were
> groans when we passed two pubs, but most people thought it was
> worth the wait for a nice pint of properly cellared Abbots Ale.

Very nice, but travelling from the South-East to the Midlands to get
Abbots?

John *** "Now mock-up yourself as dead because you've been processed.  And
do it again and again and again and again and again and again and
again.  Now mock yourself up as dead because you have lost
everything.  Many times.  Now mock-up the final failure that
brings about, in the future, your final forever demise.  The end
of you.  Mock-up this final failure.  It is the total end of you.
Duplicate it several times.  Alright." - L Ron Hubbard Feb 16 1954 ***

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