29 Aug 2000

Keith Henson <hkhenson@netcom3.netcom.com>

I was hoping to get to picketing starting early today. But the entheta opportunities in LA are so thick that we were delayed till 3:20 in the afternoon. I will say that Thursday morning (8:30 am) in Dept. 10 in the courthouse at 111 Hill Street might hold some interesting drama involving a protective order on a proposed deposition in Hurtado v. Berry.

We decided to picket big blue first. Coming from the south we turned at Fountain, the E/W street on the south side of big blue. As we crossed LRH way, the street was full of clams scurrying back and forth. We parked on the street to the west. By the time we had walked around big blue, on the north side (Sunset) the clams had been herded off the street except for a few on the south end of LRH way. As Graham and I walked down LRH way we could see the last few being cleared off the street into the buildings. It was just amazing: a better street clearing has not been seen since the days of the classic cowboy movie High Noon.

I was more than a little concerned about Barton, though he had not been seen for some time and there was speculation that he had been offloaded. I have to check, but I believe the Barton restraining order (which they have used against me) expires within a few months.

Graham and I got most of the way down LRH way when up comes Edwin Richardson, "Fancy meeting you here" was my greeting. I was using "RTC Squirrels, compare old and new books" on one side, and "scientology makes the able into the addled" on the other. Graham was using one that said LRH was on psych drugs when he died on one side and the other was Scientology, "church" of fair game on the other. Richardson was being his usual self, and greeted us with a comment about awful stench.

We turned left at Fountain, walked by Bridge Pub (I didn't know it was in the same complex) and back to Sunset. I need a Spanish translator for some of it when a local wondered what the parade was about and Richardson (I am sure) gave him some DA about Graham and me. We should have brought some flyers; there were several opportunities to pass them out.

As we started back down LRH way for a second pass, I was being very cautious. Graham was ahead of me, so I crossed over the street and sure enough Barton showed up. Graham got photos of him sitting on the steps, waiting for me to come within range. I wasn't interested in playing this game again-it was a good try, but it didn't work. After that, Richardson stuck with me and I mostly stayed around the intersection of Sunset and LRH way while Graham picketed almost out of sight on the other end of LRH way. Graham mentioned that they were herding the publics around trying to keep them from seeing him. At one point, two guys with folders came out to the corner of LRH way and Sunset-obviously after me. I moved across LRH way and then across Sunset. This was far enough away that they must have felt stupid to come further. I bugged Richardson about half the traffic on a.r.s being from OT 7s. If anyone can figure out what his case level is please let me know. I think he is shaken by OT 7s bailing out.

I also rattled Richardson's cage about Gene Ingram not being a scientologist and having enough material to put a lot of them away for a very long time. This too seems to get to Richardson. I also got to him over the stunt Brent Stone pulled this last weekend. I have tape of Richardson trying (and failing) to drown me out while I am talking to a pedestrian about Xenu and the space cooties.

Incidentally the parrot out at gold base seems to be a real sore point with Richardson, at least he sure rags on the topic. Next time I get out there, I will listen carefully, but I think they got rid of him. There was a bit about if Richardson was permitted to read a.r.s. I don't think the thugs are permitted to read it. Shame because there is a lot about them. Maybe I should print out some and give it to them. At one point I was talking to Richardson about what got all these net people involved, Kobrin's rmgroup. Richardson made a comment to the effect that they had won on the copyright and I pointed out that the material they were trying to keep secret is on at least a 100k, if not a million computers and is available on the net to this day.

Richardson claims that he is volunteering his time.

I am sure *someone* is watching other places on the net, but Richardson didn't know that the second most common group I post into recently is alt.engr.explosives.

All this time I was watching Graham, or rather his picket sign a block away, as he fairly well kept them bottled up and unable to cross LRH way. At one point we used our cell phones to coordinated, Graham said Barton was sitting forlornly on the steps of whichever building it is to the west of LRH way.

After keeping them (especially the publics) bottled up for at least a half hour, Graham came back to Sunset and we went back to his vehicle.

We move the picket to the over to the CC, parked on the far side of 101 and walked over the 101 on a bridge. There was a guy I thought was a PI who parked his green van on the bridge. I had my video tape going so while Graham went on to the CC, I went back and taped him. Likely was a PI, because he took off when I went up and tried to talk to him. On the other hand, we didn't see that car again.

Richardson got over to the CC ahead of us. I was trying to get a better angle on some video, when he came and said I was on private property. I wonder if CoS really owns the property to the east of the CC? Richardson has his usual camera going as I do, and I realized *he has the camera lens cap on*. Man, that must be embarrassing. We spent about half an hour at the CC, Graham walking all around the building and talking to a number of unhappy neighbors (the closer they are to a scn org, the less the neighbors like it. I spent most of the time I was there on the corner of Benton and Franklin, taping Graham, holding my sign so it could be seen by traffic, watching for Barton and at times talking to Richardson. Richardson asked about cryonics so I ran him through what it takes to freeze someone. He was quiet or asked fairly intelligent questions for a long time.

We then moved over to the LRH life exhibit. They still have two adult (porn) theaters and at least one tattoo place on that block facing Hollywood, but place next door which use to be empty has someone in it. We had a number of interesting conversations with pedestrians, including one street person. Man, do the street people hate scientology! Seems that in the interest of cleaning up the neighborhood, the scientologist forced out a group that was delivering lunches to the homeless, and closed a church that was feeding people on holidays. Or at least this is what one guy said. After seeing the kind of very positive interaction we got with our picket signs he was considering picketing them himself. Perhaps he could turn this into a business. I suggested a simple message for his first sign, "scientology sucks!"

At this point we had used up the time we had and so headed back to Graham's place for a nice dinner. Richardson followed us a long way, and I got some great tape. Graham's jeep has a sunroof in it. Makes a great place to stand up and tape what is going on behind the car.

We will be back at it tomorrow.

Keith Henson, reporting from the LA front

PS. Perhaps I can get Graham to add to this account.