From dbj1120@iag.net Sun Dec 06 20:11:22 1998
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: G. Scarff: Last Day In Clearwater, 12/6/98
From: Garry Scarff <dbj1120@iag.net>
Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 23:11:22 -0500

Since I am posting from Beverly's computer, and she has been unfairly singled out by some for attack because of her association with me, I will post this short review of today's events in downtown Clearwater. Once I am back at my computer in Los Angeles on Tuesday, I will post my experiences in Clearwater during the picket weekend ~ it was as most who were there ~ very interesting and to sum up Scientology's behavior during the weekend ~ TOTALLY PATHETIC!!

I believe the 45 or so picketers this weekend did more to open the eyes of the Clearwater community to the REAL SCIENTOLOGY, reinforced by the ultra-delusional and paranoid responses of the church members themselves, than in years previous.

Today was Bev and I'd last day in Clearwater. After checking out of our motel (Best Western), we drove across US 19 to the Holiday Inn so we could say good-bye to friends. Sitting at a table in the restaurant were Jeff J., Grady W., Tilman H. and others that I did not know and Bev spoke to them as I used a courtesy phone at the front desk to speak to Arnie Lerma who with Frank Oliver, was a tremendous source of moral and emotional support to me this weekend as I battled with the emotional pains attributed to the cult victimization of individual church members. Walking back to the restaurant area, the board listing the days events at the hotel caught my eye and I called Bev over to look at the board, asking her (jokingly) if Stacy Y. had broken up with Bob M. Why? Because the board listed the wedding party of "Stacy & Jesse". I found it to be a comical coincidence considering the two people present with those names. Interesting, too, that Bev asked me if ~ I ~ put the names on the board as a joke? I assured Bev that it was real and showed her a room nearby where they were setting up the desserts for the wedding party.

From the Holiday Inn, we drove to downtown Clearwater at 12:00 to see if there were any picketers. There was none. As we drove a circuitious route around the Ft. Harrison and the fenced off area, we drove towards the Ft. H, passing a Flag security guard (the one that Bev and I spoken to earlier and whom you can see in the German ARD video ~ filming me and Martin Ottman in Clearwater ~ . As we passed the guard, I oberved from my back view mirror the guard swinging his bike around and following us, talking into his walkie-talkie at the same time. We stopped at a red light and in the 2-3 minutes it took from us to turn left on Ft. Harrison to drive in front of the church, we observed church security hurriedly chasing it's EPF and RPF crews aways from work areas and into the Ft. H. It was truly pathetic to see dirty, exhausted young people being herded single file at a running pace into the hotel!

We parked by the County Building and armed only with binoculars, a camera and a notepad, Bev and I walked to our favorite place in the bacl of the Ft. Harrison where security guards went ballistic and shooed staff buses away when we were present and security hid behind the black tarp at the gate. From our vantage points, it was very reassuring to have a police car watching us. As we walked around the back and up the side of the hotel, we were followed by an OSA guard with a walkie-talkie, watched by a (gorgeous, tanned) Flag guard on the roof, and the 3 security cameras attached to the Fort H.

Bev and I decided to play a game to watch the reactions of church members, so I armed Bev with a notepad and pen while I scanned the Fort H. with binoculars. From the very top of the hotel, I observed a staff member hiding behind a post with a telephoto lens trained on us. I had Bev look in the binocs to witness this. When we were in the presence of Flag guards, we left the impression with them that we were going to fly a chopper in to do aerial photography of the Ft. H. ~ guess which one of us dreamed up this idea ~. From the side of the hotel, we observed a large satellite dish on the back cabana of the hotel. I trained my binoculars through cracks in the wall and the lattice covering church staffers put up to obscure the view of the courtyard, and I observed staffers ordering people lounging by the pool to get up and go into the hotel. So sorry, I ruined the day of Scientology sunbathers.

Bev and I then crossed Ft. Harrison and stood on the corner watching Flag vas loading and unloading staff and publics into the Ft. H. The vans were parking within inches of each others and church security were hugging their bodies together to form a wall between us and the publics, but a good set of binoculars can do wonders. At one point, a mother with her 3 young children came walking out and they were immediately herded back into the hotel by church security.

Looking up, it was reassuring to see that church staffers finally got the huge "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" letters up, as last night while driving from my motel to downtown, it was obvious from a distance that several letters would not light up and it read "HAPPY HO!"

As we walked around the Ft. H, being followed by a police car and the ever diligent OSA guard, I had Beverly look at the 4-foot high clump of boken cement sitting in a pile behind the sign announcing construction of the new Super Tower ~ the bricks were representative of the hard work & sweat of young people in the church. I suspect that we would never see SpongeBrain aka David Miscavige ever hauling a brick for the church. As I was looking at the front of the church with the binoculars, a PI in suit, tie and radio came walking up to me, then sprinted across the street and into the garage, the hiding place for most wimpy Scienos running from us evil, Eli Whitney sponsored psychotic/critics this weekend.

After an hour of fun and games, and sorry we could not be around to watch their reaction to the "planned" helicopter flyover at 4:30, we departed Clearwater for Orlando.

Garry Scarff