If you don't already know (whether I made it obvious enough or not), I attended the February 10, 2008 protest of the activities of the Cult of Scientology in Clearwater, FL. I was just one person of about 200 complete strangers who wore masks to prevent litigation that the Cult is famous for bringing upon its critics. There are undoubtedly several accounts of these events already published on the internet, but when has that stopped me from writing about something that interests me?
My original intention was to just film the protest, edit it in Adobe Premier, and distribute it on the internet. Then the Scientologists published a biased editorial in The St. Petersburg Times and I decided to participate in the actual protesting.
Prior to this, I had written an update on Kobra's Corner about the struggle between Anonymous and Scientology.
The Road to the Protest
Both fortunately and unfortunately, there were no Scientology "churches" within 60 miles of my hometown. As a result, me and my friend Roswell had to ride 130 miles to Clearwater, FL.
The protest-- scheduled for February 10 (a date chosen almost unanimously by Anonymous because it coincided with Lisa McPherson's birthday)-- was not an isolated event; it was a worldwide protest. There were protests held from London, England to Ontario, Canada to Miami,FL to Hollywood, CA to Sydney, Australia; and many places in-between.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, I went to this event with my friend Roswell. We met at his house at about 7:30, packed up the cameras, and left for Clearwater at 8:10. To summarize the ride there, we got lost in Clearwater (thanks in no part to me) and turned a 2 hour drive into a 3 hour "lost tourist" cruise.
The Protest Against the Cult of $cientology
Mostly because of poor planning on my part, we ended up over an hour late. We scrambled to find a parking space then we ran our asses off trying to catch up to the main group (lest we miss something funny). Partly due to our tardiness, and yet even more poor planning on my part, we didn't have masks for most of the protest (and thus you won't find any pictures of either of us).
The numbers were staggering. The night before, I anticipated to be among 50 (maybe 60) people. The crowd had easily 200 people in it and they were all holding either a sign or a video camera. Littered along the protest path were a score of Scientologists who were on a mission to get as many faces on film as they can so that they might individually harass us, sue us, and even kill us.
We began walking, laughing, whooping every time a car passed and honked their horn at the "Honk if you think Scientology is a cult" sign, and drinking water to lessen the stress on our vocal chords. Every time we passed a Scientologist (or one of their private investigators), the entire group began chanting things like, "Cult! Cult!" "Murderers!" and "Cults don't get to be tax exempt!"
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