March 15th Scientology Protests

[Kilgore Trout]

Here's an audio stream/interview of the Anonymous protest in Clearwater: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/partyvan-prank-call (NSFW, language)

This (was) a video stream of the DC protest: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dcprotest (Seems over now, though, but when I was watching it looked like a pretty big turn out.)

So far it sounds like another peaceful and successful Anonymous protest.

[Kilgore Trout]

After listening awhile, I guess it's interesting from a the standpoint of understanding Anonymous a little, but I pretty much apologize for posting the links. The guys doing the commentary are terrible.

[FSM]

Thanks for posting them anyway KT!

[Kilgore Trout]

Not sure just how accurate it is, but they're saying things didn't go terribly well in Atlanta. Police were waiting, told them to remove masks, pulled over cars that would honk in support, and arrested two for noise violations.

(Not sure of the legality of masks in Atlanta.. I do know they are illegal in Chicago (not on Halloween), and from what I've heard in Clearwater they're legal, but police can ask to remove masks -- but not remove bandannas. The law does vary a lot from place to place..)

[Kilgore Trout]

Now they're calling various Orgs to get a response about the protests from Scientology. The aim seems to be to get the official response from various Orgs about the protests. The results have been...interesting.

The Atlanta Org actually had more information about the arrests. One was arrested for using a bull horn in a residential area, one was arrested for coming onto "church" property.

They called Flag and after a couple transfers a woman basically read what is on www.anonymous-exposed.org and said the video explains what Anonymous leaders have done. They asked who those leaders were, and she said they are anonymous and that's the problem. They replied that they had the name of a leader on their tip line and his name was Rick Astley. She said she didn't know him, and they Rick Rolled her.

They called the Celebrity Center and after a transfer the guy feigned ignorance of any protest at all, then later said he saw something on the news and saw the masks and thought they were the KKK. The radio guys were actually rather composed through much of it and tried to straighten him out a little, until he accused them of being a prank call, asked if they were the guy that just called and John, then said they must be about 12 or 14 and said their mother wouldn't like them making calls like that.

The Portland Org asked for their number to call back, they put him on hold, I think he put them on hold, and that was about it. I think that threw them for a loop, one guy said to just Rick Roll him.

And now the show's winding down with just prank calls. I did find the guy from the Celebrity Center interesting, seemed like bull baiting in action.

[Big Les]

Edinburgh and London both went well and peacefully by all accounts (100+ and 900+ attendees respectively). There are various pics from both showing smiling (http://www.flickr.com/photos/skenmy/2335220755/) policemen - always a good sign.

This is despite Scientology's efforts to bring injunctions preventing peaceful protest and to publically accuse unmasked individuals of terrorism and threats of violence. Keep at it Scientology, you're doing Anonymous' work for it.

[Kilgore Trout]

I've seen that in Clearwater they tried to get an injunction against Anonymous, but they couldn't produce any names, and you can't exactly have an injunction against some nebulous group of anonymous people.

I think they took a different tactic in Atlanta and just called the police directly.

Video of a couple arrests in Atlanta:

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And rather raw footage of the arrests:

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Hopefully more information will follow in addition to the pictures and videos already being posted of all the protests.

[Big Les]

Not quite as bad as (a Scientologist) bringing a fricking GUN (http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Scientologist_arrested_for_bringing_firearm_to_pro test) to a peaceful protest though, is it?

[Kilgore Trout]

How that doesn't make bigger news, I'll never know.

I'd seen a picture of the guy (and the big sign "THIS GUY HAS A GUN") but the video is much more interesting.

[Pato2747]

Not quite as bad as (a Scientologist) bringing a fricking GUN to a peaceful protest though, is it?

See? When Anonymous does something good, calm, and peaceful, the counter-part goes all violent on the people.

[Ysidro]

Rick Astley? Someone rickrolled Scientology? OMG! LULZ!!!

[Achán hiNidráne]

Rick Astley? Someone rickrolled Scientology? OMG! LULZ!!!

Oh you bet they did.

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Epic Win!

[Kilgore Trout]

London won. Srsly.

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Though Manchester had Boogaloo Xenu show up.

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And the Aussies even (attempted) an acoustic Rick Roll.

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Win.

And, as noted, Atlanta had arrests, and L.A. had a packing Scientologist. And we found out that longcat is not only loooooong, but also hates Scientology.

(There are better, or at least additional, videos but YouTube is being a butt for me tonight, so these will do unless there's interest for me to mine better Anonymous videos.)