Originally Posted by AnonMomAnon

hi, everyone.

first of all, could someone post this over on enturb and anywhere else that you think people might want to look at it?
for some reason, even though enturb is back up, i can't get logged in...arrrrgh!

anyway---this is the gist of the very, very nice conversation that i had with lt. james steffens of the clearwater police department today.


tuesday march 18, 2008

i had called and left a couple of messages with lt. james steffens at the cwpd about the harrassment/intimidation against me when i left the ruth eckerd hall protest on march 14th.

i had talked to a police officer on saturday march 15th about the harrassment and was basically told by that officer that if i was going to be out here doing "this" (i.e. "protesting) that this was what i could "expect." since i had to go to a funeral of a very dear friend that morning and was, in fact dressed in my funeral attire and had only gone to the protest that morning to give some encouragement to some of the anons and tell them that i couldn't stay, but that i would try to get back in time to catch them later....i just had to go. i couldn't be late for the funeral and i still had to wind my way around for my ride.

that answer was actually not satisfactory for me and i wanted to speak with someone further about this.

lt. steffens spoke with me today and this is what he told me.

concerning the church of scientology either using their own people or hiring private investigators to follow people or in any way try to find out the identity of people who are protesting against them:

1) the cwpd is very well aware that the church of Scientology does this.

2) the cwpd is letting everyone know that this is the policy of the Co$, because they want to inform people so people can PROTECT themselves as best as they can from this policy of the Co$.

3) lt. steffens himself understands and thinks that it is a VERY GOOD IDEA that anonymous protesters wear masks and disguise their faces to remain anonymous because of this well-known practice by the Co$ of stalking and harrassing anyone who publicly disagrees with them.

4) lt. steffens gave us two different stalking laws to look up and to compare what happens to anyone of us with these two laws. Florida Stalking Law 784.046 and Florida Stalking Law 784.048. he recommends that you keep a WRITTEN LOG of anything and everything that you believe is harrassment and/or stalking. i.e.: phone calls; someone around your home; people that you know being asked about you by a stranger; etc. if you believe that there is anything being done to you that compare to what are contained within these two stalking laws, the cwpd most definitely wants you to contact them for their help.

5) lt. steffens and the cwpd want the anonymous protesters to do everything that they can to keep themselves safe. lt. steffens said that he knows that anonymous will be protesting every month and that he and the rest of the cwpd know that is only going to upset the Co$ more because clearwater is the spiritual headquarters for Co$. the cwpd know that this is going to mean that the Co$ will do more things such as the injunctions they tried to get the week of the protest.
lt. steffens said that the Co$ will be hiring more private investigators and that some of these private investigators will be much more "aggressive" than others. he also said that there were a lot of obvious private investigators that anonymous was probably aware of at the march 15th march, but that there were also a lot of "hidden" private investigators that anonymous probably would not have noticed.

lt. steffens and i also discussed some other things.

1) lt. steffens said that the cwpd feels like they are "stuck in the middle" between the members of anonymous and the church of Scientology. cwpd feel like the members of anonymous think that the cwpd are "owned" by the Co$. at the same time, cwpd is under pressure from the Co$ because the Co$ believes that the cwpd are basically not protecting the cwpd from people harrassing them. he said that the Co$ either doesn't understand or wants to ignore the fact that anonymous HAS THE RIGHT TO PEACEFULLY PROTEST. <<he actually said that we had a first amendment right to peacefully protest.

2) the cwpd saw on the feb. 10th protest that anonymous is indeed a peaceful group. there were no incidents and the only "complaint" from that protest was the fact that the police that covered that protest were worried that members of anonymous were going to be hurt somehow by not getting out of traffic: worried that anonymous members might get hit and/or to cause some sort of a wreck from being in traffic. strictly a safety issue for members of anonymous and the people driving in downtown clearwater that day. lt. steffens did say that the way anonymous marched on march 15th pretty much cleared up that safety issue and that as long as the marches are done that way in the future that would be great.

here is what i told lt. steffens.

i told him that there were NO anonymous who were afraid to come to clearwater anymore. i told him that BEFORE the feb. 10th protest there were a LOT of anonymous members who were afraid to come to clearwater. i told him that many of us clearwater residents who were also anonymous had tried to reassure everyone on our forums that the cwpd were NOT owned by Scientology, but since none of us know each other that there was a great deal of fear coming into the feb. 10th protest.

i told him that the fact that the Co$ had hired 10 off-duty police officers for the feb. 10th protest made it even scarier for some anonymous coming to clearwater. i told him that some of us anonymous people once again posted on our forums that off-duty police officers are hired by many churches in our area to direct traffic on sunday's and that businesses in our area can hire off-duty police if they're having an event.

then i told him that AFTER the feb. 10th protest that there were NO anonymous members who feared the cwpd ANYMORE. that all of the anonymous people saw that the cwpd were just there to keep the peace. i reminded him that many of these young people had never done anything like this before and i didn't blame them for being afraid for the feb. 10th protest and HE AGREED WITH ME. i stated again that i wanted the clearwater police department to know that anonymous IS NOT AFRAID of the cwpd after feb. 10th. i laughed and told him that most anonymous now just think it's funny that the Co$ wastes their money by hiring the off-duty police officers, but that we were glad that the officers were getting some overtime now. i told him that, in fact, anonymous is really happy to have the police protection because it makes them feel much safer.

i also spoke with him about the ddos attacks. i told him that from what i'd heard...because i wasn't a member of the all of this at that time...that even when the ddos attacks were planned---that it's believed it was a very small group that did the attacks. i told him that what actually happened was that most of these young people went looking into what Scientology was REALLY about and came away horrified. most of them couldn't believe that these things were going on in their world and basically said that they couldn't let it go on anymore. i told lt. steffens that Co$ made another enemy and that Co$ was pretty good at doing that. i explained to him that the moment these young people realized what Scientology was really about, it became a passionate mission for them and no longer JUST a laugh for them. (don't worry...i think he gets that ya'll still hafta have the lulz!)

i told them that all of our plans and everything that we discuss are on open forums. i told him that there are no leaders. i loved his response: LT. STEFFENS BASICALLY SAID THAT THE CO$ IS TRYING REALLY HARD TO FIND OUR "LEADERS" AND HE SAID, "GOOD LUCK WITH THAT...THEY'RE ALL OVER THE WORLD AND THEY DON'T SEEM TO 'HAVE' A LEADER."

i told him that if anyone wants to go to ANY of our forums and read through the threads, they are welcome to. i told him that i'm sure members of the cwpd and the fbi and who knows what other law enforcement agencies are looking at all of our forums. i told him that i know that Co$ is looking at our forums and we welcome and encourage that because we want EVERYONE to see that whenever there is ANYTHING that even remotely smacks of violence posted it is IMMEDIATELY shot down by everyone who sees it. i told him that we believe that MOST if NOT ALL of the violent posts we get come from the Co$' OSA agents. i told him we're pretty good at recognizing them now.

lt. steffens said that he was very glad that i had called and that he had returned the call. he said that what we had talked about was a big relief for him and would also be a relief for the chief of police. he was going to report this phone call to the chief and to the other officers.

i thanked him for returning the call and for giving us the head's up on the stalking laws and that i was also going to tell everyone on our forums about our conversation also.

Originally Posted by musketeerwang

She already has an account!

http://forums.whyweprotest.net/members/anonmomanon-1694/

Someone needs to explain the reregistration thing maybe?

Originally Posted by anonymous612

Some of the bayfags on a SanFran blog were discussing either sending a thank you card/letter to the PD for 3/15 or bringing a huge card to 4/12, everyone sign it (or whatever, considering anonymity), and handing it to the PD there.

Considering how awesome CWPD has been, it might be a good gesture.