Mike Rinder's Blog

Something Can Be Done About It

LAPD What Are You Thinking?

By 137 Comments

Are they going to explain to everyone that the solution is to hand out Way To Happiness booklets?

It’s worked so well in Venezuela and other places…

How about human trafficking, fraud and destroying families? Not part of the agenda?

The LAPD and other organizations need to pay better attention and be more diligent about who they team up with. Of course, their argument is that they will work together with anyone who wants to improve the community, and that is understandable. What they don’t realize is:

a. How scientology will use them to gain legitimacy for themselves

b. What scientology is really involved in — outside of their local “goodwill PR” efforts. They should take a little time to do some research before committing to publicly supporting an organization with such a horrendous history of abuses.

Comments

  1. All you need to know about LAPD is if your black and they stop you you stand a 95% chance of being executed without trial.

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  2. Shame on any police officers complicit in this partnership. It sickens me they are associated with Miscavige. Why do they let themselves be used, Mike? I don’t understand it. I have very close friends and family who are police officers and they were disgusted when I showed them this. And Scientology again is abusing taxpayer dollars.

    I’m sure there are plenty of Officers in these departments who are uncomfortable with this partnership. There are great documentaries about Scientology but I would really love for someone to do a documentary on the non-Scientologists organizations that associate with the “church.”

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  4. At the risk of offending a lot of people, police departments have their own little cult behavior going on, so it makes sense.

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  5. Sadly, this is another example of the severe lack of common sense, which exists in places corrupted by political correctness. Evan Sayet has described it like this, and I agree with him – “To the Modern Liberal, indiscriminateness is a moral imperative, because its opposite is the evil of having discriminated.” He’s expanded on this to say that such people hold to a philosophy where nothing is deemed completely right or wrong, and the ultimate source of mankind’s problems is one person or group’s attempt to be more correct than someone else. The progression of this philosophy, according to Mr. Sayet, goes like this: “If no thing were ever more right or wrong, we’d never disagree, fight, or go to war.” The only catch to this utopian vision, is you have to consciously reject all objective and rational thought…because recognizing absolutes always leads to the conclusion that some things really are better or worse.

    Most of the problems we see in headlines these days, are the result of people being raised to believe that absolutes don’t exist. After all, if there’s no absolute value to human life, what’s wrong with murdering anyone in the womb or out? If there’s no difference between theft and charity, then why not steal from tons of people to benefit your own immediate desires? If there’s nothing absolutely wrong with oppression, then who cares whether Miscavige and his followers lock people in The Hole? In order to be against any of these things, you have to allow for moral absolutes which exist independently from belief. But that line of thought leads directly to a governing authority beyond us…which a lot of people find reprehensible because it bruises their ego.

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      • There is no greater threat to our own egos as people, compared to the existence of a theistic God like the one described in the Bible. A lot of people are okay with the notion of impersonal deities, who don’t bother them and never object to any of their choices. But the God of Christianity is very personal, loving and patient, but also authoritative and just. The saying “God is love” is 100% true, but other Scriptures make it clear He is not mocked…and all of us answer to Him in the end. I’m reminded of something else C.S. Lewis wrote: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’, and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done’.” He won’t force His ways on anyone, but there are still consequences for those who continually reject Him.

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    • Absolutes don’t exist. That people are being “raised to believe” that absolutes don’t exist is common sense. Plenty of people are raised to believe all kinds of nonsense that doesn’t help them in life that they have to un-think and dis-believe when they get older. No one, nothing can be all bad or all good. . There is no such human condition as unadulterated good or pure evil. It is the ratio of bad to good and vice versa that is relevant when evaluating a person or thing or situation. Just off the top of my head, beautiful roses have thorns, and even Hitler, it was said, was kind to his dogs.

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      • @ Aquamarine – The philosophical claim “absolutes don’t exist” is an absolute in itself, and so defeats itself. My response to “nothing and no one can be all bad or all good” is this – “How did you reach that conclusion?” A plant having thorns contains no inherent moral value; it simply exists. But truth involves “ought”, not just “is”. C.S. Lewis brilliantly explained it this way…

        “The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as a real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something—some Real Morality—for them to be true about. ”

        He also wrote, “Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining “It’s not fair” before you can say Jack Robinson.” In other words, we recognize truths not by our actions, but by our reactions.

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      • I have to strongly dissagree.

        Evil exists just as good exists. We all have a choice about what we do.

        Does being kind to your dog absolve even a single murder? A single rape?

        No.

        The choice to commit the destruction of another human life is irrevocable.

        The loss of sight that good and evil exist, that there are absolutes, and that our choices put us on one side or the other, is the height of folly.

        Do absolutes apply to every situation? No. But the men of evil intent should live in trembling fear of being labeled as evil, not being able to scoff away the damage they do as “it is all relavent”.

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  6. does the LAPD do evaluations on intelligence and morality BEFORE one becomes a officer for them? i mean come on! by now? in 2017? anyone who doesn’t live in a cave and ESPECIALLY those who are the “authorities” don’t know ANYTHING, i repeat ANYTHING about scientology and what it’s all about! come on!.

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    • I suspect that what LAPD “knows” about Scientology is enough to make them play ball with an enormously rich and extremely litigious “religion” based in their immediate area, and what they don’t “know” they continue to relegate to the bin of “unproven allegations”. until such time when they can safely (read: without being accuses of discrimination) look the cult in the kisser and say, “Sorry, Dave, later for you”.

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    • tracy, Police Departments won a court decision that allows them to NOT hire those with above average IQs. I’m not kidding. That came about because high IQ people become bored by the cop routine and quit far more frequently than do low IQ people. Thus low IQ people are screened IN to the profession and high IQ people are kept out.

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      • This is incredible, Wynski. So, any police department can legally weed out and turn down applicants whose IQ is too HIGH? God Almighty, you can’t make this stuff up!

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        • Sorry to say it doesn’t surprise me. It’s similar to the fact that they don’t like to hire people who over qualified. Maybe the person has decided he wants to do something other than what he trained for, but that doesn’t matter. They don’t want anyone who might be smarter than they are.

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        • That is correct Aqua. Also, the courts (at least one Circuit court)through out physical fitness tests for women because they said it discriminates. So you have cops who physically cannot do the job of dealing with criminals and thus require additional cops to do the same job as one.

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  7. Regarding North Korea’s murder of little rocket man’s half-brother, does this sound like Scientology’s OSA covert operations? – “From the moment Jong Nam left Macau, the North Koreans tailed him,” Nam Sung-wook told GQ. “They had a group on his airplane. As soon as he arrived at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, another group followed him. They kept that surveillance up while he slept. Even as Jong Nam entered the terminal, he was shadowed.” – The patterns are absolutely unmistakable.

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  9. I am not trying to change the subject. But those clams over on Marty boy’s website don’t care how osa/Scientology got those hushmail emails. As long as he defends scamology he can do no wrong.

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  12. LRH was the PT Barnum of his generation, or rather, he was much worse than PT Barnum, who at least provided some entertainment to the rubes before he directed them down the hall to see ‘The Egress’. LRH stated that he wanted to get his hooks in and keep them in, which is why any bit of cooperation from LAPD toward a Scientology-front group needs to be stopped before it grows.

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  13. This is shocking. How is it possible that these two police officers have no knowledge of the allegations of abuse against the Church of Scientology? One can only conclude that their ignorance is willful and they’re in OSA’s pocket. Wow. I’d love to “be a part of it”, alright, and lob a few questions at these two beauties.

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  15. I think that the LAPD has a dilemma of wanting to do community outreach, and not wanting to be seen as discriminating against a group against whom there are only, so far, unproven allegations.

    As much as they probably want to reach out to some communities, and be portrayed as trusted, it seems to me that the one step they could take would be to refuse permission for their pictures to be used in groups’ promotional materials, and possibly also to not allow officers to be named individually, either. They might also consider limiting the sort of awards they accept, and how those awards are accepted. That would significantly reduce devious groups’ ability to leverage appearances for propaganda value, and could be pointed out to have the advantage of reducing the possibility for future embarrassments if groups do turn out to be ill-intentioned, such as when San Francisco officials ended up shown in previous photo opportunities with Jim Jones and People’s Temple officials that were published after the Jonestown mass murder-suicide.

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    • That’s a good point, PeaceMaker; perhaps LAPD is nervous about accusations of discrimination. From what I’ve read, LAPD has been very cosy with CO$ for a long time and felt they could not refuse. Don’t a number of these policemen moonlight for the cult at their events? Could be they don’t want that rapport jeopardized.
      Its still shameful, though.- totally ill advised and bad choice that I believe these men and the entire LAPD will one day regret.

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    • PeaceMaker if you think for one nanosecond that the LAPD fears being seen going against ANYONE because of unproven allegations you have ABSOLUTELY zero real knowledge of the LAPD and its operational history. ZERO

      In the past several years they have many innocent people for simply standing or sitting in their cars. With ZERO repercussions for the officers involved.

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  16. An email campaign to the local city council member or county supervisor is in order. Some pressure can be brought to bear from elected officials. It can turn the LAPD in another direction.

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    • Dave,

      Burnt Toast Update:

      Your living nightmare will be playing in a loop ALL DAY LONG, not in your head but on your favorite cable network for all to see, again.

      Do you plan to march the small band of bitter bitches into the POW studio, early in the morning without slop for breakfast? Will their perjuries be trotted out to the fringe of the internet?

      Is your Joker now running his own self-serving click farm? Is he ramping up the Baghdad Bob style propaganda?

      Have a good week in your tent at Saint Hell. How much longer will Hubbard’s Briefing Course be UNAVAILABLE?

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  20. The Way to Happiness Campaign…. Remember how Scientologists claimed it reduced crime in St Louis during the Ferguson Riots?

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  21. That would a fun event wouldn’t it? I’m all for an LAPD, Cof$ merger. Do you think they’d let me wear my KKK outfit?

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  22. What can we do to notify law enforcement of our concerns about this partnership? Is there anything people outside of the LA area can do to make sure the LAPD has their eyes wide open to the views and abuses in Scientology? Was I misinformed that Scientologists generally stay away from law enforcement like the plague? Like when children are sexually abused by their teachers or fathers and instead of going to law enforcement they audit and RPF the ass holes instead of involving law enforcement? Am I wrong?

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  23. All that’s needed to evaluate Scientology’s TWTH (The Way to Happiness) Campaigns is to check out the crime statistics of Clearwater, FL

    Even TWTH Campaigns in conjunction with the local OT Committees haven’t been able to reduce the local crime rates within the City of Clearwater nor within the CoS itself.

    Here are a few links which show this:
    http://www.usa.com/clearwater-fl-crime-and-crime-rate.htm
    http://www.areavibes.com/clearwater-fl/crime/
    http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Clearwater-Florida.html

    Clearwater’s crime rate is high when compared to the statistics for Florida as well as the national average.
    The Way to Happiness booklets didn’t work there and they won’t work in Los Angeles either. Just ask Lee Baca who was recently sentenced to three years in prison despite past involvement with promotion of TWTH.

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  24. I grew up in LA and know all about the LAPD abuses of power. As someone who grew up in a religious occult (not Scientology) AND lived in LA I can say that members of the force were also involved with this occult.That’s part of the control factor. As someone who wants to leave or simply stop the abuse your natural inclination is to want to tell the police. But if you know the people on the police force are involved then it’s no longer safe. When I finally did escape, I tried to make a police report and I was told that since I had no proof / and that time had run out on some charges. Nothing ever happened. Money makes a lot of things disappear in Los Angeles.

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  25. Mike,
    I find this extremely offensive that the LAPD is involved in promoting Scientology! What are they thinking? Ditto on your remarks as to what they should be focusing on. Keep us posted & let everyone know if there is anything we can do to resolve this. I look forward to reading all your posts… they are always well written and informative. ?

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  26. As a retired LA cop I urge all of you who can attend to put the PD on the hot seat from the open mic or to picket the caper. Scientology needs to be unmasked in a serious factual fashion, especially at get togethers like this.

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  27. It appears that scn is trying to combat the “entheta” of Aftermath and all the bad news by trying to promote the “good works”, community help, religious tolerance, etc. It’s all ramping up and being promoted all over the place.

    The facts are that The Church of Scientology doesn’t give a RAT’S ASS about any of this. Ask ANY current staff member or Ex-Staff member for the truth.

    It’s all “PR CAPER” and trying to make the public like SCN so they will come in and get signed up. There are execs sitting around and coming up with PR stunts to help change the public image. They dream them up and make the OT committees and Div 6 put on a show.

    If you’re AT the meetings, you hear what the real motive is. They don’t care about hurricane victims, they care about showing up for good PR. They don’t even care about the drug problem really, except in how they can position themselves as caring, as having an answer in Narconon, which then leads to those public getting onto the bridge and becoming Scientologists.

    …….
    It makes me feel ill to see all the shyte about combating drugs, Volunteer Ministers, Way to Happiness, and so on.

    The truth is, they don’t care. Most of the people involved are just all about “the stats”

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    • whose lead “investigator” andre dawson on his “free time” love to give speeches for scientology praising it’s efforts on stopping drug abuse and other topics…. so there you go.. the same lapd who told leah remini NOTHING about their investigation because it was “confidential” and then when remini pressed them a little while later again, they told her this time it was paperwork and red tape and they would get back to her in 2 weeks and they never did, and still haven’t!….

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  30. I am really getting frustrated with the police taking sides with this organization! It seems to be worse in Clearwater from w
    hat I read and saw on Mark Bunker and Tony Otega’s sights. I don’t live in either area, I’m in Fredericksburg, VA. I looked up if Scientology was in my State and it’s in Richmond apparently. I haven’t seen much at all about its activities here. Is there anything I can do, when it isn’t an area where I live? I want to do SOMETHING to help not just shake my head and say ” oh, that’s terrible someone should do something about that.”
    Theresa

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  31. The LAPD is a criminal organization guilty of similar and worse abuses that the CoS. Not unlike the CoS where it is management that is the culprit and a few willing accomplices. Rank and file remain mostly ignorant of the criminality also like the CoS. Truly good bedfellows these two.

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  32. Certain special interest groups have infiltrating LE departments on their agenda. And not all of them are squeaky clean. Given how many times LAPD has looked the other way, do you suspect this? Is this the result of perhaps a big donation given to some booster fund they have? Did they ask some celebrity to help book them? Or are they just that ignorant?

    A lot of departments will show up to put on special seminars like this, but it might help if they were sent some materials on why this would be a problematic and risky organization to appear to support.

    Btw – I looked up Captain Graham – he is new to the NoHo job since Jan this year. And he’s a Trekker (hey, it’s an angle). Commander Rodriguez seems to have a decent reputation. But maybe others in the community would know a lot more.

    Are there any ex-members in the area that would be willing to contact them and register their disappointment? Would organizing community pushback or protest on social media out there help call attention to how distasteful this association is to former members who have been victimized?

    I doubt that any group of LEO’s would want to have the reputation of their organization tainted by association with an outfit – whatever it calls itself – that might have such shady ties and past. Especially to suspected human trafficking. Unless this is part of an undercover fact-finding thing. Which it certainly ought to be.

    CoS has used its power to silence and harass others they have victimized and then turned around and pulled the “religion card” in order to avoid investigation. That needs to just stop.

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  33. The U.S. public is losing its trust in the police, and for good reason. It is the duty of Graham and Rodriguez-who are held to a higher standard of integrity to take allegations of abuse occurring within or by an organization seriously. In agreeing to speak at a facility owned and operated by the COS they have marginalized and undermined all who have suffered on the account of Scientology.

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    • Yep….It’s called “Tacit Approval”….If you refer to someone’s tacit agreement or approval, you mean they are agreeing to something or approving it without actually saying so, often because they are unwilling to admit to doing so…..or….You sleep with dogs – expect to get fleas!

      I’m certain the Shriners could provide them a “cleaner” venue!

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      • You’re right. The Shriners would provide a cleaner venue. After they toss a sofa into a swimming pool and ride a jackass through a hotel lobby.

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    • Thank you Chuck Beatty – a very informative article. This helps us to remember that Scientology is not the only abusive cult. All destructive groups have much in common, in terms of psychological manipulation and conditioning, be it the CofS, JW’s, FLDS, Rajneesh, Hare Krishnas, or other select groups… people really need to investigate fully before committing themselves to what may turn out to be a harmful group with a shady leader. I understand everyone feels a need on some level to belong to a community, they want to feel they are important, or special, or they may have altruistic purposes, or want to better themselves spiritually or in some way, but people really need to be more aware and less trusting. There are some groups that do turn out to be mostly good, decent, helpful, and over time this is proven, but do your research before throwing yourself whole-heartedly into something you don’t know much about, and if you find things that disturb you, don’t hesitate to get out.

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      • Here’s one more thought on it – ask any current Scientologist to read the article about the behavior of the Buddhist Monk Leader, and how he began to abuse his closest followers, how he punched his assistant in the stomach, etc., and if they say “that’s awful” inform them that the leader of the Church of Scientology does the exact same thing. If it’s awful in that group, why should it be accepted in the CofS?

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  36. I would love to attend that event and be able to ask LAPD questions in open mic – such as, how many deaths/suicides in Scientology went unreported? How many pending investigations for rape and child abuse committed within Scientology have been covered up or dismissed? And why is the LAPD doing this? Why is the LAPD ignoring reports of child momestation and physical abuse? Why are the perpetrators allowed to walk free? this list could go on and on. Their face needs to be rubbed in their shit.

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    • And how many 911 hang up calls did they respond to, only to be told by security personnel at the front door that there was no problem? It’s apparently been a known phenomenon in LA with various cult group compounds since the 60s or 70s, and has been reported to be an issue with Scientology properties in Clearwater as well.

      A retired LAPD officer commented here recently, that if he knew then what he knows now, he would have investigated those calls more aggressively.

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  38. What a tough predicament the police are put in.

    Maybe someone ought to write a small pamphlet or booklet, aimed at the police forces, a :

    “Way to Happily Interact with Controversial Groups’ PR/Self-Endorsement Tactics”

    I can’t imagine that there already are some police force regulations or institutional rules which warn the police force to cautious neutral behavior and to not covertly endorse slyly dressed up kook groups.

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  39. On the positive side……. maybe some non-Scientologists who have seen “Aftermath” will come (since it appears to be open to the public) and educate those officers with information they’ve learned on the show. On the negative side……. the police offers might be Scientologists themselves and would put the stops on any conversation.

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  40. WTF?????????????????? Mike the question that continues to go through my mind is….. Why the FUCK aren’t the authorities doing anything about this?????? What’s the difference between this and the Catholic Church? Those disgusting worthless piece of shits priests exposed by the Boston Globe were called out. This makes me sick…. I DON’T UNDERSTAND ???

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    • There was a small blub in our local newspaper about Irish Priests “going after” the Priests who had affairs & fathered children. They want the church to offer these children & women help….let’s see where THAT goes.

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    • What a better way to get the LEOs on their side? Cops on the take won’t actively investigate cases they may be involved in. CoS covering their backsides.

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      • I wish your theory held water but unfortunately it doesn’t. LAPD officers speaking at at a Co$ event does not legally implicate them in any wrongdoing of which the cult could be convicted.

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  42. After the *church” declared my 86 year old mother (cancer survivor) a “suppressive person” (thereby cutting off all contact with all her children and grandchildren) they went after my cousins (Christians-never ins) to disconnect from my mother as well. Let me plain and clear, the church was trying to DESTROY my mother for the “crime” of walking away from Scientology in 1983 and asking for her money back. This attempt was thwarted and the result was 8 other people left the church. I have all of the details of this intentional psychological assault to utterly destroy my elderly mother in a detailed file. If law enforcement (or the media) would be interested in hearing the details of this and many other attacks on families over the past 30 years I would be happy to share the story. Perhaps Commander Jorge Rodriguez or Captain Donald Graham might be interested in knowing what kind of organization the Scientology Corporation (“Church of Spiritual Technology”) really is. (Fanatical, brutal, insane and opportunistic criminals.)

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    • Keep it in a safe place, now that KNOW you have the documentation it can hang them out to dry when this all goes to court….Just some unsolicited advice……

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    • Doug, no one is going to inform the police of the treatment if your family won’t. I’d strongly suggest you write a letter, restricted to one or two pages, with specific information and details, and forward it to the two officers requesting they limit their association with Scientology and a reply. I believe it would get a response and if many public victims of Scientology did the same it would affect the disposition of any non corrupt policeman.

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      • Why has the authorities not investigated into this ? / It appears proof of disconnection and that is denied by the churches lawyer that theirs no disconnection .

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  43. “What scientology is really involved in — outside of their local ‘goodwill PR’ efforts. They should take a little time to do some research before committing to publicly supporting an organization with such a horrendous history of abuses.”

    Right. This is also what I want to say to the Celebrities that speak for the church of scientology – and for that matter, anybody still IN this group.

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    • Maybe by your and others’ relentless exposure, there will be point of critical mass attained that finally makes this kind of endorsement simple no longer sustainable?

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  48. Does anyone know an approximate ratio or comparison versus how often LAPD as opposed to Clearwater PD or SO, participate in these types of safe pointing activities?

    I’d be curious to know, in the 2 largest areas of CoS concentration, how much interaction they have, and what, if any, the difference in participation is?

    I’m aware both departments have officers working ‘specials’ for the CoS events and the like, and Clearwater (with emphasis) has a history of negative community relations.

    Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you as always for all you do Mike.

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  49. “LAPD What Are You Thinking?”

    The LAPD has such a (deservedly) dreadful reputation as a citizen killing, fascist organization that it takes any opportunity to promote a facade of community based, non-violent action.

    The LAPD & Scamology. Two violent, fascist orgs that go great together!

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    • Wynski, here finally is something we both agree on!
      When I was real litttle,my dad and I went to visit one of my aunts in Santa Monica. I was playing with an abandoned shopping cart outside and a cop came along and bawled me out for doing it before shoving the cart aside and walking on. I was, like, six years old at the time.
      The way I see it, LAPD =SS.

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  51. Morning mike – sorry 2 hear police aren’t taking peoples accounts of abusive seriously. I’d focus on the child abuse as much as possible & children signing billion (laughable) year contracts – not binding if signed by a child – keep on truckin alot of people stand with u & all who have suffered in this cult….

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  52. Agreed, anyone can Google the LRH family history, not a clean past, in fact one of the worst I have ever experienced.

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