When a public official fails to do their homework, it can be entertaining.
When the homework should involve some research into Scientology, it's hard to feel sorry for the sucker who chose to listen to the nice man from the UFO cult.
This is the story of one such outrageous association, involving Scientology, the county's Network For A Hate Free Community, and the gaggle of citizen activists loosely known as Anonymous.
Before you read this, I recommend you visit my diaries and read the pieces on Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone and the account of Albuquerque and Second Chance. These things are what happens when Scientology gets its tentacles into local government. Stone sponsored Ordinance 884 at the behest of the Scientologists, who gave him a booklet cataloging a whole array of allegations against the collective of online activists known as Anonymous. Despite being repeatedly corrected, Stone has doggedly chosen to rely on unsubstantiated accusations alleged by a cult with a long reputation of smearing its enemies.
The Second Chance issue in Albuquerque was fairly amusing. This cult front group uses the same fraudulent detox treatment found in Scientology's anti-drug rehab, Narconon. Somehow, this group secured the lease of an unused jail facility for the program, which was funded by public money.
Amusingly, the Second Chance staff slithered out around midnight one night. A TV crew was present, thanks to a tipoff. Second Chance left town, leaving staff unpaid and owing the city thousands of dollars. Some large appliances belonging to the facility disappeared with the Second Chance roadshow.
Speaking of public money, there's not a lot of it available in California at the moment. States, counties and cities are all in budget crises. Many little county offices might feel pressured to justify their expense and existence, which has led up to a problem one county official might regret tackling.
Ms. Delorme McKee-Stovall is head of the Network For A Hate-Free Community, one of the marginal offices Santa Clara County might decide to cut out of the budget. So it must've seemed like Christmas and Halloween all rolled together when she was approached by Scientologist John Allender of the San Jose Scientology organization. He somehow, despite all the information available about Scientology abuses, convinced her that his "church" is the target of internet terrorists. Suddenly, a purpose for her existence has presented itself! Ms. Stovall is a lucky little bureaucrat indeed! And, because Mr. Allender is such a nice man in a nice suit representing a religion, she doesn't bother to spend one second researching the project she's about to plummet into.
Ever vigilant, Anonymous first heard of this project from an email leaked from John Allender, sent out to all South Bay Scientologists.
Mr. Allender says, "After months of negotiations with the County of Santa Clara the County has agreed to once again publish a flier to brief the community on the hate group known as Anonymous. The flier will include a list of Anonymous’s crimes against our churches in Santa Clara County (which is long) and a brief description of law enforcement's investigations into their illegal activities and the convictions secured against them nationally...
I am asking you to volunteer 2 to 3 hours of your time on Saturday morning Feb 13th at either the Los Gatos Church or the Mountain View Church, you will be given an ID card that names you as a county employee and for those few hours you will be a county employee going door to door (in pairs) talking to residents to enlighten them about the danger of allowing this group (Anonymous) to continue to operate in their community. You won’t be going as a member of any religion but only as a concerned member of the community."
Investigation into this matter revealed it to be genuine. Anonymous met with Ms. McKee-Stovall last week. She continues to maintain that the information on the flier was correct, refuses to listen to the many documented abuses and criminal acts in Scientology's history, or the recent stories from those who are newly out and speaking. She also denied that Scientologists would be provided with county ID badges for the day.
During this meeting, Ms. Stovall made an unusual proposal; her group would not distribute fliers throughout neighborhoods...IF Anonymous would agree to cancel their monthly global picket in San Jose.
We subsequently received copies of the flier.
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Clearly, this is the product of organized Scientology; full of unsubstantiated and extraordinary accusations ranging from cutting gas lines, vandalism, and blowing up an elementary school bus. The flier goes on to accuse one of the San Jose Anonymous of being arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, and for carrying a weapon to a picket.
This accusation is false. The individual was arrested during a picket outside the San Jose org, based on false information given to the police by Scientology. He was released, and is considering action against the San Jose police officers.
There are no police reports to support these accusations of vandalism and terrorism. Strangely, Ms. Stovall failed to do even a cursory investigation, or she would have discovered this. She would have also gotten a clue that she was being lied to by a Scientologist. Scientology is probably the only religion in the world that drills members until they are skilled at the art of lying.
This information is also widely available online.
However, Ms. Stovall chose to ignore the recent conviction of the Scientology organization in France for fraud and medical malpractice.
She chose to ignore the fact that the President of the American Psychiatric Association referred to Scientology's anti-psych front group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, as a hate group.
She chose to ignore the fact that lawsuits are moving through Federal court, naming the top corporate entities in Scientology as well as executives as defendants. There are multiple charges; human trafficking, child labor, coerced abortions, slave wages. Three ex-members who spent decades working for Scientology for .36 cents a day are seeking compensation for their years of labor.
Yes, the head of the Santa Clara County Network Against Hate is doing the dirty work given her by an organization convicted of fraud, convicted of domestic espionage, and accused of slavery. She is attacking concerned citizen activists who protest these human rights abuses.
Many of us feel that her negligence should cost her her job. She used public money to print outrageous, unsubstantiated lies provided her by the friendly people of Scientology.
The choices she's made so far:
Funding the publication of a flier intended to foster hatred and hostility against people who demonstrate against Scientology's abuses and criminal behavior.
Published these fliers on her office's stationary.
Falsely accused an Anonymous protester of serious crimes by relying on Scientology's black PR.
Crossed the line between church and state. The sole target of this flier, people who protest Scientology.
Tried to extort protesters with a quid pro quo offer, "We won't hand out fliers if you don't picket."
I believe there are First Amendment issues here as well.
Wasted public money on this monstrous alliance between a hate group, (Scientology) and an anti-hate group, Ms. Stovall's Network.
Ironically, the hate group conned the anti hate group into handing out hate literature against citizen activists protesting the abuses of the hate group!
Amusingly, the stationery used by Ms. Stovall featured a link to a dead website. Anonymous quickly took advantage of that mistake. The link now redirects to an Anonymous website explaining the reasons behind the flier.