This morning a woman who has just gotten out of Scientology, Tory Bezazian, decided she wanted to picket in front of the Fort Harrison Hotel. No one at the Lisa McPherson Trust told her to do this. She was in Scientology for thirty years and was subjected to many violations of her First Amendment Rights while she was a member of Scientology. She has never picketed in Clearwater before, but this morning she decided she wanted to exercise her Constitutional rights by doing a peaceful picket.

We called the Clearwater police to alert them that she was going to picket. We always alert the police because they have asked us to do so. Jeff Jacobsen went with her because I insisted that she not go alone. They were gone about a half hour and then came back. Tory was happy about having been able to express her feelings about Scientology’s abuse by picketing.

A few minutes after Tory and Jeff returned to the office, Mary DeMoss and two male Scientologists barged into our reception room screaming harassive comments at all of us. Particularly Mary DeMoss ‘was extremely abusive. I told the receptionist to call the police, because I asked the three Scientologists to leave repeatedly and they refused to leave the premises. Finally I got them to leave by pushing them out the door. They continued to scream abusively outside our door, while I spoke to a woman at the police department and she told me she would send a police officer.

A few minutes later the Scientologists left, and a few minutes after that the two police officers arrived. The two officers were Connelly and Conyers. Officer Connelly was extremely rude and antagonistic to me from the moment I began to speak to him about what had happened. I asked if he would like to see the video of the Scientologists screaming in our reception room. Immediately Officer Connelly snapped at me, very hostilely, “No, I don’t want to see it.”

He was so hostile that I then said, “Are you willing to help us?” Officer Connelly replied that he would not help us. Then he said, accusingly, “Didn’t you people just have someone down at 210 S. Fort Harrison?” I replied that they had been doing a peaceful picket. Then Officer Connelly said, “Oh, so are we going to get into a tit for tat now?” His tone was extremely abusive and I then said to him, “If you are going to have such a hostile attitude toward me then I want a different police officer to talk to.”

Officer Connelly then said, “Fine, get another cop.” Then he and his partner began to walk out of the building. I called after him asking if he had a card. He said no but gave me his name. His partner also told me his name.

This interchange with Officer Donnelly left me feeling that the Clearwater Police department thinks the Lisa McPherson Trust deserves whatever Scientology wants to do to US as a “tit for tat” because we are picketing. Peaceful picketing is our right as citizens of the United States. The Clearwater Police obviously do not feel that we have a right to picket.