Anonymous and the Police

Seeing the police video from Atlanta that sparked it all, to the latest fiasco with the Orlando PD just made my blood boil. It's police like that that give all officers everywhere a bad name.

On that note, I just wanted to post a general thank you to any cops that are reading this that AREN'T like your brethren in Orlando, and a reminder to everyone who had a smooth protest to contact their local police department. I think that the PDs that are out there protecting our rights should be recieving as many emails, letters, and calls as those who we have problems with. Being a cop is a rather thankless job and from having a few friends who are police officers, getting a phone call or a recommendation can make all the difference in the world.

In San Diego, we have a fantastic relationship with the police, and no small part of that has to do with our own xenubarb, who has worked with them when Scientology tried to fairgame her and exposed to the department what a steaming crock the CoS is.

The SDPD has told us that we're the best behaved protesters they've ever seen (considering the anti-war and anti-immigration rallies that happen around here) and certainly the most amusing - I don't think there's a single cop that's been assigned to one of our protests that hadn't at least cracked a smile, and some of them getting into full on laughter and having a good time. Nearly all of them take our flyers and are more than willing to have a talk with an anon or two.

On FairGameStop, something happened. We had invited the police to appear and for one of the officers to give the safety speech and lay out the rules. They were informed several times, but nobody showed up. While this would normally be a bad thing, given the context as to how smoothly our other events have gone, this meant only good things:

They trusted us to not cause trouble.

They trusted us to keep ourselves in line.

They trusted us to know the rules and protest peacefully.

They aren't buying in to the black PR about Anonymous.

The cops finally showed only after the CoS called them - after a few minutes speaking with the two officers that showed up, they basically wanted to make sure we had things under control and weren't blocking the sidewalk or being obnoxious. Basically, "You seem to know the rules, follow them and enjoy yourselfs!" And the cops went on their way, much to the dismay of the CoS who were staring like vultures to try and see if anyone was going into the back of a cop car.

The same thing happened again at the end of the raid when we went back to the CoS for some more enturbulation. This time, the cops wanted to stay - wether it was to keep us from pulling any shennanigans (which we weren't) or to keep the Scilons from making false phone calls, I do not know. They stayed while we were breaking up the protest.

Along that vein, I decided to write a long email to our local police department and the point of contact I had. Feel free to copypasta this, edit it, and send it to your own police department to thank them for a job well done.

I cannot even begin to say how much letters like this "upstat" Anonymous. At least as many of these need to be sent to the local PDs as the one or two douchebag PDs get complaints.

Mr. Rohowits:

I would like to thank you and the SDPD on behalf of our group, Anonymous. We held our fourth worldwide protest against the Church of Scientology on Saturday the 10th. While I wasn't personally able to contact the SDPD this time there were a few other members who were.

The first time we interacted with your officers was in front of the Church of Scientology building at around 11:45ish. Apparently the Church called claiming we were harassing them and I spoke to the two officers personally. They just wanted to make sure we were following the rules and playing nice, which we were, and went over the timetable for the protest. I shook their hands and they went on their way.

The second time we encountered your officers was when we went back to the Church to finish up the protest around 3:00pm. The Scientologists had called again as they had in the morning, and once again, two officers responded and spoke to us. They decided to stay on site since we only had another 30 minutes left at the protest anyway. A few of us stayed behind and cleaned up the protest area and we had all cleared out by 4:00pm.

I do not have their names or badge numbers, but if you can, please let those four officers know that we greatly appreciate their presence, and wish to thank them and the department as a whole for protecting our right to free speech and freedom of assembly.

We will be holding our next major event on the 14th of June in the same place. We would like to invite your presence, at least in the initial hour or so of the protest, as unfortunately we are fairly certain that the Scientologists will be calling with false information as they have at all 120 of our global protest locations.

We're also planning some smaller events in various areas of the city maily consisting of handing out flyers. We don't have anything concrete in the works at the moment but will notify you whenever we plan on having a smaller spur-of-the-moment event.

Do you still wish to be our point of contact for this information or should I CC these plans to anyone else in the SDPD?

Once again, a large thanks to you, to those officers, and everyone on the force as a whole. San Diego is one of America's finest cities and the SDPD undeniably plays a large part of that.

Sincerely,
(insert name here)

Within an hour, I got this response:

Glad to hear that your protest went well, and that my officers were of assistance to you. We certainly take pride in our ability to successfully manage demonstrations on a variety of issues, and while they don't all go smoothly, I'm happy to hear that your group has been satisfied with our presence.

I will continue to be the point of contact, and I typically forward the info you give me onto the appropriate patrol sergeant.

Take care,

David Rohowits

A little bit goes a long way, guys, I couldn't believe the response I got.

All to the point that the police don't even show unless the Scilons call - because they trust us.

WHERE IS YOUR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION NOW?

I agree, thank these protectors of the law. It's easy to think of all cops as evil when you see orlando and dekalb, but as anonymous, we're not so easily enturbulated.

Continue those beautiful protests, let the scifags shoot themselves footbullets so cops distrust them more and more :D

I'd like to take this chance to give a big shout out to the Minneapolis police. They've been nothing but friendly and awesome through all our protests. I hope they enjoyed our thank you card.

Originally Posted by Erra

I'd like to take this chance to give a big shout out to the Minneapolis police. They've been nothing but friendly and awesome through all our protests. I hope they enjoyed our thank you card.

Thats a good idea! I think during Sea Arrrrgh we should have a big card that people can sign - "anonymous", of course Then we can give to to the SDPD.

This is a very good idea. The Police generally don't get thanked for doing their job yet get totally harassed when doing slight mistakes.

I've seen most of the protest videos and some of them really are amazing, and usually from a European perspective we get a negative look at American cops. However it was not the case with most of the ones watching over the protests

Minnfags are always careful to make sure that our PD, the Starbucks, and the Mexican joint we tend to eat at always get Thank You cards. Our PD also have been really good about making sure that we have information that we need to insure that we stay on their good side. I love the idea of a follow up email and will begin this process now. I want the PD to know that we appreciate our good relationship. Thank you for starting this thread!

My observation thus far has been that the Toronto Police have been seriously awesome and have done a great job respecting our Charter rights to peaceful protest, at the same time creating a climate of zero tolerance for vandalism, violence, or harassment. They have not taken sides but have done their job to enforce the law and maintain peace and order. Hopefully this will continue.

The closing line, "Take care," speaks volumes about what David Rohowits knows of the situation. This appears to be made of win and caek.

I gotta say, this is part of where you guys are getting your support over time. Speaking for myself, I only really became aware of anonymous and the protests right after the April protests.

Youtube was how I became aware. Frankly, what really got my attention was that infamous TC vid with him saluting that wanna be, DM and that massive Hitler like painting of LRH. History has shown us many “orgs” who expected members to genuflect to pictures of the “supreme leader” and had those paintings in every room or office. None of them have come to any good, and some still torture people today.

Yet, what really got me interested enough to actually have anything to say, was comparing the two groups at hand, Scientology Inc. and anonymous.

I will tell you that my youthful background was heavy with military, security, and emergency services. I am familiar with investigative technique, with sorting opinion from fact, with sorting opinions to lead you to facts. You’ll notice that “truth” had no place in that list.

So my interest was piqued. I set about educating myself about the issues at hand. I am horrified. I am disgusted. I, who view so many protesters as shrill psychos, came to this board to speak up and offer any small suggestions I can manage in hopes that maybe it will help or make a difference. For this, it is very much worth it.

Part of what helped me determine what was “what”, was the nature of the two groups themselves. At first glance, anonymous may seem a bit shady to the average person on the street. When one looks deeper into events that have transpired, as opposed to claims of what may or may not have happened, one quickly finds out how each group has actually behaved. I don’t need to compare here. Everyone here knows what has been going on. My conclusions are obvious by my presence on this board, collecting contact emails for media, government agencies, other activist groups with similar interests, and making any suggestions I can think of.

I am very pleased to see some US Fox stations are finally picking up the freewinds story. Did my list of media emails help? Did the emails I sent using that list help? Did anyone else do it too? Unimportant! The word is finally getting out to the mainstream. That’s all that matters. Obviously there are so many people here doing things on there own, making whatever contributions they can think of.

The first time I posted a suggestion, another poster told me that it was nice, but did I already do it? Was I asking for permission? Do, then report so others can follow the example, he said. I saw his point immediately and it is part of why I think the anonymous effort is so unique and special. An amorphous collective and individual effort that I think is historic by nature. But back to my original point….

The subject of this thread is exactly part of what brought me to some of my conclusions about anonymous. Keep being the good guys on this. You guys work with the police, they try to use and manipulate them. This is part of what differentiate anonymous from the totalitarian freaks that we all rail against. One of many differences. It’s part of how non-combatants know which way to run, which group to trust.

KEEP IT UP! You are winning! Like many similar groups, their greatest enemy is exposure, sunlight! They cannot exist in an open environment. They would not be able to recruit if everyone knew what the program was about ahead of time. Knowledge and education are Scientology’s enemies. It’s just a matter of time.

Giving credit where credit is due:

San Francisco PD have been absolutely stellar. We've got a great working relationship with them and they've bent over backwards to ensure good communications and really peaceful, zero-drama protests.

At our first protest, there were a half-dozen cop cars, a supervisor, and maybe 10-12 cops. At the last protest, they rolled in about a half-hour after it started... with two officers. Clearly, they get that our protests aren't going to be an issue for them.

Communications is the key though. Be in touch early and often with your local PD when planning protests. Build a relationship. Talk to them while they're at the protest as well. It humanizes both sides and works wonders. Same goes for shop owners and building management that might be affected by your presence.

I spoke with two police officers in LA. Both of them asked questions and one, in particular, asked a LOT of questions. They seemed sincerely interested in wanting to know what we were protesting against. They were definitely not pro-Scilon.

I've only been to two protests, but DC police, from what I have seen, are professionally neutral and overall great to work with.

We had problems with our permit the last time, but they, though a bit strict, was understanding, helpful, and unaggressive. Overall, they're awesome.

I haven't had any communication with the Vancouver PD, but the Translink security people have been completely awesome in Vancouver. When we to one of the Skytrain stations, they gather around to make sure we don't cause any trouble, but they usually seem more curious than anything. Several ask questions and they are all VERY friendly. I was really impressed; I know that I wouldn't be that nice if close to 100 masked loons marched into my place of work.

Oh yeah, at least one security guy got a bunch of fliers from us. He was awesome. They let us keep our masks on, and that time they even held the Skytrain for us so we could all get on at the same time.

I have only been to two protests in NYC--and from what I can see, the police are politely neutral (professional). Though I did at both protests, have interesting conversations with individual cops who were assigned sentry duty. They seemed to appreciate it, as I am sure that it made the time pass more pleasantly. And they were genuinely interested, though always careful not to express a personal opinion.

Originally Posted by gf1570

Frankly, what really got my attention was that infamous TC vid with him saluting that wanna be, DM and that massive Hitler like painting of LRH.

Godwin's Law evoked in 9 posts?

Tch, you're slipping, Anonymous.

In Tucson, police are our friends. We don't bug them, and they don't bug us.

I really like the way the C-Bus cops are with us. We had a sitdown meeting
with them in March (a sarge, two detectives, patrol lieutenant & five err, four
anons) where we told 'em what we were all about, asked what the rules of the game were, etc.

At the May protest, they let us write in sidewalk chal