nobodyyouknow

Wow - two great posts with lots of constructive ideas. THIS is why COS will fall.

My personal opinion is that we have safety in numbers. We absolutely dominated in flyer distribution when we paraded around 4th street, but we sacrificed one-on-one discussion with curious parties.

If I were Dave, I'd recommend we refrain from doing anything that would take us out of sight from each other. When we're in a group, we benefit from each others knowledge and skills greatly, and different people are looking out for different things. For example, the old guy wearing the photographer's vest but using a crappy digital camera. I'm not going to witch-hunt and call him a scieno, but he was taking an awful lot of pictures, he wasn't wearing a mask, and he was specifically looking for distinctive markings. The instance that comes to mind is when he was taking a picture of an Anon, who was holding a flier... and he told the anon to lower the flier so he could get his 'street fighter' sweatshirt. That request seemed odd to me (though not to the anon being photographed), so I called it quits and blocked the shirt logo.

In short - though collective groups on the internet seem to make you stupid, collective groups IRL would appear to make us smarter.

Reasons I would not want to split up:
1. More difficult police monitoring (already mentioned), they may get uncomfortable
2. Breaks up our party atmosphere, lowering morale
3. Makes less of an impact (75 people holding signs and wearing masks, dancing, covering the entire front of Horton is impossible to miss. 4 people in masks looks like a bank robber about to happen)
4. Lessens the number of people around to keep an eye out
5. Lessens our ability to police ourselves (4 people could get into group-think, and think a bad idea is a reasonable one)
6. Risks of being left behind/split up (already mentioned).

Again, if I were Dave, I would probably spread out even less than we were on 3/15. Limiting it to 4 corners seems to be a good approach (even if it's 2 corners of 2 intersections... like covering both 3rd and 4th streets, but not crossing the street.

In my opinion, I think we made a bigger impact with the public while we were at Horton. The Hubbard center gets the minimal of foot traffic, so we're stuck relying on cars driving by, which severely limits how much information we can get across. However, in the spirit of Reconnect, making signs with messages FOR the scientologists is probably really important. I fully agree with the idea of using goldenrod for our messages to them, though that might be difficult to find in posterboard. I'll definitely do what I can to look for it.

I would say that the use of cell phones has an unacceptably high risk of namefagging. I also would prefer we not rely on any leadership structure, as it increases our succeptibility to attack. We still need to operate under the assumption that everyone we don't know is a plant. Using cell phones to communicate, it wouldn't be hard to get a plant into that role, thus 1. exposing everyone's phone numbers, and 2. opening us up to misinformation. How difficult would it be for someone to simply send a message saying "Protest is off. Cops broke it up. Disperse now." If we're all separate, we'll follow the orders. If we're in a close group, and we rely on vocal communication, we will likely be able to SEE if the cops say anything to us (remember how I say we should remain in view of eachother), and we will much more easily be able to disseminate good information, and weed out bad information. Of course, that being said, I fully expect each and every one of you to evaluate every one of my ideas, to make sure they're actually in the best interest of the group. I could be a Scieno. I could be a dumbass. I'm definitely an asshole. I won't take offense to any contrary points (and none of us should) as long as they're made with the intent to make our protest as effective and fun as possible.

Case in point: on Feb 10, we were able to relocate quickly and easily. When we were at horton, and someone decided to move at 3.30 to the hubbard center again, all we had to do was to run around 4 corners and tell people. On 3.15, the same task was a bit more difficult, as I had to run around 8 corners, hitting all of the people in between.

As I write this, I'm thinking things out, and the more I think about it, the more i think we really should try to stay together as much as reasonable. Definitely not more than a block away. I'm questioning whether even spanning more than one intersection would be wise. This doesn't mean that we can't be diffused within that limited space. On Feb 10, we had people on 4 corners, but at each of those locations we had people flyering, people holding signs, and people answering questions. We also spread out quite a bit in the area beneath the NBC building. Keeping ourselves loosely grouped, but within a smaller area (as opposed to sending strike teams around downtown and out of view), will likely make us more approachable, while simultaneously not hurting our ability to communicate quickly and police ourselves.

Other points: I 100% agree with toning down the aggression for this. Our last protest was a birthday party, and we partied. This protest is about reconnecting families, and is a much more serious topic. I definitely don't want to kill the fun and levity, since that makes our day more enjoyable, in addition to bringing attention... but this is definitely a more serious topic.

I agree with and encourage the goldenrod wherever possible, especially when creating signs directed at the scientologists.

I like the idea of print ads, with the caveat that we need to be SURE that the paper doesn't know our name. We need to be able to write the ad, place it, and pay them 100% in cash, and with minimal risk of being in public unmasked. Something makes me think that this might be difficult.
What might be easier, however, is writing to a journalist from CityBeat or the Reader, and telling them about the protests. They might be interested. 50 internetz if you're a college student, and you get your campus paper to do an article (kudos to USD anons for that win).

I still think using a courier service would be bad. At best, they'll just throw it away. At worst, they'll claim it's harassment or they'll arrest the courier... that is, assuming we can find a courier who will deliver something from somebody whose name they don't know. Plus it's expensive.
Any form of direct contact with CoS should be done during the protest, when the cameras are rolling and we're all visible. Doing things in any other way will only result in CoS playing victim... and it could result in a legitimate injunction.

I was personally considering writing a message on cue cards and showing them at the window (ever see Love Actually? Kinda like what that dude does when he's trying to nail his friend's fiance). This way, I can communicate a message to them in a reasonable manner, in a way that is clearly visible on film (and I plan on having SOMEBODY film the process at an angle that shows what my message is... to be sure that they can't say it's a threat.) We know they're watching... we know they're videotaping. Now we can see if they're actually paying attention.
Again, all my votes go against trying to interact with them outside of a very public protest, with police presence. I also plan on making sure the police have seen my cards prior to showing them to the Scieno's, to make sure they agree with it.

What wouldn't be a bad idea, IMO, is if everybody did this. We could, one at a time, walk up to the window and show our message (this MUST be done one at a time, and MUST be filmed. Also, I'd want to clear this idea with the PD beforehand, and clear each message before it is shown.) Having each one of their "masked aggressors" giving a very serious, sincere, and welcoming message could really do a lot to contradict the training that they've received about us. I'm thinking of something like the following:

Dear Scientologists, I know that you've been told that I am a criminal. I know that you probably don't believe me, but today we are here to reconnect you with your family. I do not hate you. I do not think less of you because of your believes. I am here because I am concerned for your well being. I am here because many of your loved ones miss you, and want to talk to you. Please call them. They won't be mad at you for believing what you do. They just want to know that you're okay. They still love you."

Something like that... probably with one sentence per card. That is, IF the PD will be okay with it. If not... I dunno. Maybe I can get enough people to hold up big versions of the cards from across the street.