Results tagged “scientology”

"Will you be celebrating Jim Jones and David Koresh's birthday?" gadfly Arnold Sacks dramatically said during public comment before the City Council voted to approve around $40,000 in fee waivers--meaning the city absorbs the costs of paying overtime for workers to shut streets down--for special events around the city, including $3,000 for a L. Ron Hubbard Birthday Event taking place Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium.

To Matt Cornell, this 15-minute Queer Nativity play is "an act of irreverent defiance against religious and political institutions that would seek to marginalize entire groups and classes of people, effectively leaving them out in the cold."

       

Although some say Scientologists don't believe in Jesus, the controversial church had members singing Christmas carols on Hollywood Blvd. last Friday night. Additionally, that display on Hollywood Blvd. is L. Ron Hubbard's Winter Wonderland. Here's some of what was seen Friday night when anti-Scientology group Anonymous showed up:

The Scientology Center security guard who shot and killed a man wielding two swords, threatening him and others, will not be charged by the district attorney. Investigators and prosecutors both agree that the 64-year-old retired cop from Seal Beach shot in self defense. UCLA alumnus Mario Majorski had been a problem for the church before. On Sunday, November 23rd, he pulled up to the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood parking lot with two swords. The scene was so out of place, that it wasn't. One witness, who saw the incident begin, walked by and into the building not thinking much of it. "I thought it was part of a show," the teenager said. Oh, Hollywood.

       

Sunday's annual Hollywood Santa Parade wasn't that well attended. The LA Times was correct to be skeptical about this year's show: "The parade almost died because of declining attendance, a lack of TV syndication money and a dearth of stars. We'll see how many people show up tonight." One TV news report said 10,000 people attended. That's nearly 40,000 less than last year, albeit 5,000 less than in 2006.

     

Police released the name of the swordsman who was shot dead Sunday afternoon by a security guard at the Scientology Celebrity Centre on Franklin Ave. in Hollywood. Mario Majorski, who was involved in the church, possibly as early as 1990, according to an anti-Scientology website, went to UCLA in 1993 and was a plaintiff in a two suits against UCLA and a school professor.

     

The man who was shot and killed yesterday in a Scientology building parking lot has not been officially identified, but police say he is from Florence, Oregon and was involved with the church "a long time ago."

Over on Ron L Hubbard way at the large Scientology complex in East Hollywood, a videographer was filming on the sidewalk when he was all of the sudden surrounded by three alleged Scientologists with cameras who kept on cornering him. This follows city council action regarding the closure of the street on a weekly basis and a contentious video (below) taken on the street on July 4th, 1999.

Church of Scientology stories are usually left for the internet and are rarely the subject of mainstream media stories. But when two women stood up to City Council last week (video) to tell them what it's like to be a neighbor to the church's L Ron Hubbard Way location during weekly street closures for special events, the Council listened and continued the motion rather than approving it in order to look into the issue a little more in depth. Then CBS2 visited the street in question to check it out for themselves (video below).

At Wednesday's LA City Council meeting, non-Scientologist and resident of L Ron Hubbard Way, Sammi Franklin, and free speech advocate Lisa Derrick stood in the chambers at city hall to explain what it's like to live on a street closed down every weekend of the year.

The Knitting Factory's conditional use permit was challenged last month and if they lost a Conditional Use Permit hearing, they could have been forced to close their doors. Someone at the Scientology building next door allegedly started a petition complaining about the music venue which started this whole matter.

On Thursday, the Hollywood music venue, Knitting Factory, will be at a morning hearing that could revoke the Conditional Use Permit that allows the space to operate. The hearing was prompted by a petition circulated by an employee of the neighboring Scientology building and signed by a total of 31 people, according to a Knitting Factory spokesman. The two complaints listed say that the venue is a nuisance to the community and challenges their adherence to the permit. Rumors are also floating around that there are tensions between the venue and landlord, CIM Group, but the Knitting Factory says they hear the developer may "go at bat" for them.

              

Taking a cue from the themed Writers Strikes (in order to keep the protests fresh and less hackneyed), Anonymous once again took to the streets to protest Scientology this weekend, pirate style (and this time with children in tow). Here's some of what happened in Hollywood on Saturday...

                     

On Saturday May 10th, members of Anonymous took to the streets all over the world in protest of Scientology. Here in Los Angeles, Anonymous staged their gathering at 6331 Hollywood Boulevard at one of the many Scientology buildings in the city.

Update: View photos from the May 10 Protest here

              

LAist Photographer Tom Andrews took to the streets to see what was up with Anonymous. Here is what he saw:

So what DOES Rick Astley think of his accidental role as star of the viral Internet prank that keeps on never giving up?

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I have examined a large file of this picture, and only the blurred-out address appears to be photoshopped. The rest of the poster looks legit. -Tasha

A new website posted this video documenting the alleged actions and threats taken by Anonymous against the Church of Scientology. The site, created two weeks ago, does not explicitly state an affiliation with the CoS but it documents what it alleges are "Religious Hate Crimes and Terrorism Directed at Church of Scientology."

                

-->Today was the second worldwide Anonymous protest organized via March15.org, the Anonymous website dedicated to the founder's birthday, two days prior. A few hundred protestors hit Hollywood Blvd. at L. Ron Hubbard Way in the East Hollywood area. The Scientologist center had a film permit and they were doing some kind of filming. Also their TV billboard was playing inspirational-like videos with Disney-esque music, which provided a creepy soundtrack to the visuals of people protesting in masks.

Update, 3/15/08: Here's a video of the LAPD at the Anonymous event and a photo essay of all the craziness. Also, here's a video from the Anti-War March.

href="http://londonist.com/2008/02/air_bound.php"> remove one man from Gatwick.

Scientology centers around the world were targeted by a mass protest yesterday organized by an anonymous group called, simply enough, "Anonymous". Members refer to themselves only as "Anon" or "Legion". Protests were reported in Boston, Toronto, Europe and Australia.

For background and a photo essay on this protest, see our story from yesterday.

The global day of action was initially announced last month after a video attributed to "Anonymous" coincided with an online effort that managed to temporarily knock out Internet servers belonging to the Church of Scientology.