Scientology: Stompdown in Twangtown

Chanology Protesters Square Off With Scientology Goons at Celebrity Center

From WhyWeProtest forum. Note: This is a breaking story. See forum for up-to-date details.
Saturday, April 25^th, Chanology protesters, an off shoot of Anonymous, went to the Scientology Celebrity Center, in Nashville TN, to protest their grand opening. The following is an account from one of the protesters, Elbynonamous,:

We were walking up 8th Ave to the party. They had a huge stage up in the middle of 8th Ave, and had everything in front of the CoS blocked. There was a "Sidewalk Closed" sign about 500 yards from where we were stopped. There were no signs anywhere else, other than a "Left Lane Closed" sign that we were just in front of.

Security guards swarmed, 3 from directly in front of us, and 2 that ran across the street. They said "Take off your masks or we'll take them off for you". They said we needed to "take our asses out of here".


I asked the female guard, "Is this not a public sidewalk?" She said no, that they had purchased the sidewalks for the day and that we needed to leave. I replied that there weren't any signs. She started screaming that we needed to get the fuck out, so we turned to leave.

As Anon 44 turned to leave, they came at him from behind, sideswiped his legs, and threw him to the ground. As they pinned him to ground, they screamed at him that he needed to leave. He said over and over, "I'm willing to leave! I'm trying to leave!" and they still screamed that he needed to leave.

Note we were STILL about 500 yards from the first "sidewalk closed" sign. I called 911, it took them over 30 minutes to send an officer out. BY that point, we had 44 back, bruised and scraped. When he was walking away, he actually skipped back to us. ROFL.

He was cited with a Misdemeanor for "Aggravated Criminal Trespassing". The cop that showed up 30 minutes after the 911 call refused me a police report. He was very rude.

Added in an edit later: Their sidewalk permits did not extend to where we were. They also were not booked on the day we were there; they expired on the 24th.
They also cited him wrong on the actual citation: they said he trespassed onto Olympic, but the only time he actually crossed Olympic is when THEY took him there. In handcuffs.

This is not the first time Scientology has employed these type tactics when it comes to protesters in high profile locations. Just this week, charges were dropped against Mark Bunker and Doug Owens. They were arrested in a protest in Hemet, CA outside the gates of Golden Era Studios (Scientology's international headquarters). Bunker says: "Seems there really was no reason to put us under citizen’s arrest, except as a PR move...".