St.
Petersburg Times
December 1, 1999
Scientology
work limits protesters
by Thomas C. Tobin
Ah,
early December in downtown Clearwater.
Light
poles wrapped in red holiday ribbons.
Trees
along Cleveland Street abloom with tiny white lights.
And,
now, a newer tradition: the annual game of cat and mouse between the
Church of Scientology and about two dozen of its most vocal critics, who
for three years have gathered in Clearwater to stage protests on the
anniversary of the Dec. 5, 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson.
Once
again, both sides are trying to outsmart each other.
And
Scientology has struck first. The critics are arriving this week
to find no sidewalks where they traditionally have walked while carrying
anti-Scientology picket signs.
The
church has torn up sidewalks on the north and west sides of its
worldwide "mecca," the Fort Harrison Hotel.
Just
around the corner, it has constructed a 20-foot-high steel scaffold
sheathed in green mesh across the lower facade of the hotel, making
walking there impossible.
It
also has pulled up about 1,000 feet of sidewalk along Drew Street, most
of it in front of its glistening Sandcastle property.
"They'd rather destroy their own property than see criticism,"
said Jeff Jacobsen of Arizona, an organizer of the annual picket.
Not
true, church officials say. They contend the work has been planned for
more than a year as part of a major expansion and improvement program
downtown.
The
old sidewalks, they say, will be replaced with "integrally colored
stamped concrete" that will look and feel like bricks.
Though the public owns the sidewalks, the church has agreed to maintain
them and is paying $500,000 to rebuild them.
The
scaffolding is needed for roof, window and stucco repairs to the Fort
Harrison, according to a city permit. Workers also will drill into
the base of the building to test the load capacity for a skywalk that
someday will connect the Fort Harrison with Scientology's mammoth new
building under construction immediately across the street.
All
that work simply coincides with the arrival of the pickets, said Mike
Rinder, a top church official in town from Los Angeles.
"Sometimes I think they believe the whole world revolves around
them," Rinder said. "They come in for a few days, and
they think whatever happens goes on for them. Then they leave and
Clearwater goes on. I'm surprised they're not saying Christmas is
being held for them."
Jacobsen was wholly unconvinced.
"It's the only hotel in the world that would tear up its sidewalk
in its peak season," he said.
Rinder scoffed. The hotel always is crowded, he said. Peak
is March, early May and summer.
The
pickets will choose another place for their protest, Jacobsen
said. They also plan a conference on "Scientology/Clearwater
Relations" on Saturday at the Holiday Inn on U.S. 19 near
Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard. A candlelight vigil is planned that
evening.
The
events, as in past years, memorialize McPherson, the Scientologist who
died while in the care of church staffers after a 17-day stay at the
Fort Harrison Hotel.
Last
December, just before critics gathered, the church tore up the sidewalk
across the street from the hotel, where the critics had a permit to
protest. But the group trumped the church, getting a second permit
to picket directly in front of the hotel. And when critics also
surprised the church with anti-Scientology advertising on local buses,
church officials countered, persuading the bus system to remove the
signs.
The
previous year, Scientology had responded to planned pickets with a
massive demonstration of its own. An estimated 3,000
Scientologists marched and chanted around police headquarters and the
St. Petersburg Times Clearwater office, protesting what they said was
discrimination against the church.
The
pickets argue they are crusading against an organization that abuses its
members. They say the church tries to deny the critics their First
Amendment rights to voice opposition.
The
church, in turn, portrays the critics as a motley group of hatemongers
with nothing better to do than harass Scientologists. They say the
critics are impinging on their First Amendment right to practice their
religion.
Rinder said church members, as last year, would try to avoid the pickets
this weekend.
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