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Scientology critics present
Keith Henson as a free speech
activist ruthlessly harassed and jailed by the evil Church of Scientology for speaking
his mind. In 2001, Henson was convicted for "interfering with
a religion", a
hate crime under section 422.6 of the California Penal Code. Critics claim
this conviction was a gross miscarriage of justice because the reason he
was found guilty was for making threats through Usenet posts and for peacefully
carrying a protest sign.
There are several myths here that need debunking.
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The main reason Henson was convicted was not as much due to his
Usenet posts as it was for actively stalking Scientologists on the field.
In fact, the charge of making threat to bomb Scientologists wasn't
even retained by the jury.
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Henson didn't just "carry a sign".
He followed CoS members from their work place to their home, wrote down their
address which was then used by Arnie Lerma to send them unwanted mail, took
their pictures, wrote down their plate numbers, followed them with signs
accusing them of killing their own companions who died in a tragic accident, etc. In other words, he was actively stalking
Scientologists for no better reasons than the fact they were
Scientologists.
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I
wouldn't exactly call someone who, like Henson, openly supports the forcible incarceration and
forcible "treatment" of
cult members a "free speech activist". Keith Henson has no problem
either with the proposition to picket schools of Scientology children with insulting
signs about their parent's religion, and a fellow dissident critic also
complained that Henson had stalked
him. As for his own daughter, she put up a web page vehemently accusing
Henson to be a serial child
molester. All in all a rather sick character and my personal impression
of him through web forum was indeed that he was an attention freak who most
of the time expressed himself through innuendoes.
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Critics who now rant about Henson "free speech" have
demonstrated in my eyes that they are not able to abide by the main tenets of free speech
themselves. On their IRC channel, they have effectively
banned dissenters like
Diane Richardson, lex, or myself, using the same kind of false "rationale" that was
used in the Soviet USSR - "we are not banning dissenting opinion, only
unacceptable behavior". Many of them also support discriminative measures
taken by the German and French government against cults.
After his conviction on April 26, 2001, Henson flew to
Canada where his request for asylum as a refugee of religious persecution
was denied in 2004. He left the country in September 2005 and lived as a
fugitive in Arizona until his arrested on February 2007.
As to the actual time Henson was finally sentenced
and how much of it he made, I could not find reliable information at the
time of this writing (Feb 24, 2008). As far as I know he should have been
sentenced to six months following his conviction, and six months for evading
justice. The Wikipedia
page on Henson (obviously written by critics as it completely eludes the
actual causes for which he was convicted) states that on August 11, 2007, Henson was jailed in
California and released in early September 2007. However they provide no
reference whatsoever to substantiate this last statement nor why he benefited
from such an early release.
Even worst, the link they provide to
substantiate the statement that he was jailed on August 11 is a July 7, 2007
article (!) claiming that he already purged two months of his sentence! This
article also says that on that date he petitioned California Governor's office for
pardon, though there is no subsequent news as to the result of this
petition. The other Henson-dedicated websites I checked, hitherto so vocal
in relating all the details about his dealing with the justice, had no
information at all on these questions, something I found odd.
The latest
news we have is from his daughter, who on her page made in January 2008
claims that "Keith eventually served his trivial prison sentence and is
now out on probation and back in the science fiction/electronic
freedom/hacker scene" - the reason by the way she put up that web page,
because, being in the same field, she wants
nothing to do with him.
Back in 2001, there was a very long debate in the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup in which critics
tried to justify Henson's arrest through a
variety of twisted rationales. The facts brought up by Diane Richardson to
correct these distortions gives a good idea as to why exactly Henson was
convicted.
Here is the post that triggered that debate:
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On Sat, 21 Jul 2001 03:00:45 -0700, Ted
Mayett
<ted-mayett@skylink.net> wrote:
[snip]
>The essence of this
case is 'violence', and in that I honestly do not believe you are
guilty. This court case of yours could very well make all kinds of
headlines and make for new laws or the changing of existing laws.
Good luck sir.
No, the essence of this case -- which so
many self-described critics
refuse to acknowledge -- is that Henson stalked scientologists,
following them to their residences, copying their license plate
numbers, taking their photographs, etc.
Critics seem to be genuinely eager to
push the "terrorism" charge,
of which Keith Henson was not convicted. He was convicted
for interfering with the rights of individuals to practice their
religion.
Of course, it's so much sexier and
attention-grabbing to lie
and claim Henson fled from manufactured charges of terrorism,
but he's a fugitive because he chose to harrass
individuals whose only crime was belonging to the CoS.
What's happened to the critics? I thought
the consensus opinion
was the the organization of the CoS was fair game, but individual
Scientologists didn't deserve to be harrassed.
It now looks like anything a
self-proclaimed critic does to
anyone who dares to identify himself as a scientologist will
not only be defended but applauded on a.r.s.
Fair game comes full circle.
Diane Richardson
referen@bway.net |
Here are a couple of significant posts from this
thread:
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On Sun, 22 Jul 2001 23:52:05 +0800,
cdm@northwestern.edu (Colette
Marine) wrote:
>In article
<tln984hhmek278@corp.supernews.com>, gun_bunny_@hotmail.com
wrote:
>> Remember he
told the police he did and wrote things to make Scientologists
paranoid, so that by itself is what this law addresses in the
first place.
>If I find a
hypothetical group of people who are totally freaked out by me
wearing a purple t-shirt, is it illegal for me to wear a purple
t-shirt?
No, but if you want to talk about
hypothetical situations,
try this one.
Say you wore that purple t-shit to picket
an abortion clinic,
carrying a fetus in a bottle and carrying a sign saying "BABY
KILLERS"
Say that because you couldn't get any
reaction picketing
the clinic's boundary, you decided to begin following all
the people who came out of the abortion clinic to their
homes -- all the time wearing your purple t-shit, carrying
the fetus in formaldehyde, waving your "BABY KILLERS"
sign, and shouting "ABORTION KILLS" at them.
Say after you followed the people all the
way back to
their homes, you copied down the names and addresses
on their mailboxes. Say you handed those names and
addresses to a colleague, who printed up postcards
saying "YOU ARE A MURDERER. STOP KIILLING
BABIES. WE ARE WATCHING YOU AND WANT TO
HELP YOU ESCAPE."
>Does it become
illegal if I find their behavior amusing and comment on how
incredibly powerful my t-shirt apparently makes me?
No, it makes you a fanatic wearing a
purple t-shirt, holding
a fetus in a jar, waving a "BABY KILLERS" sign and shouting
at people who don't want to see or hear you.
You cross over the line when you stop
picketing, get in
your car, and follow people coming out of the abortion
clinic to their homes.
You *really* cross that line when you
copy down names
and addresses, snap pictures, copy license plate numbers,
etc.
[snip]
>There must be some
standard of *reasonable* threat. I don't believe that was met here
by a longshot.
That threat was met when Henson stopped
picketing
and began following buses. It was met when he began
copying names and addresses from mailboxes.
That's not informational picketing.
That's not protected free
speech. That's harrassment.
Diane Richardson
referen@bway.net |
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On Sat, 21 Jul 2001 08:02:29 -0700,
demystify@freedom.net wrote:
>On Sat, 21 Jul 2001
14:08:28 GMT, referen@bway.net (Diane Richardson) wrote:
>>No, the
essence of this case -- which so many self-described critics
refuse to acknowledge -- is that Henson stalked scientologists,
following them to their residences, copying their license plate
numbers, taking their photographs, etc.
>Do you take the
same stand regarding Scientologists® who follow critics to their
residences?
Indeed I do -- and I have expressed my
outrage at such behavior
numerous times.
>In Keith's case, he
took license numbers of people who were following him, stalking him
24 hours a day, mostly to identify the stalkers and to try to insure
that they were not breaking the law. After he started taking down
plate numbers of the stalkers, they started running new vehicles
without plates in order to try to hide illegal stalking.
Sorry, but that's not what I understand
occurred. Henson followed
buses from Golden Era to apartments in Hemet, copied down license
plate numbers of cars parked at the apartment building, and verbally
harrassed the people getting of the bus.
I don't believe I've ever seen anyone
claim that Golden Era Studios
employees were stalking Keith Henson.
>The
"residences" he drove past were locked and guarded
compounds where Scientologists® are kept from leaving.
Again, you are speaking from ignorance.
Henson followed buses
full of Golden Era Studio employees from the compound to an
apartment building in the town of Hemet. I've never heard anyone
claim that building was a "locked and guarded compound." Do
you have anything to support your claim?
>Is that a case of
"stalking residences", or of determining the level of
control the cult takes to victimize their members?
It is a case of stalking employees of
Golden Era Studios and
harrassing them at their residences, the same behavior we used
to condemn when it was done by scientologists against picketers.
>Checking out a cult
owned compound
What "locked and guarded cult owned
compound" are you
talking about?
>is somewhat
different than posting stalkers in a residential neighborhood and
then using that to try to get Ida thrown out of her home by
terrorizing the neighbors.
As I see it, Keith Henson's behavior was
the same as that done
by CoS private investigators. I condemn the behavior of both.
Why are you willing to condemn such behavior when done by
the CoS but defend such behavior when engaged in by Keith
Henson?
>How do you feel
about "taking pictures" of people? Is taking pictures of
someone who is stalking you at your home different than taking
hundreds of pictures of a citizen wherever he goes?
It is my understanding he took
photographs of Golden Era Studio
workers exiting the bus and entering their homes. Is this incorrect?
>>Critics seem
to be genuinely eager to push the "terrorism" charge, of
which Keith Henson was not convicted. He was convicted for
interfering with the rights of individuals to practice their
religion.
>The cult is calling
it "terrorism". Do you feel that they are correct in this
charge?
No. I think a better description of Keith
Henson's behavior
is "harrassment of individuals solely because of their religious
affiliation."
>>Of course,
it's so much sexier and attention-grabbing to lie and claim
Henson fled from manufactured charges of terrorism, but he's a
fugitive because he chose to harrass individuals whose only crime
was belonging to the CoS.
>Where do you find,
in the record, that Keith harassed ANY individuals?
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I was out there at about
7:25 this morning. One of the buses was
going into town and since I had a car they had not seen
before, I
followed the bus. I was hoping to find yet another bed of clams,
but no luck. I think they are concentrated in the apartments on
Fruitvale
and the one which looks like a medium security prison on
Kirby. (Why
care? Address for the mail campaign.)
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After a cold drink at a
local entheta center (Jack in the Box) we were
headed back to Ida's, going back through the cult compound and
down
Sanderson. But Brent wanted to see the cult apartments, so we
turned
around. That happened to put us behind one of the cult buses.
I told
Brent they would turn either east or west at Menlo because the
apartments are to the east and west of State Street. They
realized we
were behind them because the bus didn't turn and went all the
way to
Florida (Hwy 74) before turning to the west. I think we got
more PIs
who were in a new black pickup. The bus started to turn up
Kirby
(where the cult apartments are which look like a medium
security
prison) but the turn signal went off and the bus went on down
to
Sanderson and then turned north. We were mainly going
somewhere else,
so we continued to down Florida. Later I took Brent by both
sets of
apartments, the one on Kirby twice. When we went by the Kirby
apartments the second time, the same bus was loading parked
over on
Menlo pointed back toward the cult compound. I don't know
what to make of this, since the bus normally loads inside the
gates.
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This morning I got out
there before 7am. I was not early enough to
follow the buses back to the two clam apartments, but all four
went by
my picket signs within a ten minute period close to 7 am.
The buses make another
run after this. I followed one of them over to
the apartments on Kirby and found one at the Fruitvale
Apartment as
well. The first one tried to shake me off, hard to do in a
bus, and
stopped for a while at a gas station to call. They sure are
paranoid.
The Fruitvale apartments have a security guy playing hide and
seek in
the bushes with a radio. I offered him an OT3/Xenu flyer. It
was
somewhat like offering garlic to a vampire, but I could tell
there was
a certain degree of fascination--because otherwise he would
never find
out what OT3 was all about. Ah well, there are several Xenu
flyers
inside gold base, perhaps he will see one.
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After one pass to the
east end of the complex, I stayed near the west
end where the buses are parked. 5 pm and no movement, 5:30,
still
there, 6, 6:30, thug 2 gave up at 6:45 and Richardson followed
5
minutes later. 7 pm and the buses had not moved. Finally pity
for
those who had been there since 7 am got to me. (Though they
might
have moved them back to the apartments in the small vans.)
I think by preventing
buses from operating this afternoon I equaled
(but did not exceed) Bruce Pettycrew's SP powerz of hardening
concrete
in a wheelbarrow.
I have a hard time
*imagining* what it must be like inside the cult's
compound. The dwarf must be spitting fire in all directions at
the
complete mess *one* wog is causing. Of course, I have to give
credit
where credit is due to (*) for acting like a madman.
Sweet paranoid dreams
Davie.
Keith Henson,
Reporting from the Hemet front.
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Ok. I am more than
willing to demonstrate the effect I have on gold
base. You stand on the west overpass and just watch how the
foot
traffic under the road stops when I am any place close on the
road.
Or watch a van back up
wildly from the west gate if I show up.
> So what if two
people or five people come out to talk to him?
Heck, for almost two
weeks nobody would say boo. Then they brought
out two thugs.
> Does that mean >
he has enturbulated the whole place? NO! It means 2 people are out talking with him, if that is true.
You have to go from one
side of the complex to the other. You either
have to ride a van or get clearence to go under the road from
some
dude who knows where I am. It is *nuts*.
You should see what
happens when I go to watch them load the buses.
The bus just sits there.
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Another example is their
fear of me following, or even just driving
behind their buses when traveling to the same place. They have
pulled
off the road to prevent me from following the buses to their
two well
known appartment locations in Hemet. (Kirby and Fruitvale.)
Again, I
suppose when you worry about being invaded from space, fearing
that
someone will force a bus off the road with an economy car is a
downright reasonable fear.
Still, this is going to
be an interesting arguement for the DA to put
on the record before the whole world. The message will not be
lost on
the net, join scientology and become mentally damaged.
Keith Henson
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>On the other hand,
is there any indication that the cult singled out Keith as an individual to harass?
Indeed, there's quite a bit of
information indicating they've singled
Henson out as an individual to harrass. I don't believe that gives
Keith Henson the right to harrass others.
>>What's
happened to the critics? I thought the consensus opinion was the
the organization of the CoS was fair game, but individual
Scientologists didn't deserve to be harrassed.
>Where did Keith
harass and individual Scientologist® (other than taking pictures of
the ones who stalked HIM at his home or at places he was staying)?
The people who complained in court about him were people he had
never even heard of, complaining that they were afraid that he was
going to "throw bombs" over the fence at Gold, while at
the same time, they never took the "threat" seriously
enough to even have his car checked for the "bombs" he was
supposedly carrying.
I suspect these were the people Henson
was harrassing by regularly
stalking them from workplace to home. As you've stated above, none
of these individuals had done *anything* to Henson, yet Henson was
stalking them on an almost daily basis last summer.
>The only thing he
"did" to them was to carry a sign.
No, he followed them from their workplace
to their homes, reporting
upon his stalking activities regularly on this newsgroup.
>>It now looks
like anything a self-proclaimed critic does to anyone who dares to
identify himself as a scientologist will not only be defended but
applauded on a.r.s.
>>Fair game
comes full circle.
As you can see from his posts excerpted
above, Henson was
expressing his delight and glee at creating anxiety and fear
among Goldern Era Studio employees, none of whom he
knew personally. The only reason he picked out these people
to harrass and intimidate was because of their religious affiliation.
Diane Richardson
referen@bway.net |
Even before this thread, some outsiders were
being drawn in ARS to see what all this Henson business was about. Some of
them very quickly made for themselves an idea when they saw the self-proclaimed "critics" at work:
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I wandered here after reading an article
about a man being harassed by
Scientologists. However, I can sincerely say I do not feel sorry for
him.
Go throw dogs off a roof, and expect PETA to not react. Scientology
has
about as much credibility as Christianity (read: none), however I
don't see
you marching outside your local church. Piss on someone's beliefs, and
expect to get harassed.
The actions of people in here (anti-sci
and pro- alike) are equal to that of
12-year-olds shouting and throwing rocks behind a building. No one
wins,
you're wasting energy, and acting childish in the process. Anyone
here,
that is bickering, has issues. |
The answer to that was probably "we don't
attack beliefs, only behavior", which is a
classical anti-cult line and a lie, as at the end of the day, the kind of
behavior displayed by Keith Henson really amounts to intolerance and ostracism
towards the right of others to believe as they choose - which was the real
point of him being charged by the jury and sentenced by the court.
Related pages:
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