I attended the Christmas Parade this year which really peeved the Scientology staff when I chose to watch it in front of the HGB. Later, they physically tried to block me from walking in front of the building. Now long after, Doug Owens showed up and began filming.
Scientology guard & an OSA staffer confronted him & threatened to arrest him. Not long afterwards, Doug found himself being arrested & roughed up by 5-6 LAPD officers acting on a false report filed by guard Andy Knapp who claimed Doug was trying to climb on a stage where LRH Gallery manager Lissa Uvizl was narrating the parade (videos proved this not to be the case).
An officer threatened to arrest me if I approached & filmed the cops roughing Doug up.
Doug posted on OCMB...
Last night at the Hollywood Christmas Parade, I watched part of the parade in front of Scientology's Hollywood Guarantee Building, HGB. They had a small stage in the curb lane and I stood next to the stage on the sidewalk. My presences watching the parade was too much for Scientology's inner fanatical core who sign billion year contracts: the Sea Org. Sea Org security guard, Andy, followed me wherever I went and got inches in front of my face telling me to leave the area despite the fact it was a public sidewalk with many others watching the parade.
A short-time later, 3 LAPD police officers grabbed me by my arms, pulling them back and up, which lowered my head, and ran me at a fast speed head-first into the granite side of the HGB building. My head struck the granite and the officers cuffed me and pushed me into the front of the HGB building.
They claimed I committed the offense of loitering. I knew the that was nonsense and told them so. They then changed their story to disturbing the peace. They claimed the Sea Org security guard reported to them, falsely, that I had tried to get on their Way to Happiness stage, and that I been disruptive.
The officers kept me cuffed for over 45 minutes while the constantly pushed me into the side of the HGB building. I demanded to see a supervisor and when he appeared I demanded they uncuff me; he refused. After about 20 minutes, the sergeant told me he would uncuff me if I agreed to leave the sidewalk in front of the HGB.
I told him he would have to tell everyone on the sidewalk watching the parade to leave as I was doing nothing different than them. This continued for about 30 minutes.
The sergeant told me he was going to take me into the station and I would stay in jail until Tuesday to see a judge. He urged me to agree to leave. I refused and told him to go ahead and take me in. But he constantly delayed; I had violated no law. The police violated my 4th Amendment rights by going through my pockets without consent and by keeping me detained.
They used excessive force by ramming my head into a granite wall and pushing me against the wall for so long. The Sea Org security guards violated the law by making false and malicious reports to the police.
Eventually, the sergeant agreed to unhand-cuff me and to not demand I leave. I, did, however file a complaint at the scene against these abuses. I want to add the LAPD is great in the way they treat complaints seriously and professionally, and tonight was no exception. After this, I resumed my position next to the stage to watch the end of the parade.
The officers involved were: LAPD Police Officer 1 Farrell 36164, LAPD Police Officer 1 Acosta 36470, LAPD Police Officer 1 Shaw 37209 and Sgt. 2 Davis 32256 of the Hollywood Division. A second Sgt took my complaint in a professional manner.
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A personal Note: I take exception to Doug's reporting of the LAPD treating citizen's complaints "seriously & professionally" given what he had to experience at the hands of the LAPD Sunday night. The LAPD never takes these complaints seriously because citizens complain about LAPD behavior all the time. This is where Doug & I will have to disagree, and you will have to ask him why he's playing both sides of the fence when it comes to the LAPD, when they succumb to the demands of the cult they have long favored in Los Angeles.
When I was roughed up by LAPD Porter, while wearing a knee brace, years ago at Big Blue (the lighting of their new sign), I got lip service from LAPD staff over my complaint until I got an attorney involved who contacted & provided DVDs of the incident to Mayor Viilaraigosa, the Los Angeles City Council & the ACLU. Only then, did the LAPD command feel compelled to take action with Officer Porter being reprimanded & removed from the roster of future Scilon events..
The LAPD's longtime schmoozing of the cult is well-known. During my filming last night of Andy & Franck, several cops consistently walked back & forth behind me checking me out. I presume they said nothing because my conversations with the two guards were amicable.
It was later, after Doug was handcuffed & being roughed up by the cops, I moved into film the abuse, that Andy pointed me out to a cop who then approached me & threatened to arrest me for "interfering with police" if I approached Doug & filmed his being detained.
The LAPD's threat of arresting a critic 'loitering" is one of their oft-used 'rabbit in the hat' charges when conceding to the requests of Scientologists. They have threatened me & other critics in the past with the same charge when protesting on L Ron Hubbard Way, the Celebrity Center, and Winter Wonderland.
Never at any time did Doug attempt to get on the stage. This was yet another false charge asserted by the Scilons to create a 'noisy investigation' and set him up to be arrested. These bogus attempts are not new to Los Angeles Scilons, and you'd think the LAPD would be cognizant of such bogus attempts as I believe they are, when they're not busy schmoozing & kissing the ass of their Scilon friends.
This is why it is vitally important.. especially in Los Angeles.. where the LAPD is involved... to have a video camera running.. you will see in my videos, while Doug is being detained, cops often looking at me while I was videotaping the scene from a distance.. they were not happy about it.
I later spoke to one of the sergeants there and told him about my incident with "Flyer Guy" where Rick Moxon tried.. but failed.. to nail me for 'assault' on a Scientologist handler during the Grand Opening of Kirstie Alley's 'Organic Liaison' shop in Los Feliz.
The LAPD were over-the-top in kissing the cult's ass that night, as well.
