alex
Gold Meritorious Patron
Who is "we"?
I was being sarcastic.
It was the royal we if you want.
I dont personally know of ANY LAPD who are scientologists although I would guess there are a few.
Who is "we"?
As far as that goes, suggesting that Anon somehow inspired this man,
you may just as well say that he was set off by watching
"The Seven Samurai", or "Teenage Ninja Turtles".
Maybe he was inspired by the light swords of the Jedi Knights
fighting the evil empire in "Star Wars".
As far as the man being a threat...anyone walking around with
a samurai sword in L.A. is a kook, but, well..it IS L.A.!
He may have been a kook dramatizing God knows what...
but probably not much more kooky than the Hollywood types
that the celebrity center is designed to snare into the cult.
One witness did mention that he thought it was all part of some
show. Crazy scenes at the "center", it seems, are not all that
unusual.
I strongly suspect that he had recently watched the Highlander movie, and felt the quickening while driving by the Church, and decided "there can be only one". Turned out, he wasn't that one.
One wonders if the rhetoric and invective thrown around by the anon could have provoked this poor guy to go off the deep end and show up with swords...
Well consider that anon protests with signs saying scientology kills and that they enslave people.
A disturbed individual sees this and it feeds his delusions....
I had a friend who was paranoid schitzophenic, and he went off on all kinds of tangents, finally getting arrested for illegal firearms, luckily before anyone got hurt...
Imagine yourself barely in touch with the common reality, having seen V for Vendeta and then seeing a bunch of similarly masked protesters saying scientology kills....and you used to be a scientologist and had issues....
Can you see the possibility?
Not saying thats what happened, but that what springs to my scilon mind.
Well, the fact is The Vatican is a sovereign nation...the Pope is
the equivalent of a Prime Minister or Head of State. The
Swiss Guards is a highly disciplined military unit. No trigger
happy "rent-a-cops" to be found among the Swiss Guards.
You might, as you say, see alot of guns waving in your
face if you drew a sword in the Vatican...they may draw
the guns, but their first reaction would not be to shoot you dead.
Scientology "celebrity center" is no Vatican by a long shot.
Scientology may try to spin this their way...but I say the public's
reaction will be overwhelmingly negative towards scientology.
It's another nail in their coffin...too bad it cost a life to
drive that nail.
By WHAT anon??? Alex, you're really pushing the boundaries of known facts here.
Then perhaps this is a sign that you have been in Scientology for too long.
It seems to me that you are making a great effort to distract and derail this thread. Stop trolling!
Absolutely not. See below.
Yes, to "be on Scientology property is a danger"... if one is wielding two samurai swords.
If someone aggressively approaches me wielding two samurai swords and gets "close enough to hurt" me, I shoot them. Multiple times.
Deputy Chief Terry S. Hara said the man wielding the two samurai swords "was 'close enough to hurt them' when the guard fired." Under those circumstances, NOBODY is going to fire warning shots. Nobody.
Also, NOBODY who is taught to fire a weapon in self defense (e.g., in law enforcement, the military, etc.) is taught to "shoot to disable." Nobody. To "shoot to disable" is to shoot to miss. EVERYBODY is taught to shoot for the center of mass -- i.e., the center of the chest.
Actually, the eyes of the world will be on the Critics and Anons now. All available evidence is that this was a justified shooting. Given that, the public will perceive that, yes, the Church of Scientology does have a right to fear physical violence from its critics. [Oh, and by the way, some of the Critics' comments on this thread are not helping matters.]
You do not wait to struggle with the suspect when they are armed with not one, but two edged weapons. Not when you armed with a firearm. Unless you are stupid.
Only if you are so biased against Scientology that you are unable or unwilling to consider the evidence.
Again, as noted above, Nobody who is taught to fire a weapon in self defense (e.g., in law enforcement, the military, etc.) is taught to "shoot to disable." Nobody. To "shoot to disable" is to shoot to miss. Everybody is taught to shoot for the center of mass -- i.e., the center of the chest.
I'll take that bet given the fact that the LAPD has already reviewed the tapes.
I'm sorry to be a hard ass about this, but I'm disappointed by some of the reactions to this story. Some (but not all) of the reactions have three things in common. They are:
1) Morally reprehensible.
2) Stupid.
3) Bad from the standpoint of public relations. In other words, they make "critics" look like a bunch of paranoid, foaming at the mouth idiots so biased by their hatred of Scientology that they completely ignore all available evidence.
Anyone who thinks this is a footbullet for the COS is delusional. Anyone who doesn't realize that, fairly or unfairly, this is a major potential problem for Critics and Anons isn't thinking.
You think this incident won't be on the minds of law enforcement personnel that next time there is a protest, and particularly one that gets heated? You think this won't be presented, and won't be on the judge's mind, the next time there is a request for a restraining order?
I'll say it again. Some of the critics' comments on this thread are not helping matters.
I would hope that others will join me in condemning what appears, based on the presently available evidence and information, to have been a violent, physical assault on members of the Church of Scientology, and perhaps the Church itself.
I would hope that others will join me in making it clear that we do not support, and are in no way associated with, the attacker or the means he used to express whatever grievance he may have had.
I would hope that others will join me in making it clear that, whatever grievances the attacker may have had, his resort to violence is unacceptable and we condemn it.
By WHAT anon??? Alex, you're really pushing the boundaries of known facts here.
Then perhaps this is a sign that you have been in Scientology for too long.
It seems to me that you are making a great effort to distract and derail this thread. Stop trolling!
As far as that goes, suggesting that Anon somehow inspired this man,
you may just as well say that he was set off by watching
"The Seven Samurai", or "Teenage Ninja Turtles".
Maybe he was inspired by the light swords of the Jedi Knights
fighting the evil empire in "Star Wars".
As far as the man being a threat...anyone walking around with
a samurai sword in L.A. is a kook, but, well..it IS L.A.!
He may have been a kook dramatizing God knows what...
but probably not much more kooky than the Hollywood types
that the celebrity center is designed to snare into the cult.
One witness did mention that he thought it was all part of some
show. Crazy scenes at the "center", it seems, are not all that
unusual.
The Church of St. Stephan in Budapest is a virtual
Hungarian National Shrine...no armed guards apparant there either.
Notre Dame in Paris...no guards...Cathedral at Cologne...no guards.
"Church of Scientology Celebrity Center" in LA...armed guards.
If any of these or other churches do actually have secret armed guards..
has anyone ever heard of them shooting anyone dead?
Well consider that anon protests with signs saying scientology kills and that they enslave people.
A disturbed individual sees this and it feeds his delusions....
I had a friend who was paranoid schitzophenic, and he went off on all kinds of tangents, finally getting arrested for illegal firearms, luckily before anyone got hurt...
Imagine yourself barely in touch with the common reality, having seen V for Vendeta and then seeing a bunch of similarly masked protesters saying scientology kills....and you used to be a scientologist and had issues....
Can you see the possibility?
Not saying thats what happened, but that what springs to my scilon mind.
I think they appropriate reference would be Raiders of the Lost Arc where the guy with the swords is quickly shot by Harrison Ford. But I guess this guy didn't watch that.
I have.
Just a few months ago, not sure how long, maybe about a year, some guy invaded a Christian church in Colorado with a previously written intent to kill many people, and after only killing three (I think) was killed by an undercover female security guard. More churches have them than you might think.
This was handgun versus handgun, though.
What pissed me off is the fact that the main stream media first garbled the story, claiming the guy shot himself, then had to backpedal when the facts started coming out on the internet. There where other details distorted that amounted to deliberate spin.
You see, the Powers That Be want guns-especially handguns-to be seen as evil, (except in the hands of state controlled police) and didn't want any stories about lives being saved by courageous ARMED private citizens.
Today's shooting sounds rock solidly a good shooting. I bet it was suicide by cop, or in this case security officer, as has been previously suggested.
I agree with everything Kha Khan has said. This positions Sci as being the innocent persecuted victim defending itself from crazies.
If you're so ignorant as to not be kept away from the cult by the mass of info negative of it, a little heroic security guard shooting isn't going to change your mind!
2. What kind of "church" is attacked by samurai sword
wielding "ninjas"?
The Church of St. Stephan in Budapest is a virtual
Hungarian National Shrine...no armed guards apparant there either.
Notre Dame in Paris...no guards...Cathedral at Cologne...no guards.
"Church of Scientology Celebrity Center" in LA...armed guards.
If any of these or other churches do actually have secret armed guards..
has anyone ever heard of them shooting anyone dead?