Conference hydra::dejavu

1158.0. "Drug War Casualties" by CSC32::MORGAN (Cybernetic Society Arrives Today!) Tue Oct 24 1989 23:53

From:    Josh Gordon 
To:      All                                      Msg #170, 20-Oct-89 09:48am
Subject: OTO persecution (repost) (part 1)
 
Looks like my previous posting was too long. Here it is, in  smaller
parts, from the Thelema Lodge Newsletter.
 
********************************************************** 
 
      The Great Raid Debacle. 
 
      Late at night, on September 29th, the Berkeley Police raided
 O.T.O. They hit Merkabah House first, entered a detached dwelling
 behind Merkabah House, and then went off to break up Thelema Lodge. 
 Yes, that's right, Berkeley PD raided a church in Oakland.
 
      There was a search warrant, and the objects of the search were
 major drugs, paraphernalia involved in drug sales and use, and
 records of drug dealers. One would therefore characterize this
 effort as a connected series of "Crack House Raids".  Of course,
 there was no crack, no dealing and no point to the raid. I
 understand that rolling papers were taken, pipes and something
 identified as a "bong".  The rolling papers included Drum Brand,
 only sold with Drum Brand Tobacco and taken from beside a partly
 filled can of Drum Tobacco.  Several people were listed on the
 search warrant as residents to be given special attention,
 including one person who actually lives in San Francisco, and yours
 truly, Bill Heidrick.  I was listed as living at Thelema Lodge, a
 place I have been able to visit to teach classes about six hours a
 month on average.  I would like to be there more often; but my home
 has been in San Anselmo since 1971 e.v., and Grand Lodge duties
 spare me little time to enjoy the many events at Thelema. Since I
 was not there, I had to learn all this indirectly. These are my
 opinions of that happened, based on accounts of the witnesses and
 from documents.
 
      The raid commenced with a knocking at the Merkabah house door. 
 A resident opened it, and seventeen police with drawn guns burst in
 on a Hermetics class. Our members and guests were thrown down and
 cuffed without further preamble. Two were released after
 questioning (didn't live there and weren't on the list).  The
 others were told that they had to give urine samples then and there
 or face 90 days in jail.  A document purporting to justify this
 violation of civil rights was flashed, and mention was made of a
 new state law no one there had heard about.  Copies of the document
 have been recovered from the police report and related papers.  Bye
 bye, 5th amendment!  It was nice knowing you, 4th amendment!  I
 should note that more than seventeen officers seemed to be present,
 but only seventeen names of officers appear on the police report.
 
      All remaining in the house were charged with narcotics
 intoxication, pending urine test results, I suppose.  A couple of
 hypodermic syringes were produced by an officer, alleged to have
 been found in a sink that had just that day been cleaned.  None of
 the people at the house recognized the syringes, and none used
 intravenous drugs.  Other items of a similar nature were found by
 the police in locations where nothing was seen before the raid.
 These syringes were not charged against anyone at arraignment,
 according to the charges I have read.  Two of the people taken to
 the Berkeley station were released that night, one being told that
 the reason for his arrest had been forgotten, the other being held
 until it was clear that no matron was available to assist in her
 incarceration.  Six in all were charged from Merkabah house, and
 after the charges finished dropping at arraignment only narcotics
 intoxication (urine tests were not back yet) and smoking
 paraphernalia charges were maintained (as best I can determine). 
 There were illegal weapons charges earlier, with the ritual daggers
 and swords torn from religious shrines in the house giving that
 dubious base.  The illegal weapons charges were dropped.
 
      Most of the officers appeared confused.  Remarks of "why are
 we here?" have been reported by witnesses.  The officer leading the
 raid and some others made themselves busy, tearing out and emptying
 drawers and the like.  They trashed the place.  A little humor was
 evidently not lacking, and several books on occultism were arranged
 in a little display on one of the beds to make a nice picture.  A
 baby photograph was seized and described in the police list as
 "showing infant white male child w/ black cross across front of
 body."  This was a photo recently sent to a friend by the mother. 
 The black cross was a creative interpretation of the straps of the
 car seat shown in the photo.  One officer was interested enough to
 offer criticism of a painting on erotic themes, but it was too
 large to fit in the van. Two of the people in the house were making
 love in a bed room, and they were taken naked from the house and
 thrust into the police van. A couple of O.T.O. members from Thelema
 Lodge went over to the site during the raid, were questioned and
 released.
 
      Off the jolly crew went with their involuntary guests to visit
 Thelema Lodge (in Oakland, remember).  There were word games and
 similar entertainments: "Who's got the warrant?  Do you have the
 warrant?  ... Ah' we forgot the warrant" --- a copy was found in
 Merkabah House a few days later, in a spot where nothing had been
 seen after the raid.  The Thelema Lodge copy of the search warrant
 was also discovered several days later, crumpled up in a cat box. 
 Since it was Rosh Hashana, seasonal anti-semitic remarks were
 demonstrated by the officers for the edification of any prisoners
 who might chance to be Jewish.
 
      On reaching Thelema Lodge, the two Thelema Lodge inhabitants
 who were not detained at Merkabah house were seen to drive up to
 park at their home.  The police dragged both out of their car and
 hustled them into the house.  The police gained entry by being
 admitted and by crashing in several interior and at least one
 exterior door.  The exterior door was described as not being
 seriously damaged in the police report, but the frame was smashed. 
 The rush, floor, and cuffs procedure was repeated.  Two members of
 the O.T.O. were questioned and largely ignored.  The others were
 given the full treatment; urine samples and the like.  One of these
 refused the urine test, and he alone appears to have been charged
 with the syringes that mysteriously appeared by spontaneous
 generation at Thelema Lodge --- again never before seen by any of
 the folks who live there.  One person was charged with the
 infraction of having less than a 1/4 ounce of marijuana.
 
      Several rooms were trashed downstairs in a vigorous but
 inconsistent fashion.  There was some breakage that does not appear
 in the police reports. It is rather difficult to understand what
 training led to the techniques in evidence.  Photos show clothing
 and papers all over the place, but there seems to have been little
 effort to look behind the thousands of shelved books or under seat
 cushions and the like.  Some rooms were given a minimal look;
 others ended up like an earthquake in a thrift shop.
 
      The situation upstairs took some additional turns.  Our Temple
 was broken up and generally desecrated, making it difficult for the
 Gnostic Mass to be held two days later.  One of the members is a
 student of pyrotechnics (safe and sane style fireworks).  He had a
 room rented upstairs for storage of his materials, colorants, tubes
 and chemicals --- all obtained legally.  This presented a new
 option to the officers.  A call was made to the judge who issued
 the original search warrant, and a verbal extension was given to
 include bomb making supplies.  We do have a list of the chemicals
 and "Fire Works Components" (yes, the police did identify the
 components as fire works), including at least two substances that
 cannot exist.  Possibly that sort of error can be excused by
 misreading bottle labels, but really --- "flowers of sodium"!  The
 name of the owner of the fire-works chemicals was identified by the
 police and written into the report.  His name was also on the door
 to the room.  It would appear, however, that this brother was not
 in the target list. The two brothers who had been pulled out of a
 car in front of the house were charged with possession of these
 materials.  The actual owner of the materials was identified by the
 police, was in the house and was not charged.  These two brothers
 therefore have felony charges for possession of materials not in
 their own rooms and known to be the property of a person released
 without arrest.  Naturally we are glad that our brother was not
 charged for his legally owned property, but it is a bit much to see
 others charged who had nothing to do with the material.  Chemicals
 were spilled and not cleaned up during the raid.
 
      There is no doubt in my mind that the officer in charge knew
 he was visiting desecration on a church.  He characterized the
 Temple as "temple" in his report.  He knew that the place was known
 as "Thelema Lodge", and he used the term of opprobrium "cult" to
 describe the group.  I really must take exception to that term
 "cult".  We have been in existence for more than eighty years, have
 more than 1500 members in 26 countries, and the word "cult" does
 not appear on our letters of religious tax exemption from the
 Federal Government and the State of California.  I don't recall our
 being called a "cult" in the case we brought and won in the IXth
 District Federal Court in 1985 e.v., and our religious status was
 noted in that decision.  The discriminatory language got worse.
 
      When the six arrested at Thelema Lodge were brought with the
 six from Merkabah House over to the Berkeley Jail, it became
 immediately apparent that religious persecution was the name of the
 new game.  Our members were called "devil worshipers" consistently
 by the jailers. These remarks were spread beyond the jail.  Abusive
 language appears to have been used in an attempt to prejudice. 
 There are Satanists in the world, but for an officer to use the
 language "devil worshiper" to characterize the religion of a person
 in custody is in no way different from an officer calling civil
 rights marchers "niggers". This language is used to dehumanize and
 to deny due process.  It has no place in public, let alone on the
 lips of arresting officers and jailers.  O.T.O. has it's own
 religion, and does not give place for the Christian "Devil" to
 exist outside metaphor.  Quite frankly, this "devil worshipper" tag
 is not even ethical if applied to real Satanists of education much
 beyond grammar school.  I have met several over the years, and most
 could not be said to worship the "Devil". For non-Christians, Satan
 is more often the symbolic hero of John Milton's "Paradise Lost"
 than a foolish mental disorder with a pitch-fork.
 
      In jail our members and friends were subjected to the verbal
 abuse already mentioned, but there were other things.  No one had
 been read their rights, and only after the arrest papers became
 accessible did anyone learn of a very fine print statement of civil
 rights on a paper that had been signed under pressure without time
 for reading. Ordinary requests made by prisoners were honored by
 the jailers, but not identical humanitarian requests made by our
 folk.  One of our people had suffered an injury when he was allowed
 to tumble down stairs during the raid.  He had lost sensation in
 his right arm, and was experiencing an increasing loss of motor
 function.  His requests for medical examination were refused to his
 face.  With persistence, he was finally heard by an officer from
 another part of the building. When the matter was brought to the
 attention of a judge, this brother was immediately released on "OR"
 (own recognizance).  This was on the third day of his
 incarceration, and he had been denied his first phone call for
 about 60 hours.
 
      Arraignments were held Monday and Tuesday, with everybody
 still in custody being released on "OR" following arraignment. 
 Most charges had been dropped, and further court appearances are
 scheduled later this month.
 
      At this writing the homes are still in great disarray, but
 enough clean-up has taken place to discover over $380 missing from
 Merkabah House and almost $500 missing from Thelema Lodge.  That's
 rent money, personal cash and temple furbishment funds.  Some of it
 may have been lost in the street during hasty searches, but there
 is no explanation for most of it vanishing from boxes, drawers and
 the like.  Also missing are initiation reports plainly marked the
 property of Grand Lodge (with address!) and being readied for
 forward.
 
      While I sat typing this account, a call came in.  The
 affidavit that led to issuance of the search warrant had surfaced. 
 This entire raid was based on the verbal assertions of one
 individual, with the complicity of another.  I will restrain myself
 from describing the mental and moral qualities of that person. 
 Suffice it to say that the lurid details offered to the ear of the
 officer were so absurd that I cannot imagine anyone crediting them
 for a moment.  I was accused of conducting something unfathomable
 called "a black baptism" in the yard behind Thelema Lodge. 
 Preposterous nonsense about minors, drugs, and the like abounded in
 the document.  The officer entered Merkabah house a few days
 before, posing as a plumber.  He wandered about the rooms trying to
 "smell" amphetamines.  He had to be instructed before entry on how
 to pour a can of cleaner in a drain and how to soap a gas line
 joint. When he was asked to snake a blockage, he had no answer. 
 For heaven's sake! Education in the public schools is a disaster,
 but ...! I would also like to know why Oakland PD appears not to
 have been contacted about the Thelema Lodge address.  It seems only
 natural that Berkeley PD would consult Oakland PD before doing
 Elliot Ness impressions in Oakland.  What would have happened if
 someone in the house had called 911 before identifying the
 intruders?
 
      I can't help wondering what impact the big cocaine seizure in
 southern California and the Night Stalker trial sentencing may have
 had on this decision to go so far on so little.  It's too bad the
 news about the Oklahoma sheriff didn't attract as much attention. 
 That guy is on trial for allegedly trying to kidnap a suspected
 drug dealer out of Texas to drag back to Oklahoma for torture with
 a hot curling iron. Could it be that the admitted drug problems in
 this country have induced hysteria?  Has the fundamentalist hate
 literature that has been flooding police agencies and service
 magazines actually been believed?  Some of that trash lists the
 Star of David, the Star and Crescent of Islam, the Peace Sign, the
 Pentagram from the American Flag and the reverse of the Great Seal
 of the United States as "Satanic Devices." Several years ago I
 wrote a piece on the revival of "The Blood Libel"; this blithering
 nonsense is full of it.
 
      By all accounts, most of the officers drawn into this exercise
 were reasonable and professional individuals.  It seems to me that
 only a few of the officers were responsible for abuses, although
 those were very serious indeed.  I wasn't there.  All I have to go
 on is what the officer wrote in his reports and what the witnesses
 said.  Pray to the deities you still are allowed that you can
 continue to say the same.
 
      The folks at these locations need personal help to replace
 losses and repair damage.  If you can help, please contact the
 Lodge.
 
      Grand Lodge needs donations (tax deductible) to build up the
 legal fund. Attorneys have to be paid, and civil rights cases
 aren't cheap.
 
         Contributions to the O.T.O. Legal Fund should be made out to
          "O.T.O." and sent to:
 
                    Ordo Templi Orientis 
                    P.O.Box 430 
                    Fairfax, CA  94930 USA 
 
      Classes and meetings will continue.  Attend at your own risk,
 but please check to determine changes in location and the like.  We
 hope enough of our friends and confreres will stand with us in the
 free exercise of the Thelemic religion and the ordinary rights of
 speech, but we will understand if folks would rather stay home. 
 The people at Merkabah House and Thelema Lodge share rent and have
 their own rooms. Those places are home.  It did happen here.

    Wow!Welcome to "Drug" hysteria in the U.S.A.!As if certain members of
    the police force really need another reason to harass taxpayers.
      If you had all been Klan members,did state approved drugs like 
    alcohol and tobacco,went to state approved churches,and kept your
    wives and children in line with occasional violence,none of this would
    have happened!
      How about,"bye-bye Constitution"??
                                                     -D.E.

    How sad.
    
    Is it a testimony to our future or a testimony of our history?
    
    Unfortunately, this shall continue to the end of man. Whenever someone
    or somepeople march to the beat of a different drummer (as defined
    by the current society), society tries to "break" them, either
    psychologically or physically, as in this case.
    
    There, apperently, is no room for absolute tolerence in this country,
    perhaps world. Just look at the number of laws we have.
    
    How sad.

    Reply to .2, Afeuerstein,
    
    It's sad indeed. But I can envision a brighter future for those that
    know thier rights and how to use them. My advice to those in police
    incursions is to say you don't understand your rights, scream for
    a public defender lawyer, and sign and CONFESS nothing.
    
    One of these days in the not to far future we will beat this kinda'
    crap but we will have to to it in the courts.

    Maybe its time for a update. How is it Going in the Bay area? For
    anyone not in a "mainstream" religious persuasion this is unsettling.