Anonymous

Anonymous, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Today is L Ron Hubbard's birthday. I'm not sure if it's a Scientologist holiday or anything, but it's when Anonymous gets together to remind the Church that they're after them. Anonymous, a loose organization of people from The Internet, has put Scientology on Notice.

I heard about the protest in February, but I didn't make it down to get any pictures. This time, I decided I had to check it out. WikiNews was also there, and did a much better job of reporting the worldwide event.

The few people that I talked to assured me that they were not actually against Scientology as a religion, but had a beef with the management. A man who was part of the church for 30 years, told me that he believed in the ideals of the religion, but did not like the tactics of the organization, and that it "hunted down" people leaving the church. I didn't see any hunters, but I did notice a large amount of IR CCTV in their parking lot. As far as "Church" goes, it's got to be one of the jankier buildings in town, and it's right on Aurora. They're definitely not spending their money on architecture or real estate.

While I was there, a couple of people showed up and went in the building. They were shouted at, told to Google some terms, visit xenu.net, and outed as Scientologists. I was accused of being one as well ( I didn't wear a mask, and was apparently on the wrong side of the parking strip at one point on my bike ), but once I explained that I too was from The Internet, and not working press, they relaxed a little.

I have to say, it was definitely lulz, and I'm looking forward to taking pictures of the next one. Speaking of which, here's the flickr set.