Clearwater reacts to church's attacks
By THOMAS C. TOBIN and ANITA KUMAR
St. Petersburg Times
December 9, 1997 

CLEARWATER -- City leaders Monday said the Church of Scientology's angry
protests of the Police Department over the weekend badly damaged
Scientology's image in Clearwater and set back the church's efforts to
become part of the city's mainstream. 

The church continued to blast police Chief Sid Klein on Monday with
another in a series of public letters accusing him of "orchestrating
harassment" against the church and its members.

Church representatives also passed out fliers at the city's downtown
office complex and at police headquarters, asking for reports of
corruption, abuses and discrimination in Klein's department.

City officials responded in strong terms to the church's allegations. 

"If they can prove what they say, Sid ought to be in prison," City
Commissioner Ed Hooper said. "If they can't, they need to let this go. 
You either go to the state attorney's office (with the evidence) or you
get over it. They just can't make wild allegations that can't be
substantiated."

Church spokesman Brian Anderson said, "We can back up everything in those
letters and will do so. Everything we say is documentable, and that will
be presented at the right place and at the right time."

Anderson cited three instances he thought were among the church's biggest
complaints against Klein:

He said police failed to seriously investigate a former Scientologist who
stole $4,300 from the Clearwater church in 1983. He accused the police
department of helping Scientology opponents by escorting them around town
in unmarked cars. And he criticized Klein for assigning intelligence
officers to focus on church activities.

City Manager Mike Roberto said he will continue to talk to church
officials and plans to include them in his proposal to redevelop downtown
because he still considers the church a "player." But he added he will
"revisit how we are going to address the church" in the future.

"You can't attack the chief of police without some repercussions," 
Roberto said.

Hooper and other commissioners said the weekend campaign was reminiscent
of the strife that accompanied the church's arrival in Clearwater in 1975
with a written plan, later uncovered by the FBI, to stifle opposition by
infiltrating major institutions and discrediting people it saw as enemies.

"It's definitely a regression," City Commissioner Bob Clark said. "People
are just asking, "What does this mean? Are we at war again or what?' "

City Commissioner Karen Seel said, "I think they hurt themselves, very
much so. It only goes back to the old days, and people's suspicions
immediately arise again. They haven't changed their colors."

In response, Anderson argued that an appellate court in 1993 found the
city at fault for discriminating against the church. 

Hooper said he was surprised by the protest Friday because in the last two
years the church had been trying to become more accepted in the city by
participating in more community events, such as contributing to the
Pinellas Trail grand opening celebration and helping decorate downtown for
the holidays.

"I'm disappointed because I think it hurt Clearwater as a whole," Hooper
said. "It's the wrong kind of exposure."

Scientology's weekend campaign, which continued Monday, is the worst
attack on the city since the church moved to Clearwater, Hooper said.

"For a long time, they contended the old ways were gone," he said. "They
were getting so close to being accepted, and now we're back to square one.
This doesn't make you want to hold hands and sing hymns."

Hooper said it will take several years for the church to start over and
try to be accepted again.

The church's anti-Klein initiative began Friday night as a group of about
30 protesters demonstrated in memory of Lisa McPherson, the Scientologist
who died in 1995 while in the care of fellow church members.

That evening, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Scientologists demonstrated at
police headquarters, and church officials wrote Klein saying he had
discriminated against the church by aiding the protesters.

The effort continued Saturday with a biting, nine-page letter that accused
Klein of a broader crime -- a "two-decade pattern of discrimination."

The letters were signed by church spokesman Anderson, who is comparing the
church's fight against the Clearwater police to the struggles of
African-Americans in the 1960s for civil rights.

Anderson also charged that Klein had trivialized the church's complaints. 
He wrote to Klein: "My, oh, my, how arrogant one can be."

Klein said Monday that Anderson's allegations are not true. He said he
believes the church's campaign is related to the fact his department is
concluding an investigation into McPherson's death and that the case is
receiving wide attention.

Church officials have said their campaign is primarily against Klein and
not against the officers on the street.

Anderson ended his Monday letter with a quote from L. Ron Hubbard, the
founder of Scientology, who died in 1986. It said: "On the day we can
fully trust each other there will be peace on Earth."