Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge/Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge.iso/OCCULT/OTO.TXT

Text File | 1990-11-30 | 17KB | 227 lines

 FYI - Berkeley O.T.O. Temple Assault (part 1)
 Name  : Sysop #1 @7352
 Date  : Thu Nov 09 22:08:03 1989
 From  : The Arena for Adults [713-520-9463]
 Region: Houston, Texas

 This was downloaded from CompuServe.  It is quite long so is broken into four
 postings.  It details an assault on the O.T.O. Temple in Berkeley CA.
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 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 classe s 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 pap ers.  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 i n 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 w itnesses.  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 bla ck 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 the ir 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 t he 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 o riginal 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