💾 Archived View for gemini.spam.works › mirrors › textfiles › occult › OTO › oto.occ captured on 2022-07-17 at 09:52:02.
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-06-12)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 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 a re 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 religio n 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 ha d 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 an other
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 for ward.
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 some thing 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 l ists 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 underst and 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.