In the shadow of the conflict between Scientology and "Anonymous," we go inside Scientology's Hollywood complex for the first part of an exclusive one-on-one interview with one of the church's top leaders, Tommy Davis.
Davis serves as the Church's spokesman. During the visit, we showed him video shot by members of "Anonymous" as they were being accosted and arrested by guards hired by the Church at the Scientology grounds in Hemet. Davis contends that the protestors arrested assaulted the guards.
The following is a transcript from the interview:
Nathan Baca: How is Anonymous a clear and present danger?
Tommy Davis: Really, it does boil down to hate crimes and a religious hate group that is really intending to bring about harm and bigotry and upset as much as possible to individual members of a church and a religious organization.
NB: Supervisor Stone read this booklet. He gave it to me. "Anonymous: Who They Are, What They Do." This is, I believe, you were mentioning, this is from the Church of Scientology. Was this produced by the Church of Scientology?
TD: This is a publication that was put together by a group of individuals that work with the Church and also work with other groups, human rights organizations, and other religions.
NB: But it has no byline. It has nothing-- "written by" or "funded by." That's just kind of a puzzle to us about this book. It became exhibit one in this sense with the supervisors. The main exhibit that convinced Jeff Stone that he used to convince the other supervisors that this is a hate group, "listen to this" and there was a very powerful presentation, but we just didn't know who it was by because there is no byline. That's why we were kind of puzzled by it.
TD: Ok. I just told you that the Church is absolutely involved in putting that together and it was a compilation of information that's easily locatable on the internet. If you want to know, really, if you want to know who that booklet is by, it's by the people who produce the hate and those people are members of Anonymous.
NB: Why is a camoflauged observation post needed in the hills above Golden Era (a movie production studio)?
TD: Well, that's no secret. Those are digital cameras and they used to be able to sweep the entire property for security purposes. I don't know if someone's trying to give you the idea that's some sort of secret or there's something nefarious about it.
NB: No. I'm just curious about it. It's a camoflauged observation post with telescopic lens. It's not something you see everywhere.
TD: Sure. No problem. You also wouldn't want to mar the landscape of a hillside either.
NB: Tell me what happened with the security guard. Was he bitten?
TD: Yeah.
NB: Ok. When was he bitten?
TD: In that incident.
NB: Was he bitten before or after? Was he bitten as he was taken into custody? When exactly in the timeline was he bitten?
TD: When he was making a citizen's arrest of that individual you saw there on the ground.
NB: Was it while he was on the ground?
TD: I don't know at what point. But it's a subject of-- obviously, that individual who was arrested has been charged. What you saw there was a citizen's arrest.
NB: But why not just call the Sheriff's Department. At most, it's misdemeanor trespassing. Why not just call the Sheriff's Department? They arrived just a minute later or so.
TD: Sure.
NB: Why tackle him down?
TD: To my knowledge, they had already been called.
NB: A woman was walking up and the guard does a back side sweep and nearly trips the woman...
TD: ...And then she kicks him.
NB: I don't quite see that.
TD: Anyway.
NB: I'm just wondering.
TD: In all honesty, Nathan, this is something that is a matter for law enforcement.
NB: The spikes facing inward. Why are the spikes facing inward?
TD: that's just how they were installed.
