Béæ>NTYPE 32.00**2.001 ************************************************************* ************   The Great Raid Debacle.  Late at night, on September 29th, the Berkeley Police raided O.T.O. Theyhit Merkabah House first, entered a detached dwelling behind Merkabah House,and then went off to break up Thelema Lodge. Yes, that's right, Berkeley PDraided 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 "CrackHouse Raids". Of course, there was no crack, no dealing and no point to theraid. I understand that rolling papers were taken, pipes and somethingidentified as a "bong". The rolling papers included Drum Brand, only soldwith Drum Brand Tobacco and taken from beside a partly filled can of DrumTobacco. Several people were listed on the search warrant as residents to begiven special attention, including one person who actually lives in SanFrancisco, and yours truly, Bill Heidrick. I was listed as living at ThelemaLodge, a place I have been able to visit to teach classes about six hours amonth on average. I would like to be there more often; but my home has beenin San Anselmo since 1971 e.v., and Grand Lodge duties spare me little time toenjoy the many events at Thelema. Since I was not there, I had to learn allthis indirectly. These are my opinions of that happened, based on accounts ofthe witnesses and from documents. The raid commenced with a knocking at the Merkabah house door. A residentopened 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 thelist). The others were told that they had to give urine samples then andthere or face 90 days in jail. A document purporting to justify thisviolation of civil rights was flashed, and mention was made of a new state lawno one there had heard about. Copies of the document have been recovered fromthe police report and related papers. Bye bye, 5th amendment! It was niceknowing you, 4th amendment! I should note that more than seventeen officersseemed to be present, but only seventeen names of officers appear on thepolice report. All remaining in the house were charged with narcotics intoxication,pending urine test results, I suppose. A couple of hypodermic syringes wereproduced by an officer, alleged to have been found in a sink that had justthat day been cleaned. None of the people at the house recognized thesyringes, and none used intravenous drugs. Other items of a similar naturewere found by the police in locations where nothing was seen before the raid.These syringes were not charged against anyone at arraignment, according tothe charges I have read. Two of the people taken to the Berkeley station werereleased that night, one being told that the reason for his arrest had beenforgotten, the other being held until it was clear that no matron wasavailable to assist in her incarceration. Six in all were charged fromMerkabah house, and after the charges finished dropping at arraignment onlynarcotics intoxication (urine tests were not back yet) and smokingparaphernalia charges were maintained (as best I can determine). There wereillegal weapons charges earlier, with the ritual daggers and swords torn fromreligious shrines in the house giving that dubious base. The illegal weaponscharges were dropped. Most of the officers appeared confused. Remarks of "why are we here?" havebeen reported by witnesses. The officer leading the raid and some others madethemselves busy, tearing out and emptying drawers and the like. They trashedthe place. A little humor was evidently not lacking, and several books onoccultism were arranged in a little display on one of the beds to make a nicepicture. A baby photograph was seized and described in the police list as"showing infant white male child w/ black cross across front of body." Thiswas a photo recently sent to a friend by the mother. The black cross was acreative interpretation of the straps of the car seat shown in the photo. Oneofficer was interested enough to offer criticism of a painting on eroticthemes, but it was too large to fit in the van. Two of the people in thehouse were making love in a bed room, and they were taken naked from the houseand thrust into the police van. A couple of O.T.O. members from Thelema Lodgewent over to the site during the raid, were questioned and released. Off the jolly crew went with their involuntary guests to visit ThelemaLodge (in Oakland, remember). There were word games and similarentertainments: "Who's got the warrant? Do you have the warrant? ... Ah' weforgot 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 copyof the search warrant was also discovered several days later, crumpled up in acat box. Since it was Rosh Hashana, seasonal anti-semitic remarks weredemonstrated by the officers for the edification of any prisoners who mightchance to be Jewish. On reaching Thelema Lodge, the two Thelema Lodge inhabitants who were notdetained at Merkabah house were seen to drive up to park at their home. Thepolice dragged both out of their car and hustled them into the house. Thepolice gained entry by being admitted and by crashing in several interior andat least one exterior door. The exterior door was described as not beingseriously 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. werequestioned and largely ignored. The others were given the full treatment;urine samples and the like. One of these refused the urine test, and he aloneappears to have been charged with the syringes that mysteriously appeared byspontaneous generation at Thelema Lodge --- again never before seen by any ofthe folks who live there. One person was charged with the infraction ofhaving less than a 1/4 ounce of marijuana. Several rooms were trashed downstairs in a vigorous but inconsistentfashion. There was some breakage that does not appear in the police reports.It is rather difficult to understand what training led to the techniques inevidence. Photos show clothing and papers all over the place, but there seemsto have been little effort to look behind the thousands of shelved books orunder 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 brokenup and generally desecrated, making it difficult for the Gnostic Mass to beheld two days later. One of the members is a student of pyrotechnics (safeand sane style fireworks). He had a room rented upstairs for storage of hismaterials, colorants, tubes and chemicals --- all obtained legally. Thispresented a new option to the officers. A call was made to the judge whoissued the original search warrant, and a verbal extension was given toinclude bomb making supplies. We do have a list of the chemicals and "FireWorks Components" (yes, the police did identify the components as fire works),including at least two substances that cannot exist. Possibly that sort oferror can be excused by misreading bottle labels, but really ---"flowers ofsodium"! The name of the owner of the fire-works chemicals was identified bythe police and written into the report. His name was also on the door to theroom. 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 werecharged with possession of these materials. The actual owner of the materialswas identified by the police, was in the house and was not charged. These twobrothers therefore have felony charges for possession of materials not intheir own rooms and known to be the property of a person released withoutarrest. Naturally we are glad that our brother was not charged for hislegally owned property, but it is a bit much to see others charged who hadnothing to do with the material. Chemicals were spilled and not cleaned upduring the raid. There is no doubt in my mind that the officer in charge knew he wasvisiting desecration on a church. He characterized the Temple as "temple" inhis report. He knew that the place was known as "Thelema Lodge", and he usedthe term of opprobrium "cult" to describe the group. I really must takeexception to that term "cult". We have been in existence for more than eightyyears, have more than 1500 members in 26 countries, and the word "cult" doesnot appear on our letters of religious tax exemption from the FederalGovernment 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 in1985 e.v., and our religious status was noted in that decision. Thediscriminatory language got worse. When the six arrested at Thelema Lodge were brought with the six fromMerkabah House over to the Berkeley Jail, it became immediately apparent thatreligious persecution was the name of the new game. Our members were called"devil worshipers" consistently by the jailers. These remarks were spreadbeyond the jail. Abusive language appears to have been used in an attempt toprejudice. There are Satanists in the world, but for an officer to use thelanguage "devil worshiper" to characterize the religion of a person in custodyis in no way different from an officer calling civil rights marchers"niggers". This language is used to dehumanize and to deny due process. Ithas no place in public, let alone on the lips of arresting officers andjailers. O.T.O. has it's own religion, and does not give place for theChristian "Devil" to exist outside metaphor. Quite frankly, this "devilworshipper" tag is not even ethical if applied to real Satanists of educationmuch beyond grammar school. I have met several over the years, and most couldnot be said to worship the "Devil". For non-Christians, Satan is more oftenthe symbolic hero of John Milton's "Paradise Lost" than a foolish mentaldisorder with a pitch-fork. In jail our members and friends were subjected to the verbal abuse alreadymentioned, 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 veryfine print statement of civil rights on a paper that had been signed underpressure without time for reading. Ordinary requests made by prisoners werehonored by the jailers, but not identical humanitarian requests made by ourfolk. One of our people had suffered an injury when he was allowed to tumbledown stairs during the raid. He had lost sensation in his right arm, and wasexperiencing an increasing loss of motor function. His requests for medicalexamination were refused to his face. With persistence, he was finally heardby an officer from another part of the building. When the matter was broughtto the attention of a judge, this brother was immediately released on "OR"(own recognizance). This was on the third day of his incarceration, and hehad been denied his first phone call for about 60 hours. Arraignments were held Monday and Tuesday, with everybody still in custodybeing 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-uphas taken place to discover over $380 missing from Merkabah House and almost$500 missing from Thelema Lodge. That's rent money, personal cash and templefurbishment funds. Some of it may have been lost in the street during hastysearches, but there is no explanation for most of it vanishing from boxes,drawers and the like. Also missing are initiation reports plainly marked theproperty of Grand Lodge (with address!) and being readied for forward. While I sat typing this account, a call came in. The affidavit that led toissuance of the search warrant had surfaced. This entire raid was based onthe verbal assertions of one individual, with the complicity of another. Iwill restrain myself from describing the mental and moral qualities of thatperson. Suffice it to say that the lurid details offered to the ear of theofficer were so absurd that I cannot imagine anyone crediting them for amoment. I was accused of conducting something unfathomable called "a blackbaptism" in the yard behind Thelema Lodge. Preposterous nonsense aboutminors, drugs, and the like abounded in the document. The officer enteredMerkabah house a few days before, posing as a plumber. He wandered about therooms trying to "smell" amphetamines. He had to be instructed before entry onhow 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 toknow why Oakland PD appears not to have been contacted about the Thelema Lodgeaddress. It seems only natural that Berkeley PD would consult Oakland PDbefore doing Elliot Ness impressions in Oakland. What would have happened ifsomeone in the house had called 911 before identifying the intruders? I can't help wondering what impact the big cocaine seizure in southernCalifornia and the Night Stalker trial sentencing may have had on thisdecision to go so far on so little. It's too bad the news about the Oklahomasheriff didn't attract as much attention. That guy is on trial for allegedlytrying to kidnap a suspected drug dealer out of Texas to drag back to Oklahomafor torture with a hot curling iron. Could it be that the admitted drugproblems in this country have induced hysteria? Has the fundamentalist hateliterature that has been flooding police agencies and service magazinesactually been believed? Some of that trash lists the Star of David, the Starand Crescent of Islam, the Peace Sign, the Pentagram from the American Flagand 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"; thisblithering nonsense is full of it. By all accounts, most of the officers drawn into this exercise werereasonable and professional individuals. It seems to me that only a few ofthe officers were responsible for abuses, although those were very seriousindeed. I wasn't there. All I have to go on is what the officer wrote in hisreports and what the witnesses said. Pray to the deities you still areallowed that you can continue to say the same.  The folks at these locations need personal help to replace losses andrepair 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 pleasecheck to determine changes in location and the like. We hope enough of ourfriends and confreres will stand with us in the free exercise of the Thelemicreligion and the ordinary rights of speech, but we will understand if folkswould rather stay home. The people at Merkabah House and Thelema Lodge sharerent and have their own rooms. Those places are home. It did happen here.  --- TSG*************************************************************************