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Berkeley Police Raid Oakland O.T.O. Temple
76/78: The Berkeley Police raid Oakland O.T.O. Temple
Name: The 286 Express #1 @5413
Date: Wed Nov 15 17:39:23 1989
From: The 286 Express [504-282-5187]
Do what thow wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The following texts were captured from CompuServe (CIS), and contains the
account by a brother of the raid on the Oakland O.T.O. Temple. Please note
that the offenses commited were by people who have seemingly not heard of the
frredom of religious expression. The O.T.O. is an ESTABLISHED order of
worship and meets the legal definitons of such. This recent offense against
O.T.O. is extremely uncalled for and should not be forgotten. It is a mark
against ALL people who wish to freely practice their religion.
Love is the law, love under Will.
..............................................................................
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. On
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.
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 classes 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 event
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 ther
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 papers. 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, pendin
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 bee
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 hav
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 in 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?" hav
been reported by witnesses. 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 black 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 hous
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 their involuntary guests to visit Thelema Lodg
(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 the 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 original
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 are
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 religion 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 had 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 another 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 forward.
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 something 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 lists 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 understand 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.
Which G-file (Q=Quit) ?
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