Freeloaders: Extortion Money| Freeloaders: Extortion money | | Print | |
| Tuesday, 24 August 2010 17:59 |
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As already pointed out in earlier articles, by others and myself, Church management has recently resorted to a new tactic of “reducing” the “freeloader” bills of former SO members in an effort to coerce them back into the fold. But it is presented to people as a “special” favor to them “to help get them back on the Bridge.” While this appears to be a great gesture, I wish to point out that it is an alteration of Scientology policy and categorically is squirreling and criminal as well. The truth is that 99% of the people who are labeled freeloaders of Scientology, are not and never were. The practice of labeling ANYONE who leaves the Sea Org as a freeloader is not only an abusive and suppressive system in vogue, but is a criminal means of extorting people to pay the church money in order for them to “be in good standing” or “to get back on the Bridge”. Considering that most people who leave staff still wish to progress with their Scientology auditing and training, then it is easy for the Church to extort “freeloader” payments from them first. These policy excerpts below are what L. Ron Hubbard says, and if you read these, without any tainted views or “this is the way it’s always been,” you will be able to draw these conclusions, or should be able to: 1. Freeloaders are clearly people who came on staff for a SHORT time period, got trained and then left. In other words, they freeloaded on the organization, which by definition is: “to impose upon another's generosity or hospitality without sharing in the cost or responsibility involved.” – Webster’s dictionary “One who depends on another for support without reciprocating: syn: bloodsucker, hanger-on, leech, parasite, sponge” – ANSWERS.COM 2. LRH never said nor did he even hint at that Sea Org members who gave years of their lives to Scientology would even vaguely classify as freeloaders if they left the SO. Obviously, if someone gives years of their lives they are not freeloading – not by any stretch of the imagination. The great myth, or false datum which has been palmed-off on Scientologists and Sea Org members is that they are freeloaders if they leave the Sea Org, but the label is both false and suppressive because active contributing SO members could never be classified as such by the very definitions given by LRH in the policy excerpts below or as defined by other authorities above. When one considers the THOUSANDS of people who have left the Sea Org after 5, 10, 15 or 20 or more years, who have been falsely labeled as freeloaders and extorted to pay the Church before they can be regarded as in good standing again and eligible for services, one can see that it is a criminal activity. Imagine, you volunteer your services to any other church and one day you decide to leave and they tell you that you must pay them money before you can resume membership. Hello? The practice is called EXTORTION, a crime, and it is defined as: 1. To obtain from another by coercion or intimidation. – ONLINE Dictionary 2. Most states define extortion as the gaining of property or money by almost any kind of force, or threat of 1) violence, 2) property damage, 3) harm to reputation, or 4) unfavorable government action. While usually viewed as a form of theft/larceny, extortion differs from robbery in that the threat in question does not pose an imminent physical danger to the victim. FINDLAW.COM It is my recommendation that we Keep Scientology Working and not agree to the practice any longer. The policies below were written for 1% of those that in fact do come in to freeload, and that’s where they apply. KSW means just that, KEEP Scientology Working, and as unsocial or unpopular as it may be to make a stand against this abuse, it must be done. If no one stands up to the neighborhood bully then he gets away with it. So stand up for your rights and other’s rights! HCO PL 19 June 1958 FREELOADERS “If a staff member does leave a TECHNICAL POST WITHOUT GOOD AND SUFFICIENT REASON in the first year of his employment, he is charged $1,000.00 for his training, providing he has not been dismissed.” “The reason for this directive is the fact that the organization in Washington and London has been occasionally victimized by persons giving their services to the organization for the sole purpose of acquiring training. The expense of this training is such as to make these services useful only after a few months have been spent on staff.” HCO PL 2 Dec 69R FREELOADERS “An SO mission to orgs in the US recently uncovered undermanned orgs as a reason for low stats. “According to this mission many people had joined staffs, signed contracts, gotten free services and then went off staff. This is nice work if one can get it. It leaves the good guys burdened with tech delivery with no proper income. “Such contract breakers are to be designated FREELOADERS.” Written by OUTSIDE THE BOX |
"Scientology has been taken over by a self-appointed dictator, David Miscavige, who has turned the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the Code of a Scientologist, and the Credo of a True Group Member on their heads and instituted the virtual practice of Reverse (Black) Dianetics..." 
Comments
Obviously, the freeloader designation was only meant for people who wittingly or unwittingly took some undue advantage of orgs by joining staff, especially for a short time. I have never seen any LRH directive which applied the concept of "freeloader" to Sea Org members at all.
Possibly someone simply assumed that the policy applied to the Sea Org, as well as to orgs. Clearly, even in the case of orgs, the policy should have been applied sparingly, and only in cases where it was clearly justified.
Would anyone in his right mind think it was just to bill an org staff member for thousands of dollars for training received where the staff member left after 3 years of service on a 5 year contract? This would never be done in the private business world, never mind the fact that the staff member probably worked a great many hours per week for hardly any money at all during all of those three years.
By the same token, the idea of giving freeloader bills to long term Sea Org members is also completely off policy and fundamentally very unfair.
As a public person viewing the issue from the outside, I always thought the idea of freeloader bills was basically wrong. People should be thanked and acknowledged for the service they did give, even when they can no longer give that service.
I didn’t pay any freeloader bill but I would suggest EVERYONE who did pay a Freeloader Bill (but does not fall into the actual definition of a “Freeloader” – which will be very close to if not 100% of the people) should request a refund of any money paid.
Besides being the right and just thing to do – it would also put pressure onto the C of M to STOP issuing fraudulent freeloader bills. It would help you AND others that are on their way out of the C of M.
CJC’s and IJC will hopefully receive lots of refund requests which somehow have to be dealt with. It could well be that they never answer the refund request so put a time limit onto your request before you file a refund suit with the courts.
I am sure there will be lots of lawyers who will do this for a moderate fee (you should see that any fee you have to pay is moderate and fair – otherwise find another lawyer). The lawyers could even co-operate and co-ordinate their actions – even using the internet platforms already established – possibly Steven Hall could make yet another category for all those who wish to file a refund suit (IMO his site is the best suited for this type of information).
I wouldn’t be too concerned that you have paid the bill “out of your own agreement” – there is malpractice in this (see the above article)
ALSO: the Headley’s case would be flanked by other actions as well.
This actually mean that David Miscavige kept hundreds of ex SO members out of the Bridge and out of Scientology with huge FL bills, in fact punishing more those who served longer. Talk about being suppressive!
I have a link that refs. to the PL you mention.
HCO PL 11 June 1981R
Violation of Staff Covenant.
http://www.robertdam-cos.dk/HCO%20PL%2011%20June%201981R.pdf
http://www.robertdam-cos.dk/Freeloaders.html
http://www.wiseoldgoat.com/papers-scientology/hubbard_vs_freeloaders.html
The current way freeloader policy is applied is:
1. A disincentive to leave staff, which only grows stronger in the doubtful staff member with each passing year,
2. A make-wrong for anyone leaving, ie, your staff contributions, no matter how great, or how long you served, mean nothing, and you are now at a point of criminal exchange with the church, ie, you owe for all the services you took because your work was worthless.
3. A control method to keep people who left staff and probably are disgruntled to a greater or lessor degree, AWAY from the rest of the flock who are going along obediently.
4. A penance for your crime of leaving staff before a billion years is up. Another make wrong, any way you look at it.
These points above are utterly transparent to anyone outside the church or to people who've left and have had time to think about it.
It is extremely damaging to the church to continue this policy, yet they continue to do it. If you read Jeff Hawkin's Counterfeit Dreams, you see that the last straw for him was when he really woke up to the utter injustice of his freeloader bill. That is when he realized he wasn't gonna be a scientologist any more.
When you are still on staff, however, the idea of a freeloader debt of several tens of thousands of dollars can be terrifying, particularly when you've had your havingness and confidence bitch-slapped into dust by a decade or so of 50.00 a week pay, if that. Many of the staff that remain have been on staff for a long long time or were recruited as kids who never even had a job flipping burgers at McDonalds, such scenario commonly being foisted off on staff as their dismal fate if they are contemplating leaving.
This topic makes my blood boil and even more so when I think of those magnanimous types who are cutting deals with grateful ex-SO to reduce their debts if they buy more boxes of basement filler. GRRRRR!!!
I always had the view that the only way to get off of the ship was "in a box". Well, at least it worked for me. I had had a blood transfusion in Curacao in 1989 and worked there another 13 years. In the last 6 or 7 years the fatigue got worse and worse. I told the MLO countless times but she just thought it was from the long hours ( I did one job for 42 hours straight; well actually I did manage to get something to eat). After it came up in a CMO Metered interview that I had had suicide thoughts after I was denied permission to go to my parent's 50th wedding anniversary celebration. (It had been 7 years since I had been allowed to see any member of my family. CO CMO had an RTC order that I go into session everyday with tailor made FPRD. auditing. It went great for a while but atarted to bog as I was dead tired no matter how much sleep I got. I was sent to a hospital for testing. A week later I was called up to the MLO's office and with the Captain and Chieff Officer there, told that I was going for further testing to see Dr Denk. The Captain told me not to tell my wife I was going becasuse "You know how women can be about things like this". I thought WTF? I'm going to go to my cabin now and pack in front of her and then disappear in the morning without telling her? The Captain said OK, tell her."
What they were withholding from me is that I had tested positive for HIV, and as far as they were concerned, I was already dead and never coming back. They later did their best to ensure that that was the case, which I have explained on Marty's blog. I left the ship the next day and went to see Denk. When I walked into Denk's office, he looked up sadly from behind his desk and said "They didn't tell you. did they?
I had to 8C my own Fitness Board to be held(as why waste the effort on a corpse)as later I went to talk to IJC in LA as my wife was still being held against her will on the ship. When the Findings were written they stated that I was ineligible for SO membership "solely for medical reasons" ( I had already spent over half of this lifetime in the SO; a little late to decide that I didn't qualify,and my stats were up for many years.
I was granted an extended leave of absence and ordered to return to duty "As soon as possible Next Lifetime."
As an aside, I often did Quartermaster duty at the gangway as well as my own post. For several months around 1998 I was surprised to see that the QM desk had been turned around so the the QM, instead of facing outward to observe external threats to the ship, now faced inward. Obviously, the real threats were now considered to be the people on the ship, not the people off of it. It had been designed obviously to keep people from escaping from the ship.
Bill Straass
Second they must be desperate to get people to go back. They aren't able to confront reality that they have lost and desperate to try and recall those stupid enough to do it,then they are PTS to DM and his fake Church. God knows for what reason would any one what to do take the church offer up on this so call reduced Freeloader Bill. Its rubbish Come on.
It seems that people who really CAN'T think with the data try to lump together everyone under one umbrella. Hence the lumping of several definitions of Floating Needle, hence the lumping of everyone who leaves as a freeloader, etc.
If a kid comes back next lifetime and reports in as ex-SO but wants to just get some processing, is he labeled a freeloader for leaving, or perhaps the unauthorized departure from his/her former life? How crazy and A=A can we get ...
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* Very few realize that the collection of those made-up, illegal Freeloader 'Debts' is one of the MAIN source of income for the Continental Liaison Offices.
The other sources are outer-org trainees fees and 10% of the Corrected Gross Income of the Central Org of that continent e.g. New York for CLO East US, Toronto Day & Foundation (evenings) for CLO Canada, etc.
Flag Bureaux & Networks (FCB) used to get, PER LRH !, 10% of the CGI of the FSO, since the Flag Service Org is the "Central Org of Flag Management.
In 1996, David Miscavidge CANCELLED that source of income for the newly formed Flag Liaison Office (now called Int. Liaison Office) with his New Era of Mis-Management.
He implemented the collection of Freeloader Debts as a MAIN source of revenue for the Int.Liaison Office as well, the other being the billing of churches for outer-org trainees sent (mandatory) to the Int. Training Org (ITO).
One problem being that churches waste their time day-in/day-out regging for the Bleeping IA$ and Idle Org building. As a result, there is not enough Gross Income coming from Grade Chart donations, and the churches can't pay off their bills for outer-org trainees sent to the Continental Training Org. David Miscavidge thought this machination out very well.
Sea Org Management staff in Dept.7 Dept of Income spend their days and nights CALLING Ex-Sea Org members and HARASSING them to pay off those made-up, illegal FL Debts. They also mail them invoices. Nowadays, they probably inundate Ex-SO's e-mail accounts with daily e-mails of payment requests.
IT'S BLEEPING INSANE !
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