A Brief Analysis of Mark Bunker's July 2, 1999 Video

On July 2, 1999, Mark Bunker was apprehended for trying to walk down a public street. Mr. Bunker had been trying to go film a Scientology-sponsored fair for his website xenutv.com when security guards told him to put away the camera and that the Scientologist's had a permit for the street he was apparently not allowed to walk down. After speaking with the security guards and one policeman, Mark Bunker took up a position near the entrance and proceeded to film those who attended.

If the Scientologists had simply allowed Mr. Bunker to sit there with his camera, nothing would have happened and he would have left empty-handed. However, the Scientologist decided that it was a better idea to send three people to "handle" him. The three Scientologists employed a tactic known as "bullbaiting" in which they tried to provoke a violent reaction from Mr. Bunker. The point of bullbaiting is to try and gain legal grounds for the arrest of a critic, which can also be used later as a way to discredit the said critic.

The Scientologists (one of whom was also picketing Mr. Bunker's home) began by asking him "what are your crimes". It is a common practice of Scientology to investigate any critic in search of past crimes. L. Ron Hubbard once said that anyone who attacks Scientology is a criminal and all you have to do is dig up their crimes and if you can't find any, manufacture them. One of the Scientologists asked Mark "Did you take time off from beating your wife to come here?" Another one of his "handlers" said that if he had to guess, he would say he was a pedophile.

The Scientologists also asked Mr. Bunker what he was afraid of. They said that the only reason for him to be criticizing Scientology was because he was afraid of his crimes being discovered. They also suggested that he was somehow afraid of people becoming more "free" and that he didn't want Scientology to keep improving people's lives. When asked what he was hiding, Mr. Bunker replied that he was apparently doing a very bad job of hiding considering that he had come out there in the first place.

Interestingly, the same people who continually accused Mr. Bunker of being a criminal seemed either unable or unwilling to address the challenges that he posed to them. When Mark brought up the death of Lisa McPherson, the Scientologists responded by saying that Lisa was just one person and that people die everyday day. When he pointed out that Lisa McPherson's death would not have occurred if Scientology had not trapped her in the Fort Harrison Hotel for seventeen days their only response was to stutter for a few seconds and then say that they weren't talking about Lisa McPherson "we're talking about your crimes! What have you done?" When Mr. Bunker mentioned Paullette Cooper and how Scientology had ruined her life, one of the Scientologists responded by saying "She had a life?" When Mr. Bunker brought up the way Scientology harrasses anyone who speaks out against them, they explained that he could say whatever he wanted just as long as he didn't say it there.

Amusingly, the last remark that the handlers made to Mr. Bunker were about the size of the CoS. They told him to just look at how huge Scientology is and pointed to that as evidence of its morality. At the same time, the Scientologists tried to intimidate him by calling him a "little gnat". Estimates put the attendance of the February 10 protest of Scientology at a minimum of 5,625 and a maximum of 8,362. Estimates for the March 15 protest are at a minimum of 7,797 and a maximum of 9,337 and attendance is projected to hit 20,000 by mid-2008...if there is one thing Scientologists should not be talking about, it is size.

http://www.xenutv.com/originals/4th.htm