I don't know about 1978, but now they call them the Safety Department. They tote guns and radar. I saw one guy with a radar gun to see how fast people were speeding in and out of the OSC from breakfast one morning. They will approach anyone they don't recognize or who they know isn't still fellowshipping with twi.
I know the head Safety guy has a link with the local sherrif department also. He told some stories at lunch time once about things that happened with the sherrif regarding twi.
One was a lady who was caught stealing TVs. She told the sherrif she was with twi. Turns out she was ex-twi.
One guy was pulled over by the sherrif for throwing trash out his window near the auditorium. The guy told the sherrif he didn't agree with twi. The sherrif used his NRA sticker agains him by asking him if he believed in the constitution. The guy said yes, and the sherrif told him if he believed in the right to bear arms he had to believe in freedom of religion. Even the "unbelieving" sherrif stood ground for twi......hmmmmmm......things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm
Yeah - this should have been another red flag to me indicating where this sad organization was going.
But I knew Charlie Quillen when he was our branch leader in NY. He seemed to be fairly easy-going and mellow, so I wasn't concerned about the "Way police" being like storm troopers or even like real police. I thought they would just keep the grounds safe from the local malcontents and juvenile delinquents.
I don't remember if they had uniforms in the 70's - but it was called the Safety Department, not Way Police!
Kevlar is right, though. I know that some of the teenaged "townies" used to shoot up the big TWI sign at the end of Wierwille road. Sometimes they'd speed down the road yelling nasty stuff.
I think in a closed society like TWI, there needed to be some sense of security - "they're out to get us but we'll stop them" attitude.
But could "Bless Patrol" at the Rock really do anything??? Naw, not really. Whatcha gonna do with a yellow hat and a flashlight???
No, it actually was a legitimate police department for a short time. My recollection is that they found an obscure law that was designed to give religious authorities police powers to superivise revival meetings in unincorporated areas. The way farm is not in the town of New Knoxville - it is (or was) on unincorporated land. SO they set up this force and got it legitimatized.
My recollection gets hazy here because I wasn't directly involved (but did room with some of the "officers), but I seem to believe that they backed off this official stance after a short while - don't know if the law changed, if they read it wrong, or if they just didn't want to get into ....ing matches with the real authorities. So they turned what they had into Saftey Patrol and kept the guns and the cop cars.
I was in a bad mood at a ROA ( I guess a criminal offence at any ROA) in the mid-80s,
the last one I attended - and I guess they spotted the dark cloud hovering over my head as I was taking a stroll through the "Way Woods" one evening, trying to sort things through my mind. A command boomed forth from a yellow-hat Nazi, "STOP THERE, SIR!...SHOW ME YOUR LICENSE!" After showing my id, I was free to go...Needless to say, this overgrown "Deputy Dog" did not "bless" me at all.
Hehehe Dan. Keep in mind that most yellow-hatted bless patrolers were either peons in the Corps (the big-shot Corps snagged Important Jobs or no jobs during ROA) or returning/departing WOWs or other volunteers. They had nutn' to do with the Safety Dept.
I remember lots of funny BP stories, like kids trying to stop VP from going into his house or yelling at some big honcho Rev. who was breaking some rule or other.
When I was on HQ staff, the majority of the Safety guys were really nice guys, with only a couple of Barney Fife types mixed in. And they had (at that time...early to mid-80s) a decent working releationship with the local gendarmes. Most of their duties involved checking on fire alarms and shooing away teenagers driving up and down the road shouting insults and obscenities.
Of course this was before the days when "genuine spiritual suspicion" reigned supreme. Then they acquired the embarrassing job of having to escort M&A'd pepople off grounds.
A friend of mine from New Bremen (who had recently gotten fired or quit HQ staff) got a big chuckle. One day she was booted off HQ grounds by one of the Safety guys (she was visiting old friends and co-workers). Later that day she ran into the guy at the grocery store in St. Mary's. She just smiled and said "Hey" as if nothing had happened, and he blushed and sorta tip-toed away.
I was on Bless Patrol at a couple of ROA's. I stopped a car with Howard Allen in the back seat. We had been instructed that only cars with passes of certain colors could go down the road I was "guarding". A black limo with darkened windows pulled up, with NO PASS.
The driver, who spoke with a German (or maybe Dutch) accent insisted that he didn't need a pass, wasn't going to show me a pass, and that didn't I know that he was driving The Way's only limo? He chose not to mention that he had Howard Allen in the back. As I argued with Fritz, my partner blocked the path of the car with her body...until Howard Allen rolled down the back window, smiled, and said that they forgot their pass, could they please go in, he was very sorry about Fritz :D-->
My3cents: According to Karl Kahler in The Cult that Snapped the law was changed (due in part to the Way having its own Police) and they had to downgrade to a safety patrol.
Having gotten in TWI in '73 and generally being in close proximity, (under 100 miles,) to HQ most of the '70s and '80s, I spent a fair amount of time there and knew some staff folks.
A common complaint in the '70s was how some of the locals hassled HQ. They would drive by shouting and honking horns and doing general mischief. When the OSC was being put up and on a number of occasons after it was built, someone driving by also took potshots at it. A friend of mine on staff showed me a couple bullet holes in the front of the OSC, saying there were several more from the last drive-by. And yes there was a real frustration amoung the staff over the situation.
Calls to the Sherrifs Dept. generally took 20 minutes or more before they got to HQ. Of course that was way too late to curtail bad behavior. Someone in the legal dept. found the old law mentioned above and found it still to be valid. So they did the proceedures and did the training and there came to be a legal and proper police unit at HQ. Once the word went out, the hassling dropped to near zero.
Of course, once the word got out that a cult in Ohio had it's own police force, then every anti-way newspaper article written after that included the ol' "what does a church need a police force for?" question amoungst its accusations.
Eventually, some Ohio politicians picked up on the issue and sponsored an amendment to the police laws that nullified the religeous police allowance. Way Safety then had to become security guards instead and gave up their guns.
I am surprised to hear they are carrying guns again.
quote: I am surprised to hear they are carrying guns again.
I wouldn't be surprised if the neurotic, paranoid loy boy reinstated a policy for them to carry guns again. I remember loy boy sharing at lunch about his glock (sp?) and how he had it in a place where he could reach it quickly. He even said he practiced to see how fast he could load it. I wouldn't doubt if he had death threats on his life, but afterall, he did have Safety (and their guns) patroling his house 24/7. Staffers couldnt' even approach the chalet unless they were invited. The only ihnvitation I ever received to go there was to do spring-cleaning. Whoo! Hoo!
WN! I remember craig talking about his gun drawing practicing skills either in one of the advanced classes or ac specials.....maybe it was during the Y2K scare, err.....preparation time. I remember thinking he sounded like such a dork. My ex was a cop and he was extremely prepared and well practiced and I never knew him to do those things around our house.
"I remember loy boy sharing at lunch about his glock (sp?) and how he had it in a place where he could reach it quickly. He even said he practiced to see how fast he could load it."
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Nottawayfer
I don't know about 1978, but now they call them the Safety Department. They tote guns and radar. I saw one guy with a radar gun to see how fast people were speeding in and out of the OSC from breakfast one morning. They will approach anyone they don't recognize or who they know isn't still fellowshipping with twi.
I know the head Safety guy has a link with the local sherrif department also. He told some stories at lunch time once about things that happened with the sherrif regarding twi.
One was a lady who was caught stealing TVs. She told the sherrif she was with twi. Turns out she was ex-twi.
One guy was pulled over by the sherrif for throwing trash out his window near the auditorium. The guy told the sherrif he didn't agree with twi. The sherrif used his NRA sticker agains him by asking him if he believed in the constitution. The guy said yes, and the sherrif told him if he believed in the right to bear arms he had to believe in freedom of religion. Even the "unbelieving" sherrif stood ground for twi......hmmmmmm......things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm
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Kevlar2000
Yeah - this should have been another red flag to me indicating where this sad organization was going.
But I knew Charlie Quillen when he was our branch leader in NY. He seemed to be fairly easy-going and mellow, so I wasn't concerned about the "Way police" being like storm troopers or even like real police. I thought they would just keep the grounds safe from the local malcontents and juvenile delinquents.
I know better now.
:(-->
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washingtonweather
AS close as civilians unfunded by a municipality can get.
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Hope R.
I don't remember if they had uniforms in the 70's - but it was called the Safety Department, not Way Police!
Kevlar is right, though. I know that some of the teenaged "townies" used to shoot up the big TWI sign at the end of Wierwille road. Sometimes they'd speed down the road yelling nasty stuff.
I think in a closed society like TWI, there needed to be some sense of security - "they're out to get us but we'll stop them" attitude.
But could "Bless Patrol" at the Rock really do anything??? Naw, not really. Whatcha gonna do with a yellow hat and a flashlight???
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dmiller
I remember the "bless patrol/safety dept.", and the old "black and white" car prowling the campsites at the roa.
Funny, I never questioned it back then. But then again -- I never questioned the teachings either.
-->
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My3Cents
No, it actually was a legitimate police department for a short time. My recollection is that they found an obscure law that was designed to give religious authorities police powers to superivise revival meetings in unincorporated areas. The way farm is not in the town of New Knoxville - it is (or was) on unincorporated land. SO they set up this force and got it legitimatized.
My recollection gets hazy here because I wasn't directly involved (but did room with some of the "officers), but I seem to believe that they backed off this official stance after a short while - don't know if the law changed, if they read it wrong, or if they just didn't want to get into ....ing matches with the real authorities. So they turned what they had into Saftey Patrol and kept the guns and the cop cars.
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TheInvisibleDan
I got harrassed by the "Bless Patrol" once.
I was in a bad mood at a ROA ( I guess a criminal offence at any ROA) in the mid-80s,
the last one I attended - and I guess they spotted the dark cloud hovering over my head as I was taking a stroll through the "Way Woods" one evening, trying to sort things through my mind. A command boomed forth from a yellow-hat Nazi, "STOP THERE, SIR!...SHOW ME YOUR LICENSE!" After showing my id, I was free to go...Needless to say, this overgrown "Deputy Dog" did not "bless" me at all.
That was a weird ROA. I think it was '85.
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Linda Z
Hehehe Dan. Keep in mind that most yellow-hatted bless patrolers were either peons in the Corps (the big-shot Corps snagged Important Jobs or no jobs during ROA) or returning/departing WOWs or other volunteers. They had nutn' to do with the Safety Dept.
I remember lots of funny BP stories, like kids trying to stop VP from going into his house or yelling at some big honcho Rev. who was breaking some rule or other.
When I was on HQ staff, the majority of the Safety guys were really nice guys, with only a couple of Barney Fife types mixed in. And they had (at that time...early to mid-80s) a decent working releationship with the local gendarmes. Most of their duties involved checking on fire alarms and shooing away teenagers driving up and down the road shouting insults and obscenities.
Of course this was before the days when "genuine spiritual suspicion" reigned supreme. Then they acquired the embarrassing job of having to escort M&A'd pepople off grounds.
A friend of mine from New Bremen (who had recently gotten fired or quit HQ staff) got a big chuckle. One day she was booted off HQ grounds by one of the Safety guys (she was visiting old friends and co-workers). Later that day she ran into the guy at the grocery store in St. Mary's. She just smiled and said "Hey" as if nothing had happened, and he blushed and sorta tip-toed away.
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Oakspear
I was on Bless Patrol at a couple of ROA's. I stopped a car with Howard Allen in the back seat. We had been instructed that only cars with passes of certain colors could go down the road I was "guarding". A black limo with darkened windows pulled up, with NO PASS.
The driver, who spoke with a German (or maybe Dutch) accent insisted that he didn't need a pass, wasn't going to show me a pass, and that didn't I know that he was driving The Way's only limo? He chose not to mention that he had Howard Allen in the back. As I argued with Fritz, my partner blocked the path of the car with her body...until Howard Allen rolled down the back window, smiled, and said that they forgot their pass, could they please go in, he was very sorry about Fritz
:D-->
My3cents: According to Karl Kahler in The Cult that Snapped the law was changed (due in part to the Way having its own Police) and they had to downgrade to a safety patrol.
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dmiller
Now That's scary!!!!
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dabobbada
Having gotten in TWI in '73 and generally being in close proximity, (under 100 miles,) to HQ most of the '70s and '80s, I spent a fair amount of time there and knew some staff folks.
A common complaint in the '70s was how some of the locals hassled HQ. They would drive by shouting and honking horns and doing general mischief. When the OSC was being put up and on a number of occasons after it was built, someone driving by also took potshots at it. A friend of mine on staff showed me a couple bullet holes in the front of the OSC, saying there were several more from the last drive-by. And yes there was a real frustration amoung the staff over the situation.
Calls to the Sherrifs Dept. generally took 20 minutes or more before they got to HQ. Of course that was way too late to curtail bad behavior. Someone in the legal dept. found the old law mentioned above and found it still to be valid. So they did the proceedures and did the training and there came to be a legal and proper police unit at HQ. Once the word went out, the hassling dropped to near zero.
Of course, once the word got out that a cult in Ohio had it's own police force, then every anti-way newspaper article written after that included the ol' "what does a church need a police force for?" question amoungst its accusations.
Eventually, some Ohio politicians picked up on the issue and sponsored an amendment to the police laws that nullified the religeous police allowance. Way Safety then had to become security guards instead and gave up their guns.
I am surprised to hear they are carrying guns again.
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Nottawayfer
I wouldn't be surprised if the neurotic, paranoid loy boy reinstated a policy for them to carry guns again. I remember loy boy sharing at lunch about his glock (sp?) and how he had it in a place where he could reach it quickly. He even said he practiced to see how fast he could load it. I wouldn't doubt if he had death threats on his life, but afterall, he did have Safety (and their guns) patroling his house 24/7. Staffers couldnt' even approach the chalet unless they were invited. The only ihnvitation I ever received to go there was to do spring-cleaning. Whoo! Hoo!
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WordWolf
Someone asked about this old topic....
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Belle
WN! I remember craig talking about his gun drawing practicing skills either in one of the advanced classes or ac specials.....maybe it was during the Y2K scare, err.....preparation time. I remember thinking he sounded like such a dork. My ex was a cop and he was extremely prepared and well practiced and I never knew him to do those things around our house.
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A la prochaine
"I remember loy boy sharing at lunch about his glock (sp?) and how he had it in a place where he could reach it quickly. He even said he practiced to see how fast he could load it."
Wayfer Not....
OH MY GOD!!! Don't get me started!! :lol:
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