Aaron Smith-Levin was a leader of Leah Remini’s bigotry-for-profit Aftermath Foundation. Now he’s a convicted criminal for battery at a Church of Scientology facility. Hate doesn’t pay. It costs—sometimes your freedom. https://t.co/zqb3dAAkBJ
Jobs lost.
Businesses denied.
Families stigmatized.
Children ostracized.
For decades, Scientologists in Germany were treated as second-class citizens because of their religion.
Now Germany’s own surveillance campaign has ended without proving the allegations used to justify it.
Learn more: https://t.co/urYeAbFEE8
This was never just about one country.
Across Europe, North America and beyond, courts and governments recognized Scientology as a religion entitled to legal protection and religious liberty.
Germany stood apart from that consensus.
That isolation is now impossible to ignore. https://t.co/tKyG0p8NpD
The crime: battery. The criminal: Aaron Smith-Levin. The sentence: jail and a ban on even approaching any Church of Scientology facility. The consequence: a lifelong criminal record—and a need to find a new way to grift for cash. https://t.co/zqb3dAAkBJ
@standleague There's a person behind 30 years of prosecution and surveillance, he or she needs to be found and reacquainted with the German Constitution.
It's deplorable that Germany surveilled and harrassed Scientologists especially when their constitution forbids it: Article 4 of the German Basic Law (constitution), states that freedom of faith, conscience, and the right to profess a religious or philosophical creed are inviolable.
Inviolable. Yet that same government violated the rights of German Scientologists for more than 30 years. Sick.
Germany spent nearly 30 years treating Scientologists as threats to democracy.
The democratic world reached a different conclusion.
Scientology is a religion.
Scientologists have rights.
Discrimination is not democracy.
Now Germany’s surveillance ends with no proven threat: https://t.co/fzDQ87ZU0y
OMG, not an e-bike??? E-bikes are a communist plot... (that's sarcasm in case you weren't sure). It would be friggin laughable, if it wasn't so serious.
Germany spent decades portraying Scientologists as potential threats to democracy.
Yet one of the most revealing court cases had nothing to do with terrorism, extremism or public safety.
A woman was denied an environmental subsidy because she refused to declare she was not a Scientologist.
The issue was not terrorism.
It was not extremism.
It was an e-bike: https://t.co/aku1AgtC36
Has there ever been a more deserved outcome thanAftermath’s Aaron Smith-Levin winding up a convicted and jailed criminal for his battery at a Church of Scientology facility?
Confidential to Aaron Smith-Levin: for the rest of your life, answer “yes” to “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” https://t.co/tGYRoeBmvc
Germany cannot say it was never warned.
The warnings came from courts, diplomats, human rights advocates and international observers.
Germany heard them.
Then continued anyway.
Now the surveillance campaign ends without the threat ever being proven. https://t.co/JQeFPvKvOS
It was jail for Aftermath’s Aaron Smith-Levin for his disturbed battery at a Church of Scientology facility.
Now he has a lifelong criminal record—and a very clear indication of what lies ahead of him, unless he stops his violent bigotry. https://t.co/zqb3dAAkBJ
30 years of discrimination. OPC wasted 30 years investigating Scientology instead of looking for actual criminals. Shouldn't the OPC be disbanded and outlawed for NOT protecting the Constitution?
The OPC spent decades treating Scientologists alongside extremist movements.
After 30 years, where is the evidence?
Not one violent act.
Not one conspiracy.
Not one extremist network.
Only decades of discrimination against innocent people because of their religion.
https://t.co/3zcWtrz91t
Germany spent nearly three decades treating Scientologists as constitutional threats.
After all those years of surveillance and investigation, authorities produced no evidence that Scientologists were ever the danger they claimed.
The allegations collapsed.
But the damage done to thousands of innocent people was real.
Learn more: https://t.co/urYeAbFEE8
Aftermath’s Aaron Smith-Levin will need to find a new grift since he was convicted and jailed for battery at a Church of Scientology facility. His release requires him to stay away… @GrowingupinSCN
Will he follow the law this time? We’ll see. https://t.co/zqb3dAAkBJ
When will these bigots realize that prejudice and discrimination and bigotry are immoral whether they're illegal or not. So take your protected opinion and shove it.
CBS counsel Janell Wise thinks that “criminal” conduct is a matter of “protected opinion,” not fact.
Our protected opinion is that both Sulkin and Wise are bigoted, hypocritical and sad excuses for human beings... @SulkinMaya
If you practice journalism, you’re driven by facts. If you publish opinion, you can spew whatever bigotry you want—and that’s exactly what CBS News counsel Janell Wise says Maya Sulkin does: practice opinion.
That���s not journalism. @SulkinMaya
According to CBS News counsel Janell Wise, Maya Sulkin’s content is opinion—not journalism. That’s because Wise has to rely on “protected opinion” as a defense to justify her reporter’s defamation and bigotry against the Church of Scientology. @SulkinMaya