Police arrest teen after crowd gathers at Vancouver News Church of Scientology
Vancouver news turned on a Saturday crowd of about 250 to 300 people outside the city’s Church of Scientology, where police moved in after getting word some were trying to enter the building. A 16-year-old male was arrested for breach of the peace and later released to his parents with no charges laid.
Sgt. Adam Donaldson said police arrived at about 3 p.m. and used officers pulled from other protests in the area. He said some young people at the rear broke a gate, but police kept them from entering and pushed the crowd away from the church.
Vancouver Church of Scientology Crowd
The gathering was tied to a social media speed running trend that sent participants into Church of Scientology locations, where they raced through hallways while avoiding security guards. Dominic Tomkowicz, who watched the scene, called it huge and said, “This is just another TikTok and social media trend that will eventually fade out in time.”
Tomkowicz also said, “Nobody gets harmed, I don’t see any harm in that. As long as … they don’t come back again and they follow the law, that’s perfectly fine.” His view ran alongside the police response, which treated the gathering as a public-order issue once officers received information that some people were trying to get inside.
Sgt. Adam Donaldson Warning
Donaldson said the teenager was arrested for pushing a police officer. He also warned participants about the criminal exposure that can follow attempts to force entry or damage property, saying, “If you are attempting to gain entry to a building, that is break and enter. If you are damaging property, that is mischief,” and adding that young people making those choices “could potentially catch a criminal charge and it would affect the rest of your life.”
The crowd returned at about 5 p.m., adding to the police response already in place. Donaldson said the crowd included a lot of young people and some were masked up, which put officers in the middle of a fast-moving scene built around a viral stunt rather than a planned protest.
David Statement
On Sunday, Church of Scientology spokesperson David described the Vancouver incident as more than a prank. “This was not a peaceful visit or lawful protest,” he said, adding that “It was a coordinated act involving attempts to breach a religious facility and disrupt its operations.”
also said, “Turning them (church facilities) into targets for viral stunts is not journalism, protest or civic activity. It is trespass, harassment and disruption of religious spaces.” For anyone drawn into the trend, the immediate consequence in Vancouver was plain: police stopped the entry attempt, one teen was detained, and the legal line Donaldson described now hangs over anyone who tries the same tactic again.
