{"id":8853,"date":"2026-05-11T02:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/8853\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:48:16","slug":"as-200-draw-police-ire-in-brisbane-why-are-people-speed-running-scientology-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/8853\/","title":{"rendered":"As 200 draw police ire in Brisbane, why are people ‘speed running’ Scientology churches?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, Brisbane’s Church of Scientology became the latest target of a viral trend that began in the United States just a few months ago \u2014 the Scientology speed run.<\/p>\n

Expecting a potential attempt at trespass on church property, Queensland police stationed a number of officers outside the church’s George Street headquarters on Saturday and were expecting about a dozen people to turn up.<\/p>\n

But they were quickly overwhelmed by what turned out to be a crowd of more than 200.<\/p>\n

The chaotic scenes that unfolded included a person on a bike riding over the top of a police car while two others gained entry to an unlocked police vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police are searching for a person who rode their BMX over a police vehicle on Saturday. (Supplied: @dallasv.jpg)<\/p>\n

A 15-year-old Varsity Lakes boy and an 18-year-old Deception Bay man have since been charged over the disturbance.<\/p>\n

Acting chief superintendent Simon Taylor said police have launched an “extensive investigation through social media” to identify the main perpetrators behind the stunt, which police labelled intimidation.<\/p>\n

‘Real-world social media challenge’<\/p>\n

Much like the anticlimactic “Storm Area 51” event in the US,<\/a> which more than 2 million Facebook users signed up to (and only around 150 were reported to have actually attended), the Scientology speed run is an example of mass participation being used to “storm” a location considered secretive.<\/p>\n

The trend kicked off in March when a TikTok user posted a video of himself running deep inside the Church of Scientology Information Centre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

A follow up-video attracted more than 90 million views before it was taken down.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Scientology building in Brisbane’s CBD was the latest target of an online viral trend. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Since then, speed run attempts have been reported in multiple countries including Canada, France, Germany and the UK.<\/p>\n

Two teenage girls were arrested by police in Sydney on Saturday after a group of about 100 people gathered outside a Church of Scientology there.<\/p>\n

Associate professor of creative media at Bond University, James Birt, told ABC Radio the term “speed running” came from video games.<\/p>\n

“Speed running is where people try to complete a game or a level as quickly as possible,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Two people were filmed gaining access to a police car. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“It’s really quite a highly skilled practice where people spend hours trying to find exploits and various ways of getting through a level quicker.”<\/p>\n

“It’s really turning a video game trend into a real-world social media challenge,” he said.<\/p>\n

That’s where the concern sits, he said.<\/p>\n

“In a video game it’s a virtual place but in this case you’ve got real-world environments with real-world consequences.”<\/p>\n

“This is more about social media taking something from what is actually quite fun and interesting and challenging and playing it out in this TikTok trend of online silliness.”<\/p>\n

Professor Birt said the Church of Scientology was a tempting target because it was seen as a “sort of cultural meme” for many young people.<\/p>\n

\"Shot<\/p>\n

Police believed “around 12” people were going to attend the speed run on Saturday. (Supplied: dallasv.jpg)<\/p>\n

“It’s got that cultish, mysterious cultural phenomena behind it and then it becomes that idea of can I get inside the door, can I film it?”<\/p>\n

The church was contacted for comment over the Brisbane stunt but is yet to respond.<\/p>\n

Responding to similar incidents overseas, a spokesperson told the Associated Press that turning Scientology centres into “targets for viral stunts is not journalism, protest or civic activity. It is trespass, harassment and disruption of religious facilities.”<\/p>\n

‘Consequences need to be real’<\/p>\n

Local hotel worker Kacee Simeon, whose business sits near Brisbane’s Church of Scientology building, said around midday he noticed a number of teenagers starting to arrive in small groups, before gathering together across the road.<\/p>\n

“We stood outside just watching thinking what the hell is going on,” he said.<\/p>\n

“At the start we didn’t realise what was happening.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kacee Simeon said most of the group dispersed after about an hour. (ABC News: Tara Cassidy)<\/p>\n

After about 15 minutes, he said the group ran across the street, rushing the small metre-wide George Street door “to try and break in”.<\/p>\n

“They were trying to kick the doors in, like physically kick the doors in,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was crazy.”<\/p>\n

Some participants in the Brisbane speed run have taken to social media, posting their own videos from the event or tagging themselves in others.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Taylor said the brazen behaviour indicated “we are in a very different time where consequences don’t seem to matter.”<\/p>\n

“Our job is to make sure that it’s not just something that they think sits in a platform that’s out in the ether, that this is actually very real,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Acting chief superintendent Simon Taylor said police are actively monitoring social media. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“This isn’t just something fun that you post on social media so your mates can click like, this was a very deliberate act to intimidate people in our state.”<\/p>\n

“Our kids today think that everything is funny and sits in cyber-world. Their behaviour is real so the consequences need to be real.”<\/p>\n

Superintendent Taylor said police actively monitored social media for trends that could cause real-life disruption.<\/p>\n

“We are on those platforms looking for these type of things.”<\/p>\n

Police said kids who turned up “just to be seen” were no better than those causing damage to police vehicles.<\/p>\n

“Sitting there filming something happen, being passive to that behaviour, is like tacit approval so it’s no better,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the weekend, Brisbane’s Church of Scientology became the latest target of a viral trend that began in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3340,99,10235,10236,1047,211,212,10232,10233,6329,5521,10237,10234],"class_list":{"0":"post-8853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brisbane","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-brisbane","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-phenomena","12":"tag-police","13":"tag-qld","14":"tag-queensland","15":"tag-scientology-speedrun","16":"tag-speed-run","17":"tag-teenagers","18":"tag-tiktok","19":"tag-trend","20":"tag-viral"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}