The following events took place during our exercise demonstrations and
candlelight vigils in front of New York's Waldorf Hotel during the World
Economic Forum (WEF) from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, 2002.
- The New York police know our group well. On duty officers said "You
are the best group, always so well behaved and peaceful. When I heard that
my job was to be assigned to the Falun Gong permit site, I thought I was the
luckiest person. Other officers were jealous that I would have an easy
job."
- Two police officers were talking to each other. Officer A was teasing
Officer B. Officer A said to Officer B, "You can tease me all you want.
But don't even think of making fun of Falun Gong. If you do you'll probably
come back in your next life as a bird...a very small bird." Even
the Western police who are not familiar with Eastern belief enlightened to
the principle of "Good is rewarded with good and evil will meet
retribution." á
- Two officers were watching practitioners do the 4th exercise.
One of the officers started to follow along, doing it himself. He said,
"I wanted to know what it felt like to do it." When the
practitioners explained more about the exercises, he said he liked it and
wanted us to come to the police station and teach all the officers how to do
the exercises. He said, "We really need to learn how to relax
more." á
- There was a mounted police squad on patrol for the large noisy group protest
by other groups coming later in the afternoon. The horses seemed nervous and
stepped very nervously. The mounted police squad stopped and rested the horses
in front of the Falun Gong site while the practitioners were doing the
exercises. After a few minutes, the horses looked very relaxed and dropped
their heads. All the officers on duty said, "Hey, look at the horses!
Even they are calmer and relaxed." A while later the horse patrol passed
by again, the officers on the ground said jokingly, "Look they are coming
back to relax again."
- A media photographer and police officer were talking together about Falun
Gong. The photographer was telling the police officer, "Those guys are
the best group. They are really great!" The police officer said,
"You are right, I totally agree." á
- Top officials came to our permit site to shake our hands and respectfully
tell us they admired our discipline, courtesy, good behavior, peaceful nature
and especially our truthfulness. A senior police official said he could not
believe how professional we were and that when we applied for the permit we
did everything legally and above board. We even provided background
information on our group which other groups never do. In addition, we always
followed our plan and we did everything that we said we would do. When he
attended a high level briefing on the groups that were scheduled to show up
outside the WEF meeting, someone asked him about Falun Gong. He replied,
"They are the only group that has a legitimate reason to be there. You
will have no trouble from them at all. They are a real pleasure to work
with." Other senior officers in the meeting all shook their heads in
agreement.
á
- Swedish practitioners were going to a café for a hot drink. There were four
plainclothes police at a table having coffee and taking a break from the cold
weather. When they saw the practitioners wearing their Falun Gong scarves,
they said, "Hey are you guys Falun Gong, the ones out in front of the
Waldorf?" The Swedish practitioners replied yes and asked them how their
day was going. The police said, "If everyone was a good as you our job
would be a lot easier." Then all the officers stood up and reached across
the table to shake their hands as a gesture of thanks.
á
These are a few things that I heard,
witnessed or was told by other practitioners.