(Clearwisdom.net) On June 14, 2008, more than 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world held a grand parade in Flushing, New York. The New York City Police Department provided protection for the parade participants and many Flushing residents supported the practitioners.
The grand parade
Practitioners from around the world carried banners
Mr. Ye, owner of a Chinese restaurant, said to a reporter: "Falun Gong practitioners are China's conscience. They are trying to wake people up." Mr. Ye believes that people of justice will make a fair judgment about the recent assaults against Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operatives.
Mr. Ye said, "Somebody yelled at me and tried to stop me taking the Epoch Times newspaper yesterday. I have been in America, a free society, for 30 years. How can they try to deprive me of my freedom?" Mr. Ye said of the CCP agents, "Those goons had really bad manners. They verbally abused and physically attacked Falun Gong practitioners. How can they do that?"
Mr. Ye continued, "Being against the current government is not equal to being against China. People are the master of the country and the government depends on the people. It is normal that people monitor the government. In America, people can criticize the president. The goons in Flushing are just the slaves of the Chinese Communist Party."
Mr. Ma from Liaoning said, "Those thugs are not well educated. It is obvious." He said that what Falun Gong practitioners have been doing is just, and those attackers should be punished by the law.
The parade was organized by the Eastern U.S. Falun Dafa Association and the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP claimed that more than 2,000 Chinese anti-Falun Gong organizations would be assembled in Flushing to overwhelm the grand parade, but on that day, only several dozen CCP people showed up. They shouted at Falun Gong practitioners, but were driven away by the police. One of them got a ticket from the police.
Ms. Li, a volunteer for the Service Center for Quitting the Party, told a story about the CCP's recent attempts to sabotage Falun Gong's efforts. "A guy made up lies and told people that Falun Gong practitioners are paid to pass out flyers on the street. A lady passed by him, and asked 'How much are they paid each day, then?' That guy said, 'One hundred dollars.' The lady said, 'At the rally just now, I saw a lot of Falun Gong practitioners who are engineers and who have college degrees. They all have high incomes. Isn't ridiculous that they would come here, passing out flyers in the hot sun, for one hundred bucks a day?' The guy became quiet and went away."
Mr. Wang Zhiyuan, a representative from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), gave a speech at the rally. He exposed the CCP spies' tricks: 1) the spies pretend to be Falun Gong practitioners, and say things which make the local Chinese people mad. 2) the spies pretend that they used to have sympathy for Falun Gong practitioners, but then say that they learned the "truth" of Falun Gong, so now they are against it. They try to confuse people with their words. 3) The spies pretend to be Falun Gong practitioners and beat local Chinese people, including old people and pregnant women. The spies even arranged photographers to take photos of "Falun Gong beating people." Since practitioners have found out these tactics, the thugs' tricks are not effective.
Mr. Wang said that WOIPFG is conducting an investigation into the assaults in Flushing and has collected a lot of evidence. The WOIPFG warns all people who are involved in the assaults to stop this criminal behavior, as otherwise they will be punished by the law.