From October 16-22, Falun Dafa practitioners held a series of activities in celebration of Falun Dafa Week/Day as proclaimed by ten cities in California.
On October 22, at 8 a.m., about 100 practitioners held a large-scale, group practice at China Garden Park, in San Francisco's famous China Town. Around 11 a.m., a gang of about 35 unknown men, aged between 50 to 60 years old, approached the practice site and started to create trouble by tearing up newspapers and introductory material used to inform the public about the persecution of Falun Gong. Upon observing the disruption, a practitioner immediately began to take photos of the men causing the trouble. Suddenly, a few members of the gang jumped this practitioner from behind, knocking his glasses to the ground. They grabbed his camera, threw it to the ground and stomped upon it. Some other members of this gang beat up another practitioner. They grabbed and tore his clothing almost exposing his upper body. His eyeglasses were broken during the scuffle. One practitioner who tried to stop the fighting also was beaten and injured, with blood coming from his mouth. This gang of men beat, verbally abused and insulted the peaceful practitioners, in both Cantonese and Taishan dialects.
Police arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later and arrested two members of the gang. Police located the camera that one of them had stolen and filed criminal charges against them, upon interviewing all witnesses and filing a police report.
Category: Persecution Outside China