(Clearwisdom.net)

On the afternoon of July 13, 2001, Falun Gong practitioners from Chicago embarked on the "SOS! Urgent Rescue Journey." The trip started in front of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago where practitioners were holding a press conference.

The day before, however, we learned that the Chinese Consulate was very irritated upon hearing our plans for the conference and they phoned the police to complain. The police, however, told us that our activity was absolutely lawful and that we could proceed as planned.

On the afternoon of July 13, when the practitioners arrived at the usually practice location (in front of the Chinese Consulate), we did the exercises and appealed. We were surprised, however, to find that there were three giant U-Hauls blocking the site. One practitioner who arrived early saw a woman walking out of the Consulate building and adding money to the parking meters beside the trucks. Because the trucks were blocking the site we had agreed upon, the practitioners could only bring posters to the roadside and hand out the materials there.

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Around 4 o'clock, when our activity was almost over, one woman and three men came out of the Consulate and drove away in the trucks. One of the men was an officer we were very familiar with. During the parade on April 25 in Chicago, he came out from the Chinese Consulate and asked the police to stop us, though the police officer strongly denied him. During the Chicago conference in June, he was also there, sitting and observing for quite a long time. It seems as though the Chinese Consulate has put much effort into interfering with the practitioners' peaceful appeals.