(Clearwisdom Net) Falun Gong practitioners planned to hold a press conference in front of the Chinese Consulate on the afternoon of July 13. The theme of the press conference was " S.O.S Urgent: Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China." Four Illinois practitioners were departing for Washington, D.C. later that same afternoon to hold press conferences and teach the exercises in dozens of cities along their way.

Around one o'clock, practitioners came to the Chinese Consulate to attend the press conference. We found that officials from the Consulate had already parked three U-Hauls trucks on the street where we usually hold activities. The trucks obstructed most of the view. Several practitioners among us had to carry the posters and stand at the intersection on the side of the Consulate to distribute the Dafa materials.

Around 2:40 pm, a group of people, including a man wearing a red shirt, rushed toward us and started making insulting gestures, while others began using foul language. All the practitioners kept calm. Later on, a man in a black suit extended his hands to the chest of practitioner Lu Feng, and tried to grab the Falun Gong materials from her. The man did this three times and finally grabbed them and crumpled them up.

After that, another man started to grab the materials from practitioner Fang Lin's hands. At the same time, he began to insult us. They also kicked the board in front of practitioner Xiaoqian, knocking it down three times. The man in red and the man in gray kicked the board the hardest. In the end, the man in gray still seemed unsatisfied and began acting like a hoodlum in the front of the Consulate. Facing many young female practitioners and even the guests invited by the Consulate, he put his hands on his lower body and made obscene sexual gestures, while at the same time spewing forth dirty language.

Later investigation and verification revealed that one of people who caused this disturbance is Qiu Chaolian (i.e. the white haired man in the red shirt ). He is the vice-chairman of the Greater Chicago Chinese Association. The person in the black suit is Mei Guojin, who wears glasses and has a dark complexion.

After the police officers arrived, Lu Feng asked them to verify the identification of Qiu Chaolian; she also said that she wanted to sue the people and the thugs who attacked us. The policemen wrote up a report, interviewing both Lu Feng and Qiu Chaolian about the attack.

The man in gray in the photo is the person who acted like a hoodlum. If anyone recognizes him, please mail his name and background to yang_sen@hotmail.com. As to the indecent behavior in front of the Chinese Consulate, we will resolve that legally.

We restate that Falun Gong is a cultivation group. We went to the Chinese Consulate solely to protest the persecution and killing of Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang Zemin's evil regime. We plan to attend the "S.O.S Urgent: Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China" event in Washington, D.C.