(Clearwisdom.net) We would like to share our experiences of how we
clarified the truth to the police in Manhattan, their reactions, and our
learning and improvements in xinxing cultivation resulting from this effort.
1) Attending "National Night Out"
In order to meet the needs of truth clarification and activities to offer
salvation to people in Manhattan, we realized that it was imperative to clarify
the truth to the N.Y.P.D. At the beginning of August, after three days of
preparation, a few dozen of us practitioners attended the "National Night
Out" event - a national anti-crime activity organized by more than a
dozen police precincts. I went to one of the precincts with two Western
practitioners. We talked to over a hundred police officers and local residents
and told them that we are part of the community and we practice Falun Gong - a
traditional Chinese meditation exercise. We distributed truth-clarification
materials to about one hundred police officers and talked thoroughly with over a
dozen of them. After they heard the truth of the persecution in China and our
anti-persecution efforts, they showed their understanding and support. They
couldn't believe this persecution was happening in China. Two policemen right
away expressed their interest in learning Falun Gong. A Chinese-American police
officer with a high rank in the police department gave me his home phone number
in order for him to learn more about Falun Gong.
That day we all felt that we had gained a lot. Several local police officers
originally hadn't even allowed us to distribute truth-clarification materials,
but now they changed after meeting with the practitioners. Some police
departments even provided us desks and told us to put the truth-clarification
materials in the most visible places. One police department invited our
practitioners right away to do the "sensitivity training" for
their police officers. With this cultural connection and communication, we've
gained more understanding and support from the police.
In this way, we started establishing a friendly relationship with many area
police departments.
2) Participating in "Sensitivity Training"
In the following two months, we clarified the truth to almost all the police
precincts in Manhattan except for one that we are still trying to contact. We
went to every police department twice - at 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. In
between their shifts, we held "sensitivity training," which helped
many officers further understand us. We usually have four to six practitioners
working together. Two practitioners explain and talk, while the rest demonstrate
the exercises. Sometimes, we had special speakers to give short presentations,
mostly sharing their past experiences of being persecuted. At the conclusion we
usually hand each police officer a Falun Gong truth-clarification brochure and a
flyer.
These are the topics that we are mainly focusing on:
A) We are part of the community. We usually start with introducing ourselves, including our names and professions, letting them know that we are volunteers who work against the persecution and that we are here to let more people know the truth.
B) What Falun Gong is, and its worldwide dissemination.
C) The persecution, including the persecution experienced by New York practitioners.
D) The reasons why we are appealing on the streets of New York to stop the persecution.
At the end we customarily have a question and answer time.
I remember my first attempt to clarify the truth to the police. I was so
nervous, facing a full house of police officers. I talked non-stop for more than
ten minutes, trying to cover everything. Afterwards we exchanged feedback.
Fellow practitioners told me not to rush, to start slowly, and to gradually
explain the truth, in order to be more effective.
We always exchange opinions among ourselves and learn from our experiences. As a
result of our discussions, we have changed from one main speaker to two or three
of us speaking. Later on, we also started giving lotus flowers to the police
officers as gift.
3) Smiles, Hot Tea, Permission and Understanding from Police Officers toward
Dafa Disciples
Several times I noticed that some police officers smiled at me when they met me
on the street and they also explained to me, "You did 'sensitivity
training' for us." In one police department an officer murmured to
himself after he listened to our truth-clarification, "You are the best
protest group I've ever seen in my life." Another policeman corrected him
right away, "They are not a protest group. They are only appealing
peacefully."
In a police department that I've been in contact with for five years, when they
saw us doing "sensitivity training" for them, two police commanders in
charge of community affairs welcomed us with hot tea. They also told all the
police officers, "This is the group of good people in front of the Chinese
Consulate. You all have to listen carefully to what they say." When we left
they saw us off and said, "Please, let us know if you need anything."
Those policemen who listened to our truth-clarification gave us a friendly wave
when they saw us on the street.
There is another police department that I had had contact with for a sound
system use permit. Previously, it was always difficult to reach somebody there
and they were always indifferent. However, after four sessions of
"sensitivity training" they became very friendly, and are now willing
to help us whenever we need them. On several occasions, they even initiated
phone conversations with me. They have never revoked any of our permits for
using a sound system since then. They even indicated that they would never issue
any sound system violation tickets to Dafa practitioners.
4) The Change of Heart of a Director in the Manhattan Police Headquarters
Prior to the Republican National Convention, there were misunderstandings
between us and a certain director at Police Headquarters. He asked us to cancel
many of our activities. He also demanded that several other local police
departments to stop issuing permits to us.
After I heard this, I felt that the situation needed immediate attention. I
first completely denied any possibility of his misunderstanding us, and firmly
believed that whatever we needed for Dafa, we would get. So I made an immediate,
urgent phone call to his office because I felt that lots of living beings would
face dangerous consequences due to his action. I asked him to return my call. He
did, and agreed to meet with me that same day, even though he was very busy.
I went to meet him with another practitioner. We told him that we were trying to
use this noble way to fight against the most evil persecution and to help save
the innocent people who are being persecuted in China. We said that he was
discouraging our righteous activities and his actions were contrary to the
spirit of New Yorkers. I also emphasized that thousands of Dafa practitioners
from all over the world might suffer from his actions because there was not even
a place in New York for these kind and selfless people to appeal.
He changed after talking to us, and we got all our permits. I also said to him,
"You know, in order to reach more people, we often don't have time to sleep
or eat. We have tried so hard to build a friendly relationship with all our
local police departments, to have them understand us more. But now you sent your
command to stop all our permits, which made me feel desperate. Could you please
try not to intervene in the future with any permits we get from our local police
departments unless there is a big event?" He agreed and promised not
to interfere with anything we did with our local police departments. He also
mentioned that it's a great idea to do "sensitivity training."
He treated me like a friend.
5) Some Friendly Reminders for Our Fellow Practitioners
The following are some observations from our team: some of our fellow
practitioners are not very courteous when dealing with police officers on
the streets. Sometimes, it might be because of their limited English
language skills. Sometimes it might be because we are acting too harshly.
Some of our practitioners argue with police officers, telling them that we have
our rights to appeal and it's guaranteed by the Constitution, which leaves them
with a bad impression of Dafa practitioners. They felt our attitude was too
harsh. But in fact, most of the time, the police officers just wanted to make
sure we were not causing any inconvenience and that we were more considerate of
the pedestrians. They didn't have any intention of being against us, and we
should never push them to be against us. As a matter of fact, the police
have always gone out of their way to facilitate our activities and always treat
us kindly and fairly. They never barricade us in. They've always tried to help
us.
Some fellow practitioners often ignore regulations about not tying our banners
on public property such as telephone poles or streetlights, which is not
appropriate.
There are lots of thoughts about our work with the Manhattan Police Department.
We have only shared some of them here. We are hoping that all of our Dafa
disciples will show our New York Police only benevolence and kindness. We should
thank them more, smile more and understand them more. If we make mistakes
we should apologize to them and correct our mistakes next time. Kindness
and compassion should always be the image of Dafa disciples.