Council Member John Liu Dodges Questions from Beleaguered Community
| July 3, 2008 | ||
| By Joshua Philipp/Epoch Times New York Staff | ||
FLUSHING, New York City—Falun Gong practitioners brought some challenging questions to New York City Council Member John Liu on July 2. The session was arranged by Liu’s office and held at the Flushing, Queens branch of the New York library. The discussion lasted over 2 hours and was attended by about forty Falun Gong practitioners and some media. It was the result of repeated requests by Falun Gong practitioners to meet with Liu since violent attacks against them began happening frequently on May 17. On Monday, Liu met with individuals whose photographs and names have been published in The Epoch Times and identified as allegedly attacking Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing. Much of the conversation in the library meeting was related to practitioners’ concerns about Liu’s lack of response to the Flushing attacks. A video was played for Liu by Falun Gong practitioners which showed an overview of some of what had happened. Most of the footage took place on Main Street of Flushing near the library. In the video, people who were not Falun Gong practitioners waved Chinese Communist flags, and shouted death threats, physically attacked, spit on, and cursed at Falun Gong practitioners. Liu watched the footage quietly, and dismissed it as not showing anything significant. When asked later in the meeting if he considered what he had seen in the video footage as violence against Falun Gong practitioners, Liu said he considered footage of someone ripping a table banner to be violent. But when he was pressed to address acts of physical violence against Falun Gong practitioners he had viewed earlier in the meeting, Liu evaded taking a position. “Show me where, show it to me [evidence of violence],” said Liu. Practitioners also expressed concern that Liu has yet to step forward and condemn those who have attacked Falun Gong practitioners in the past six weeks. One attendee at the meeting asked if he planned to have a City Council meeting on the topic of violence against Falun Gong practitioners. “No, I have no plans to do that,” answered Liu. “Of course I will consider it if you give me some indication that in fact this mob violence has taken place.” The numerous incidents of violence raised in the meeting are related to mob attacks that were initiated by pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) groups in Flushing on May 17 and have continued since. The attacks began after CCP-controlled media broadcasted false reports into China and Chinese communities that Falun Gong practitioners had been stopping funds from reaching the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. Since then, numerous threats, verbal and physical attacks have been directed at Falun Gong practitioners, volunteers at the Service Center for Quitting the CCP on Flushing’s Main Street, and staff members of The Epoch Times. |
