Dalian City Police: "The Law is Nothing; The Law is Only for Show"

By Dafa Practitioner from China

Every year in February and March, when people were celebrating the Chinese New Year and the People's National Congress was in session, Jiang's regime would carry out a large-scale illegal manhunt and arrest campaign. Over 100 local Falun Dafa practitioners, the people arrested ranged from a 79-year-old senior citizen to nursing mothers. Even the police themselves believed that this activity was illegal and vicious. During President George W. Bush's visit, Jiang's regime claimed that people who have religious beliefs were arrested because "they broke the law." Please see the facts below, judge for yourself who broke the law.

1. Pre-determining Charges, Arbitrarily Imposing Fines

Between February 7~9, 2001, Dalian City Shahekou Police Department personnel illegally arrested 80-90 Falun Dafa practitioners on predetermined charges. Any practitioners who wanted to continue to practice Falun Dafa or refused to acknowledge the slandering of Falun Dafa would be sent to Yaojia Detention Centre for 15 days of "administrative detention." No single practitioners had broken any law. The police asked everyone three questions. First, "Do you practice Falun Gong?" Second, "Do you accept the charges against Falun Gong?" Third, "What's your opinion on the 'self-immolation' incident?" All the practitioners were very clear on the answers. They told the police interrogators that Falun Dafa was righteous; that the "self-immolation" incident was a government-staged act to frame Falun Dafa and it had nothing to do with Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioners were charged with "disturbing social order" for answering these questions. The police officers laughed when asked what provisions of the law were broken. While laughing, the officers told Falun Dafa practitioners that they were following instruction from upper level authorities. One Falun Dafa practitioner pointed out that the Central Government spokesperson claimed that the Chinese Government did not arrest a single person for just practicing Falun Gong. The police officers answered that they don't read newspapers; newspapers are for ordinary people, and they follow orders. The police authorities revealed that they got a set quota from their superiors and they had to fulfil it, otherwise they would lose their jobs. In addition, an insider from the police office said that the orders from their superiors were illegal and there was no written documentation. All orders were given orally. Bonuses would be revoked if there were no actions.

There was a manhunt and arrest again, between February 8-9, 2002. This time only one question was asked: "Do you practice [Falun Gong] or not?" If the answer were yes, the practitioner would be arrested. The charge was "disturbing social order," and the sentence would be one month of criminal detention. Because many Falun Dafa practitioners […] refused to cooperate and resisted their evil deeds, only 20-30 practitioners were arrested. However, around 200 Falun Dafa disciples were harassed. One Falun Dafa disciple was forced to jump from a tall building and died [see details below].

2. Trampling Human Rights, Disregarding the Law, Displaying Wilful Behaviour

During the time when the National People's Congress was in session and the UN Human Rights Commission was being held, many Falun Dafa practitioners were arrested. This action was despicable and astonishing. Please see the following facts.

A 68-year-old woman's husband did not permit her to leave her home after July 20, 1999. Her neighbour is a Falun Dafa practitioner. The police came to arrest her neighbour, but nobody was at home. They knocked on their door to ask the whereabouts of the neighbour. The police also asked if she practiced Falun Gong. The woman was a little scared and answered that she used to practice. She was brought to the police station. While recording the interrogation on the paper, the police asked her if she was still practicing. She answered that she was not practicing any more. She told them, though, that when her husband snored loudly in his sleep and she could not fall asleep, she likes to sit in the lotus position and meditate. "That means you are practicing," replied the police officer. The woman answered that monks also meditate. "Monks can meditate, but you cannot," the officer replied. The police also asked if she agreed with the government's allegation against Falun Gong. The woman stopped the police officer immediately, "Young man, this is the righteous Fa [Law and Principles]. All it talks about is to be a good person and to do good things. How can I speak against my conscience?" The police officer asked her about the "self-immolation" incident. The woman answered: "I never watch TV. But I watched the 'self-immolation' story because my husband wanted to 'educate me.' I watched it carefully but found out that it was a fake." The woman continued: "I am almost 70 years old. Why would I lie to you?" The officer was silent. After a while they told the woman that what she just said was enough to put her in jail. Because she was an elderly woman, they could let her go as long as she cursed Falun Dafa and the Teacher Li. The woman refused. The police changed her age from 68 to 38 and sent her to Yaojia Detention Centre.

Half of the people who were arrested were elderly, like the woman mentioned above. Some of them were arrested on their way to hospitals to visit their daughters-in-law who had just given birth, carrying gifts of fruit in their hands. Most of them were arrested at home, while cooking, doing housework, or looking after grandchildren, who were also taken away by the police. Some of them had sons or daughters who had left the country for a long time and had just returned from abroad, and they were arrested before they had the chance to talk with their children. […]

One practitioner was taking care of an old patient at home. Police came in and wanted to take the practitioner away. The practitioner asked the police who they thought "would take care of the patient if you take me away?" The police replied that they would contact other member's of the family, but the practitioner had to go with them. The practitioner then questioned the police, who are actually breaking up families, driving family members away and even causing death to their members, who they thought was actually forbidding family affections? The police officers said, "It is our task to take you in and you have to go with us." The practitioner loudly exposed the evil act of the police to the neighbours, saying, "They would not let me take care of the old patient. They locked the patient in the room and insisted on taking me away." The neighbours condemned the inhumanity of the police, saying that what TV propaganda had accused Falun Gong of, such as illegal behaviour or having no affections were all lies. The police showed crestfallen expressions under these accusations but still took the practitioner away.

Most of the young practitioners were taken away from work. Some were forced into a police vehicle while on their way to work. One mother was taken away while she was nursing her infant.

The police arrested practitioners without going through any normal legal process. Even further, during the massive arrests on the 8th and 9th of February 2002, it was the police action of breaking into one practitioner's apartment that caused the practitioner to fall off the building. But the police said that it was a suicide. The family members believed the police in the beginning. Three days later at the practitioner's cremation, a lot of police officers also showed up to videotape the ceremony. About 50 relatives of the family felt strange and they asked the police with righteous words, "Why do you record a video here? Who approved this?" The family requested the videotape. After they got the tape, they thought about what had happened and were doubtful. Considering the broken door of the practitioner's home and looking at the frightened appearance of the deceased person, they decided against the cremation right then. The deceased's body was then held in a hospital in Dalian City under the police's control. The police did not allow any relatives to see it. The officers with a guilty conscience replaced the broken door with a new one, and then tried hard to get hold of the broken one from the family members. The family did not co-operate with them and insisted on appealing, according to the law.
Jiang's regime is simply using the guise of operating under a legal system but is conducting entirely illegal acts. These people wilfully trample on the legal system and there are no human rights to mention.

3. Knowingly Violating the Law, and Shifting the Responsibility to Each Other

For these two massive arrests, no police dared to use "articles of the law" against Falun Gong practitioners, because no lawful term could be applied. When some practitioners asked for the "articles of law," the police said they only did what they were told to do by their higher authorities. Practitioners asked why the government enacted laws. The police replied, "What law? The law is only for show. We are carrying out instructions from higher authorities. There is no law to talk about. We don't talk about law with Falun Gong." Some police said, "Look at your Falun Gong. First you don't overthrow the communist party, second you don't topple Jiang's regime, always talking about Truthfulness, Benevolence and Tolerance, and being a good person. Nowadays you are not allowed to be a good person. If everybody becomes a good person, would those bad people in power not lose their audience? All of this is because of Jiang. It is none of our business. We are only the tools, and we only follow the orders from upper level authorities." Practitioners replied, "We do not get involved in politics; we only tell the truth to people, tell people that Falun Dafa is for [...] promoting the well-being of mankind."

Some practitioner's relatives used to believe in stories on TV and in newspapers while not believing in Falun Dafa truth-clarifying materials. After experiencing these illegal arrests and witnessing the truth in person, they realized that TV broadcasts and newspapers were lying. They stopped helping the police to monitor their relatives as they did before, and turned to reason with the police and asked for the release of their relatives. They criticized the police: "What you have said and done totally disagrees with what has been described by TV broadcasts and newspapers. How could you distort the facts in such a way? You know the law and you are violating the law! Our country could be ruined if you mess things up!" The police replied, "These were the instructions from higher authorities; they assigned the list of names for these arrests; even the questions were defined and agreed upon by the higher authorities. We only carry out the instructions. You can go and ask the higher authorities." Some family members reached the higher authorities, but were told by them; "The street police stations were messing things up; you don't have to offend the police stations, and we will try to help you out. It has now been stipulated that as long as you say you practice [Falun Gong], you will be treated in such a way." Family members asked, "Where is the law?" (Show me the law) They could not explain it. They said "higher authorities" ordered them to do so. They all recognized that they were violating the law, but nobody dared to take the responsibility

Falun Dafa practitioners today are explaining the truth to the public. Risking their lives, they clarify the truth to everyone. This is also being truly responsible to society, and to our nation. Hereby we call for the kind-hearted people of the whole world to uphold justice, uphold human rights, support the practitioners in Mainland China, and stop the Jiang group's criminal acts of ignoring the law and treading on human rights.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/4/20/21163.html
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/4/11/28269.html