Battalion: Protests Go on Despite Weather

Sarah Walch

October 25, 2002

More than 1,500 Falun Gong practitioners silently meditated and held signs while nearly 1,000 pro-China demonstrators waving Chinese flags held banners welcoming President Jiang Zemin to the George Bush Presidential Library Complex Thursday morning.

The two groups were separated by 50 feet and confined by 3-foot-high metal barriers while police looked on during Jiang's brief visit to College Station. Zemin arrived from Houston at 11 a.m. in a large motorcade and departed around 2 p.m.

The torrential downpour and lightning overhead did not affect attendance, though lack of parking and transportation prevented some Falun Gong protestors from arriving, said Jared Pearman, an informal Falun Gong organiser and a student at the University of Central Florida.

Pearman was one of many out-of-state protesters. Other protesters came from as far away as Boston, Maine, Vancouver and Poland.
[...]

Pearman said he participated in a protest in China in February that let him see Chinese oppression firsthand.

"The police hate you so much, it's hard to keep thinking straight," he said. "The Falun Gong practitioners in China must be so strong."
[...]

Bob Wiatt, Director of the University Police Department (UPD), said there was only one incident with the protesters, just before Jiang left.

Wiatt said 200 pro-China supporters left the barricades and headed toward Jiang's motorcade to welcome him. The horse patrol followed them, turned them around, and marched them back to the protesters' area, Wiatt said.

"The well-wishers just wanted to wave to their president, but they shouldn't have left the marked-off area," he said.

More than 250 police and authorities, not including the Secret Service protecting Jiang and former President George Bush, were on site Thursday. The UPD, Bryan and College Station police departments, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, and the Texas Department of Public Safety comprised the ground force.

"Other than the weather, the day was completely idyllic," Wiatt said. "The Falun Gong protesters were very well-behaved."

The mounted patrol had a total of 15 police officers from San Antonio and Galveston as well as UPD, Wiatt said.

Jiang will meet with President George W. Bush Friday at Bush's Crawford ranch.

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