(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.