NEW YORK—While filming an interview in Flushing, Queens, a T.V. reporter was attacked by two individuals. The incident was recorded on video and the individuals who attacked the reporter were arrested.
On the corner of Main Street and Maple at approximately 2 p.m., Jiang Zhu, a reporter with New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) was filming an interview with a Falun Gong practitioner near a table where Chinese distribute hate propaganda against Falun Gong. As Zhu was filming, a man began to curse at her shortly before a Chinese man wearing a hat and dark sunglasses hit her camera.
“They do so many bad things,” said Zhu. “He didn’t hit me, he just tried to ruin my camera. They’re very sneaky.”
In the video recording, Zhu turns her video camera and the man is seen slamming his hand into the camera lens before turning his head and hastily walking away. As Zhu films him walking away, her camera is again hit from the side, this time by a Chinese woman, and the camera is seen violently jerking. Zhu’s camera is hit loud enough for it to be heard in the recording.
The Chinese man then returned to continue his attacks on Zhu. In the video, he is seen walking towards her, grabbing onto the camera’s lens and pulling at it. During the attack, part of the microphone was broken and the attackers had torn Zhu’s press credentials from her neck. At one point, Zhu alleged that the man pushed her to the ground.
The area where Zhu had been filming is near one of two tables that were set up by a group of Chinese to spread propaganda against Falun Gong. On May 17 of this year, a pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) group numbering in the hundreds attacked Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, a community in Queens with a large Chinese population. The attacks have continued since, though on a smaller scale. At least two of the individuals working at the tables have been arrested in the past for attacking Falun Gong practitioners.
According to Zhu, workers at the table also tried to frame her. Shortly after the police arrived on the scene and began assessing the situation, the Chinese man was arrested. Zhu told the police that the woman had also attacked her, but at first, police refused to arrest her due to a lack of evidence.
Zhu was then approached and told by an officer to not use her camera to hit people in the face. “The bad people lied to them,” said Zhu. “I told them that I have it all on tape and that I could show them the tape.”
After being shown the video, the officers also arrested the woman who had attacked Zhu. “After they saw the tape, the officer said that they had enough information and that they’d arrest both of them,” said Zhu.
Zhu commented on the way that the workers at the table have been lying to police by claiming that Falun Gong practitioners attack them. “They’re just changing their strategy,” said Zhu. “Three of them will tell lies to try and cheat the police. That’s why they don’t want anybody recording them.”
“It’s a hate crime,” said Zhu. “I don’t know them. They don’t know me. He just thinks that I might be a Falun Gong supporter so he hit me from the back.”
