NEW YORK—Several Chinese people harassed Falun Gong practitioners as they were practicing meditation exercises at Manhattan's Sara Delano Roosevelt Park in Chinatown on the morning of July 6.
In addition to verbal threats and hate language, the individuals had allegedly spray-painted hate messages in nearby areas and thrown away about a hundred Chinese Epoch Times newspapers.
Between ten and twenty individuals showed up around 9:45 a.m. as soon as the Falun Gong practitioners started practicing, and shouted slogans against Falun Gong for about half an hour.
"There has been an increase in the several weeks in the number of Chinese people who have come to incite hatred against Falun Gong at the Chinatown practice site," said Lamberto Colicchio, a Falun Gong practitioner who does the meditation exercises every week at the site. "I firmly believe that these are people who are being sponsored by the Chinese regime to come and do this. There is no other valid justification for what they are doing."
This incident was among the most serious that have occurred at the Chinatown practice site. Earlier incidents, which began in late May, involved just one or two people who attempt to intimidate Falun Gong practitioners for short periods of time, according to practitioners at the site. Late May is also the time when anti-Falun Gong mobs began violent attacks on practitioners in Flushing, Queens.
One man in a blue shirt, who was with the attackers at Roosevelt Park, denied having anything to do with the shouting and that he had no interest in the situation. However, just minutes later, he started badmouthing Falun Gong using the same language used by mobs in Flushing.
"Then he went to our practice site and started spray painting the whole ground with words defaming Falun Gong in black and red paint," said Lena Ko, a Falun Gong practitioner who comes regularly to the practice site. "I called the park officials to let them know about this, and when they came out, he ran away."
CCP Incites Flushing Mobs
Park officials tried to erase the paint using kerosene, but it required several attempts to get the paint finally erased.
Falun Gong practitioners also discovered that several trees in the park, newspaper boxes, as well as walls of nearby stores, were spray-painted with the same hate language used in Flushing, some of them calling for the "eradication" of Falun Gong.
Note: Some photos below are blurred in order to blur the insulting hate language used to defame Falun Gong.
 Chinese Epoch Times boxes are vandalized in Manhattan's Chinatown next to the practice site. (Joshua Philipp/The Epoch Times)
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 Notes slandering Falun Gong and badmouthing its founder were posted on several posts in Manhattan's Chinatown on July 6, 2008. This was found on a New York state health advertisement poster. (The Epoch Times)
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 An Epoch Times box is defaced in Manhattan's Chinatown on July 6, 2008. (Joshua Philipp/The Epoch Times)
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 Suspected CCP agents defaced a store wall, writing words defaming Falun Gong and incited hatred against the practice. This was written on a 7-foot long area of a store wall. (The Epoch Times)
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