(Minghui.org) Earlier this year I was invited to a birthday party. One of the other guests at the party has been a police officer for over 20 years. He was an acquaintance of mine and knows about what happened behind the persecution of Falun Gong.

When people started to play mahjong, he and I just stood around and talked. He started to complain that, nowadays, police work is assessed only on how many orders from the top are carried out, instead of on officers' success in keeping order and protecting civilians. He said that no one really wants to follow orders that find fault with people for no good reason.

He then commented on the massive number of lawsuits Falun Gong practitioners have filed against Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese dictator who launched the persecution of Falun Gong. I confirmed that over 200,000 had done so using their real names, because they and their families had experienced terrible things in the persecution.

He then told me that, not long ago, the police had gotten orders to talk to Falun Gong practitioners who had filed suits against Jiang to try to understand what they wanted. The police were asked to report the names of these practitioners to their superiors.

“We didn't do it,” he said, “We all knew that it was just an excuse to deceive the public security system into collecting those practitioners' names so that they could be persecuted later.”

When his supervisor asked him how he'd done carrying out the order, his reply was, “How would I know what's on someone else's mind? They don't have to tell me. How am I supposed to stop people from doing something when it is within their rights?” He said that none of his coworkers had talked to Falun Gong practitioners either.

He said that Jiang deserved to be sued for all the terrible things he's done. “Jiang has wasted so much money and manpower to carry out the persecution. To prevent a practitioner from practicing, a dozen officers are mobilized just to follow and monitor him. The practitioners just want to stay healthy and aren't breaking any actual laws. Why does the regime have to make trouble for them and criminalize them? The police have done so many terrible things to practitioners--beaten them, suppressed them, and put them in jail. I feel terrible about it.

“I leave practitioners alone most of the time. When there is pressure from the top, I just go through the motions. Falun Gong practitioners are nice people, why would I get them in trouble?

"When Jiang was so bent on eradicating the practice, he wore us out. We had to work overtime monitoring and running after innocent practitioners. That was so unnecessary. Jiang created conflicts and general chaos. The police are victims, too. He should be sued. We're just pawns, forced to do the bidding of our superiors.”

I told him that his positive attitude towards Falun Gong practitioners would bring him and his family good fortune. When I asked him to continue treating practitioners with kindness in the future, he reassured me that he definitely would.