(Minghui.org) I lived in a small town with a population of around 30,000 people. After Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was introduced to the public, many local people learned the practice. One of the villages had more than 300 people practicing. Falun Dafa healed many people’s illnesses, and many miracles also took place.

After the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution began in 1999, because the number of local practitioners was large, the county police department received instructions from their higher ups to persecute practitioners. But how were they going to carry out this job? Both the biological mothers of the director and deputy director of the police department were practitioners, so they both knew what Dafa was about. They also could not bear the stigma of being unfilial to their mothers, let alone turn on them. Therefore, the two directors were extremely pessimistic about the persecution of Falun Gong, and usually turned a blind eye to the matter.

However, another key figure with real power in the police department was the Party secretary. He led a group of police to carry out the persecution. He thought that they should catch the leader first, the person who had the biggest influence. Once that was settled, the rest would be easy.

One day, the Party secretary brought both directors and more than 10 police officers in two vehicles to the most influential coordinator’s house. They tried to “transform” her, insisting that she give up her belief. This coordinator was very famous locally because she had previously suffered from a strange illness. She had a hole in her abdomen that was oozing pus. No matter what treatment she tried, it just would not heal. Because her family used to be quite well-off, she visited hospitals in different regions of China and spent a lot of money, but to no avail. In the end, she was bedridden for three years.

After learning Dafa, she was able to sit up in three days and quickly recovered after that. The local villagers all knew about her illness, so when they heard that she had recovered, they found it miraculous, and many of them also began to practice Falun Dafa. Since many people came to find her to learn the practice, she naturally became a coordinator. The police department therefore treated her as a leader.

As the two directors already knew about the practice, they were not really there to persecute her, but just to go through the motions perfunctorily. The Party secretary wanted to transform her, but after listening to her story, he and the police stayed at her home for the day, listening to her telling them quite a lot of about the practice before leaving.

Whichever house the Party secretary visited to try to transform a practitioner, the practitioner would tell him that Falun Dafa was good. For example, a female Dafa practitioner had gone to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa. She had just given birth to a baby. After she went to Beijing, she was detained for two months before she could return home. After she returned home, by right she should not have been able to breastfeed again after two months, but she was still able to breastfeed her baby.

The Party secretary gradually heard more and more true stories from practitioners.

The higher level authorities had mandated that the county police department carry out the persecution. They gave the Party secretary a set of Dafa books and asked that he read them seriously, so that he could understand the practitioners’ thoughts, and transform them.

The Party secretary started reading Dafa books in his office. He had a full set of the books with not a single volume missing. This was his job. He eventually finished reading the books. Based on what he read and personally saw and heard from practitioners about their miraculous healing stories, the Party secretary gradually changed.

He no longer tried to transform practitioners earnestly. He even asked the police officers under him to finish reading all the Dafa books if they wanted to go to anybody’s house to try to transform them. This was to help them accomplish their task better, because they needed to understand what the practitioners were thinking.

Under the Party secretary’s semi-coercive requirement, the police officers also started reading Dafa books. After reading the books, these police officers changed too. They also became very pessimistic about transforming, persecuting, and arresting Dafa practitioners. Sometimes when they were forced to mobilize to a practitioner’s house, their attitudes would be warm and friendly, as though they were just dropping by for a friendly visit instead of being there to complete a task. Sometimes when they saw practitioners, they voluntarily greeted them and initiated small talk. Although they did not explicitly voice their support, their actions showed that they understood the practice and did not want to persecute the practitioners.

A police officer once went to a practitioner’s house, and said, “If everyone learned Dafa, my job would be much easier.” He meant that if the public order improved and crime rates dropped, he could have an easier job.

The Party secretary once told a practitioner in private, “Do whatever you please, just don’t leave this county. As long as you stay within its borders, I guarantee you will be safe. But if you step outside the county, I can no longer vouch for your safety.”

Indeed, during the few years after the persecution started, when higher level authorities ordered them to transform and persecute practitioners, the police department leaders were in complete agreement, and they reported, “There are no practitioners locally.” During those few years, this town (the county seat) basically did not sentence any practitioners to prison. There may have been one or two they really could not protect because they were directly persecuted by the county police department’s superiors.

A few years later, the Party secretary retired. The directors of the police department were promoted and transferred away. One reason for their promotion was that they had done a good job, as “There was no one who practiced Falun Gong locally.” Under the secret protection of these police officers who understood the practice, local practitioners were able to have a relatively relaxed environment in which to cultivate during the years after the persecution had just started.