Flag Ruling Inflames Crowd

A Little Saigon video store owner won a court ruling Wednesday that allows him to hang a Communist flag at his business--and then he walked into an escalating community furor that ended hours later with his collapse in a confrontation with protesters.

Hundreds of Vietnamese Americans enraged by Truong Van Tran’s plans to put up the flag of Communist Vietnam and a picture of Ho Chi Minh gathered outside the Santa Ana courtroom in the morning. Passions reached a peak when Tran returned to his Westminster store in the afternoon to find a small group of protesters waiting.

“Someone approached [Tran], spit in their hand, and then tried to wipe it on him hard,” said Westminster Police Lt. Bill Lewis, describing a showdown that unfolded after Tran arrived outside the store to put up the items. “It didn’t look like much of a blow. There was some hesitation and then he fell to the ground.”

Several protesters chanted “Let him die! Let the Communist die!” but Tran, 37, did not appear to suffer serious injury, Lewis said. He was taken to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, where officials only described his condition as stable.

The protests followed a Superior Court judge’s decision Wednesday morning to lift her earlier ban on the display of the flag and photo of the legendary Communist leader Ho Chi Minh in Tran’s store, saying the owner’s 1st Amendment rights must prevail over concerns about symbols that are “indisputably offensive” to the Vietnamese American community.

Judge’s Ruling Angers Courthouse Crowd

Store owner Tran is “far from blameless” in sending out letters challenging anti-Communist groups to confront him, said Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann, but the items he displayed in his store constitute political expression, the most protected form of speech.

“Mr. Tran’s display is indisputably offensive, and engenders hatred and anger to members of the community, especially those to whom he issued his challenges,” Schumann said. “However, these symbols are a form of political speech, which Mr. Tran has a right to express, even if the content of that expression is offensive.”

The decision was greeted with stunned silence and anger by an estimated 400 protesters who had gathered in the halls outside the courtroom, many of them refugees and former prisoners of the Communist regime.

“We are very disappointed,” said Thang Ngoc Tran, head of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, a nonprofit social-service group. “But the decision doesn’t change what’s in our hearts. We hate communism and we want everyone to know that.”

Protester Ky Ngo said the community felt betrayed by the court’s ruling.

“Ho Chi Minh is a murderer,” he said. “It’s like waving a picture of Pol Pot in front of the Cambodian community or a picture of Hitler in the Jewish community. This is not freedom of speech. This is abuse of freedom of speech.”

Later Wednesday afternoon, the community’s anger was again in vivid display when Tran drove up to the store in a car with his wife and two young children--only to be surrounded by a small crowd of screaming protesters.

Tran got out of his car, calmly listened and then quietly told a reporter, “I think I have a right to do it.” After one protester then wiped his hand on Tran’s face, the store owner fell to the ground.

Protester Chau Carey defended the group’s anger: “We have the freedom of speech too,” she said.

Police said they had repeatedly warned Tran to notify them if he planned to return to his store so they could provide an escort. This marks the second time a confrontation between Tran and protesters turned physical: On Jan. 19, he was struck in the head by a demonstrator as he left his store.

“What we had continually told Mr. Tran was that if the judge ruled in his favor, he was to get in touch with the Westminster police so we could escort him and keep the peace. He did not do that,” Lewis said.

Inside the hospital emergency waiting room, Tran’s wife, Kim Nguyen, said her husband has undergone two open-heart surgeries and was still very weak.

Nguyen deplored the crowd’s violence. “I think it’s time for them to use speech instead of the fist,” she said.

Protests Could Last Until Flag Is Gone

Wednesday’s events marked a new crisis in a controversy that broke out Jan. 18, when protesters gathered outside Tran’s Bolsa Avenue store, Hi Tek TV and VCR.

Carrying out promises made in letters to community leaders, Tran said he displayed the flag and photo to express his right of free speech. Although he said he is not a Communist, he believes the current Vietnamese government has improved life in that country.

At the request of Tran’s landlord, Schumann on Jan. 21 issued a temporary restraining order that required Tran to remove the flag and photo and required protesters to keep their distance from his store, which has been closed since the trouble began.

Attorneys for both sides said that Schumann’s reversal on Wednesday of her earlier decision does not necessarily signal a change of heart on the issue. Neither Tran nor any lawyer to represent him appeared at the first hearing to argue against the temporary restraining order.

While she granted Tran the right to display the items, the judge on Wednesday left in place the curbs against protesters, which prohibit them from demonstrating in a manner that would “interfere with the ordinary, peaceable operation of the businesses there.”

Schumann rejected the landlord’s argument that Tran’s provocative letters were the equivalent of “fighting words,” which don’t have 1st Amendment protections.

In essence, the judge’s ruling allows free speech on both sides, said attorney Ron Talmo, who represented Tran, along with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“This is a victory for speech. He gets to put up his flag, and they get the right to demonstrate,” he said.

“The fact that some people may not like his speech has never been a basis in this country to stop it from being expressed,” said ACLU attorney Peter Eliasberg. “You don’t need the 1st Amendment to protect popular speech.”

Attorneys for Tran’s landlord, who had won a temporary restraining order against Tran by arguing that he had violated his lease agreement in creating a public nuisance, declined to comment on the ruling or say whether he will appeal it.

Stuart Parker, an attorney representing protesters, said he is negotiating with the landlord’s lawyers and Westminster police over ground rules for future protests. He predicted protests will continue until the flag and photo are gone.

That day may come soon. Landlord Danh Nhut Quach served Tran with a 30-day notice on Jan. 20, and he will be forced to move out of the shopping complex on Feb. 20 unless he successfully contests the move.

Police and community members say that the upcoming Tet holiday--which will bring thousands of visitors to Little Saigon for Lunar New Year festivals and a parade--heightens the possibility of confrontation.

Times correspondent Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.