Flag, Poster Rehung; Protesters, Police Clash

Police held back hundreds of raging protesters in Little Saigon on Saturday as a defiant and emotional store owner carried out his promise to put back up a Vietnamese flag and photo of the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

In a heated confrontation just before Truong Van Tran arrived to post the hated symbols, police arrested 11 protesters who tried to charge through a line of officers, Westminster Police Lt. Bill Lewis said. The arrest tally later reached 31, most of them taken to jail and released with citations for interfering with officers.

Among those arrested was a woman who carried one child and pushed another in a stroller that she used as a battering ram. She could face a charge of child endangerment, Lewis said.

The confrontation capped weeks of simmering protest outside the store, absorbing and overshadowing a long-planned annual parade marking Tet, the Vietnamese new year.

It began as video store owner Tran and his wife, Kim Thi Nguyen, arrived with a police escort at 9:40 a.m. After putting the flag and picture up on the store’s back wall, the two knelt and bowed reverentially to the photo. Afterward, however, Tran denied he is a communist.

“I’m not against the Vietnamese community,” he said tearfully. “Why don’t they understand me? I would like to help build a stronger community. I have to do what I think is right.”

Tran and his wife then ripped down hundreds of paper flags of the former South Vietnam that protesters had plastered over their front door. They then locked up the business and left in a white police van.

After the morning’s confrontation between police and protesters, the demonstration reduced to a rolling boil for the afternoon.

Police called for reinforcements after a noisy flareup outside the store about 10 p.m., but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Police armed with pepper spray and batons stood ready to keep protesters from crossing a barrier set up outside the store, and some of the activists joined hands in a chain to keep the demonstration from surging forward.

Test of Wills Over Symbols

Tran has been promising to display the flag and photo at the Bolsa Avenue store, Hi Tek TV and VCR, since Feb. 10, when a judge reversed a Jan. 21 order that he remove them.

His vow incensed the community in Little Saigon, home to an estimated 200,000 Vietnamese Americans. Many of those residents are political refugees who fled communism in their homeland.

Protesters promised Saturday to remain at the store until the flag and photo are removed. Tran, in turn, has vowed to keep the symbols up and to fight eviction by owners of the strip mall in which is store is located.

Though Tran had given no warning that he would be returning Saturday morning to the store, more than 200 protesters were outside when he arrived.

They had hung an effigy of Ho Chi Minh over Tran’s shop and laid out two coffin replicas draped with the U.S. and South Vietnamese flags in front of his store along with a shrine memorializing soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

The flag and poster, after being restored by Tran and his wife, were visible through the store window.

“We are all sick in our heart,” cried Thuy Huynh, 49, her face streaming with tears. “Please! I don’t want to see communism in the United States!”

A community leader took a microphone at a makeshift podium across from the video store and pleaded for calm.

“The rest of the world is looking on us right now,” said Luan Tran, attorney for the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, a private social service organization. Communists “want to see us lose our heads and do crazy things.”

Community leaders were especially fearful of violence breaking out this weekend, with a crowd estimated by organizers and police at 10,000 in Little Saigon on Saturday for the annual Tet parade and festival. The parade, originally planned to go down Bolsa Avenue at 10 a.m., was detoured.

Police had arrived at 4:30 a.m. to cordon off the area in front of Tran’s store, said Lewis.

By midmorning, a small army of about 200 officers from Westminster, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Irvine, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the county marshal’s office and California Highway Patrol had been assembled. “We’re committed to being here for the duration,” Lewis said. “We’re hopeful that once [the protesters] get used to the psychological aspect of it being up, we can negotiate a peaceful way to handle the protests.”

During the day, the crowd of protesters swelled to as many as 3,000 people, many of them curious onlookers who had spilled over from the morning’s Tet parade.

An impromptu march of protesters shouting anti-communist slogans and carrying a Ho Chi Minh banner depicting dripping blood filed in behind the last float down Bolsa Avenue. Hundreds more folded in from the sidewalk--blocking several lanes of traffic.

“This morning it was a festival,” said 50-year-old San Jose resident, Bang Te. “Now it’s a fight.” Te said he was in town visiting relatives for the holiday.

People of all ages joined in the march. Parents carried sleeping children in their arms and shouted: “Down with Communism! Now! Now! Now!” Those planning to join in said they weren’t too worried about violence breaking out.

“I have some concern,” said Quang Phung, 37, while chasing 3-year-old son Don. “But we have to go. We have to do something.”

Hoa Lam drove from Chino to take part in the protest, saying it’s important that the country see Southern California’s Vietnamese community is united in disgust and horror over Tran’s display of support for Ho Chi Minh.

“People must understand, we not only lost our members of our families, we lost our country. We lost our freedom,” said Lam, 25, a nurse. “Most people in this country don’t realize who Ho Chi Minh was. That’s why we are here--to let them know.”

Orange County Dist. Atty. Anthony Rackauckas, who along with Westminster Police Chief James Cook and the Orange County Human Relations Commission has been working with community leaders to defuse the tensions, addressed the crowd at about noon, urging them not to resort to violence.

“I’m proud to be here with you,” said Rackauckas as the crowd cheered. He later told reporters that the protesters “are able to send a message worldwide that this is a democracy . . . and the way to send that message is to keep the peace.”

Support Comes From Across Country

No one expects the standoff between the protesters and Tran to end quickly, and already the demonstrators are setting up shifts to keep their vigils going around the clock until Tran leaves, said Jimmy Tong Nguyen, one of the organizers.

Money also is pouring in from across the country to keep the rallies going, and some of the cash may also be set aside to help pay the bail and legal expenses of the protesters arrested by police, said Luan Tran, the attorney representing the coalition of demonstrators.

“I can guarantee, as long as the flag and the Ho picture are up on the wall, we’ll be here,” Luan Tran said. “Many of these people risked their lives to come to this country. They will not let this go.”

Lewis said the police presence likely will be reduced dramatically after this weekend’s Tet festivities. Still, officers will remain on alert and are prepared to respond in force if needed.

“It’s a fluid situation,” Lewis said. “We’ll be here as long as we need to be.”

Lewis doesn’t expect the furor to die down unless Tran is evicted, and he said the store owner has been unbending when urged to make peace and take down the inflammatory flag and Ho Chi Minh poster.

“I spoke with Mr. Tran for two hours when this first started, and I left still not understanding what this is all about,” Lewis said. “What happens next is anyone’s guess.”

Tran again offered on Saturday to meet with community leaders on the issue. However, he said he plans to keep the photo and flag up on his wall.

“We need to sit down and talk about this,” he said. “Nothing will change and nothing can get better unless we talk.”

But protesters rejected his proposal, saying Tran has continued a pattern of provocative behavior that shows his offer is not made in good faith.

“He keeps saying he wants dialogue but he keeps provoking the community time after time,” said Luan Tran.

The prospect of 24-hour vigils outside Tran’s store has nearby business owners shuddering, fearful the customers driven away by the crowds will stay away.

“People are afraid to come here now,” said Thuy-Linh Quach of Linh’s Pharmacy, which is in the same strip mall. “It’s not a good situation.”

Staff writers Phil Willon, Allison Cohen and Greg Hernandez contributed to this report.