Store’s Display of Communist Items Protested

Protesters, angered by the display of the Communist Vietnamese flag and a picture of Ho Chi Minh at a Westminster electronics store, roughed up the shop owner Monday and vowed to maintain a vigil until the flag and picture are taken down.

The protest, which began Sunday and had been nonviolent, turned ugly midafternoon Monday when Truong Tran, 37, was struck on the back of his head as he closed Hitek TV and VCR for the day because of the picketing, Westminster Police Lt. Michael Schliskey said.

Tran was taken to Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley for treatment of minor injuries. He could not be reached for comment Monday night, and the store, in a Bolsa Avenue shopping center, remained closed.

The demonstration underscores long-standing animosity in the Vietnamese American and Vietnamese refugee communities toward the Communist regime in Vietnam. Protesters accused Tran of being “a Communist sympathizer” and said the display scorns the deaths of hundreds of thousands at the hands of the Communists.

Others, however, even while demonstrating at the store, acknowledged the irony of picketing Tran’s business because of his beliefs.

“We know this is a free country and you have the right of freedom of speech, but he has basically challenged the community,” protest spokesman Ngo Ky said. “We want to raise our voices. People understand the Vietnamese community here hates the Communists.”

Tran apparently telegraphed his intentions last week by writing to a local Vietnamese paper, saying he would put up the flag and a picture of Ho, the legendary Communist leader of Vietnam, protesters said.

The demonstration began after a visitor to the store saw a photo of Ho and started calling others. About 50 gathered, and eventually an employee placated protesters by taking down the photo at the store, at 9550 Bolsa Ave., Police Lt. Michael Schliskey said.

Tran replaced the photo, however, when he reopened his business Monday morning, police said, and added the Vietnamese flag, which was the North Vietnam flag before Communists took over South Vietnam in 1975 and unified the nation.

Tran’s actions reignited the protest. By midday, 350 were chanting, singing and waving the flag of South Vietnam while marching outside the shop. As many as 16 officers were on hand at one point to control the crowd, Schliskey said.

Tran closed the store at 2:30 p.m., and police were walking him to his car when the crowd rushed the officers and Tran, Schliskey said.

“Someone gets behind him and the officers and either slaps or strikes him in back of head with a hand or fist,” Schliskey said. “He goes down. We don’t believe he was injured seriously--there was no apparent injury.”

About 125 protesters continued to march Monday evening, and several pasted the store windows with paper replicas of the South Vietnamese flag. Others demonstrated by stomping a Communist Vietnamese flag as they chanted and sang.

“If he loves Communists, why doesn’t he leave?” asked Ha Tong, a Garden Grove high school student who had joined the protest.

“My dad spent eight years in jail” under the Communists, and “my mother, three years in jail. My sister was born in jail. I am going to be here till that flag comes down,” she said.

Police said Tran denied being a Communist sympathizer.

“Why he is doing this, we don’t know,” Schliskey said. “Obviously, the sentiment in a majority of the community is anti-Communist, and many are angered by the display. It does instill some hostility.”

Demonstrations against Communist sympathizers, even against those who supported normalizing trade relations with Vietnam, have occurred with some frequency in Westminster. Businesses ranging from markets to car repair shops, as well as a local radio station that gave air time to speakers in sympathy with the current Vietnamese government, have been picketed, police said.

Tran’s store has had no previous problems, police said.

Officers patrolled near the store to forestall vandalism Monday night and would return today, Schliskey said.

“The problem will continue if he insists on keeping those things up,” Schliskey said of Truong Tran. “If he does, the people will be back, and we will be back too.”