Free Speech Limits Tested in Little Saigon

For the last two months, an anti-Communist demonstrator has been videotaping patients as they enter the offices of a prominent Little Saigon doctor whom he considers a communist for supporting normalized trade with Vietnam.

The protest has sparked a legal battle over where to draw the line between free speech and privacy rights at a time when anti-Communist protesters are increasingly turning to these tactics.

An Orange County judge last week temporarily barred the demonstrator, Duc Tran, from standing within 100 yards of the medical clinic. He is expected to rule Feb. 3 whether Tran’s protest, which also includes shouting insults at patients and holding signs, amounts to harassment.

“He’d follow them around with his video camera, screaming and cursing,” said Edward Susolik, an attorney for doctor Co Pham. “He was highly intimidating.”

This is not the first time protesters have used cameras as part of their campaigns. Westminster City Councilman Tony Lam’s restaurant was the target of anti-Communist protesters with video equipment two years ago over what they considered his lack of support for the their cause.

Pham, an obstetrician well-known in the Vietnamese community, has been criticized for his efforts to foster better economic ties between Communist Vietnam and the strongly anti-Communist emigre population. He has toured Vietnam several times and taken Vietnamese officials on a trade mission through Little Saigon.

Tran could not be reached for comment. But other anti-Communist activists voiced strong support of his actions, which they consider acts of free speech.

“He’s standing on public property, and he’s screaming what he feels,” Hiep Phan of Santa Ana said.

But after a hearing Friday, Orange County Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Tran from standing within 100 yards from the doctor’s office on Bolsa Avenue.

The order also bars protesters from entering or blocking the clinic, recording license plate numbers or photographing patients. Protesters must stay 100 yards away.

Tran stopped picketing Monday after Westminster police enforced the judge’s order.

Legal experts said courts are generally reluctant to restrict what people do on public sidewalks unless it amounts to a hazard to others.

“Historically, the courts have been very unwilling to grant these kinds of protective orders,” said Douglas Mirell, an attorney and board member of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It is all right to tell him that he ought not to harass or shout at them. But to put a buffer zone on him is questionable.”

Mirell said courts have established buffer zones of 8 to 15 feet in front of abortion clinic to make sure entrances weren’t blocked. But larger zones have been rejected, he said.

“No court that I know of has come anywhere close to come up with a buffer that is the length of a football field,” he said.

But the doctor’s attorney said such protection is justified.

“The conduct of the defendant constitutes intimidation, annoyance and threats,” Susolik said. “Such harassing conduct does not constitute free speech.”