Vietnamese American artwork protest

A woman at the protest covers herself with the flag of South Vietnam. Curators of the exhibit, commissioned by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Assn., said they meant to launch a discussion about freedom of expression in the Vietnamese community. But protesters said it mocked their painful experiences as political refugees.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Ana police officers detain a man who had unfurled and waved a flag of communist Vietnam among the anti-communist protestors who then surrounded him, shouting, “Communist!” and “Go back to Vietnam!” in the Vietnamese community, talk of communism is a taboo.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Yelling, “I have rights. I have rights,” the counter-protester was arrested on suspicion of fighting in public.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

But Vo of Los Angeles is one of hundreds protesting the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Assn. exhibit. A demonstration organizer said that for many people upset by the exhibit, “the Vietnam War never ended.”  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)