Ho Chi Minh Display Sparks Rally, Attack

WESTMINSTER —  Protesters, angered by the display of the Vietnamese flag and a picture of Ho Chi Minh at an 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 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 Medical Center in Fountain Valley for treatment of minor injuries.

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 Bolsa Avenue store, acknowledged the irony of it.

“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.”

By midday, 350 people were chanting, singing and waiving 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.

Demonstrations against Communist sympathizers, even against those who supported normalizing trade relations with Vietnam, have happened 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.