Four Local GOP Leaders Condemn Flag’s Hanging

Even as Westminster’s local political leaders stay out of the fray, four of Orange County’s top Republicans on Wednesday added their voices to the growing chorus of protests against a Little Saigon businessman’s display of Communist symbols in his store.

“While the 1st Amendment may defend this man’s right to display these hateful symbols of tyranny, it does not change the fact it is wrong,” Assemblyman Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove) told a crowd of several hundred Vietnamese Americans gathered in front of Truong Van Tran’s video store.

The four Republican leaders who appeared in front of the Bolsa Avenue store are among a very small number of mainstream politicians who have supported the protests, which have attracted tens of thousands of Vietnamese Americans.

Westminster’s City Council members--including Tony Lam, the nation’s first Vietnamese American elected official--have stayed away from the protest site, following the city attorney’s advice that they remain impartial. That has angered protesters, who have urged the city’s leaders--especially Lam--to at least appear at the site.

Among the politicians were Orange County Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas, who said his support of the protesters does not conflict with his duty to respect the 1st Amendment rights of both sides and to prosecute about 40 protesters who have been arrested.

“We need to protect the people and their right to demonstrate to get their message across,” Rackauckas said. “We’re also required under the law to make sure that people who have broken the law and broken the peace are brought to justice.”

The group of politicians--also including county Republican Party Chairman Tom Fuentes and Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Leyes--presented protesters with a resolution from the California Republican Party that condemns Tran and calls for him “to voluntarily remove these offensive symbols.”

Some Orange County Democrats, such as state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Garden Grove), also have appeared in Little Saigon to support the protesters, noted Jeanne Costales, head of the county Democratic Party.

She said county Democrats are meeting Monday and may consider a similar resolution, though she said such a statement is “window dressing” compared with what she called her party’s long history of supporting human rights in Vietnam.