What should have been a straightforward ceremony turned into a political foodfight that’s escalating day by day.
Among the rituals of Viet elected officials is to show up on Black April and pay respect at the altar to soldiers who died – or sometimes an altar to the country. Like OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen (far right) and Westminster councilman Tri Ta (left) in the photo above, taken in 2009.
It’s just the way it’s been for years. And since the Westminster Vietnam War Memorial was erected about 9 years ago, that site has become the place to be on the day that commemorates the fall of Saigon.
This year, instead of just showing up at a ceremony, Janet Nguyen apparently wanted to hold one of her own.
So she applied for and received an “Intent to Meet” permit to hold the Black April event. (Click on pic to view larger size in new window.) An “Intent to Meet” is almost as good as an event permit, except that you can only have less than 300 people, and you can’t have a sound system.
Which may be a problem because most Black April events pull in 1000+ in attendance.
It is assumed that the Supervisor opted for the lesser permit because it doesn’t require a hearing before the City Council, where three members are Viets that Janet Nguyen doesn’t like. Or trust. Or something like that.
OK, so far so good. Until Lactan Nuygen, the president of the “Vietnamese-American Community of Southern California” (one of several with names like that) tried to apply for a Special Event permit. He found out the Supervisor already has the place to herself on April 30.
So, he called Janet Nguyen, and things spiraled downward from there.
Nuygen said he couldn’t talk to the Supervisor, her staff wouldn’t talk to him, they wouldn’t return his calls.
Nguyen and her staff, however, said they were called while in Washington DC – so they couldn’t talk and, besides, they couldn’t jump at the beck and call of whoever! (That’s an almost exact translation of what Nguyen’s chief of staff Andrew Do said.)
One thing led to another, and now both sides are point fingers accusing the other of trying to monopolize Black April. The Register’s Deepa Bharath had a report here on March 19.
And into all that stepped two Westminster Councilmembers, Frank Fry and Andy Quach.
On March 22 they invited a number of community groups to meet and work out something. Not much got worked out, many still want to just kick Janet Nguyen out of the commemoration. Protest leader Neil Nguyen said that no individual has the right to interfere in an event that belongs to the community, just like an individual “cannot organize a Cinquo de Mayo celebration” – which is almost certainly not true.
As the discussion wore on, however, Bruce Tran took over the meeting.
Actually, at first the head of VHN-TV (and candidate for Westminster mayor, as soon as he finishes moving from Garden Grove) started shouting, demanding that the councilmen use their power to revoke Janet Nguyen’s permit.
“And if your power isn’t good enough, we’ll take it away from you,” Tran said.
When the shouting got a little out of hand, Fry took it as a threat and wanted him removed.
So Tran argued that “it’s not a threat, a threat is when someone puts a gun to your head.”
But nonetheless he sat down for a few minutes.
And then he stood up again, and started talking loudly again. He demanded that something be done about Janet Nguyen’s permit. Like yanking it or something.
And then he suddenly because the de facto chair of the meeting. People only talked when he wasn’t. He directed the flow of discussion. He even interpreted Frank Fry’s statements for him.
Check the video below. It’s simply amazing how Tran faced more than a dozen community leaders and two elected officials and seized the floor from all of them.
.
Crab, I love.
Crap, van tran lovers love.
Just Asking and Bo May,
So who’s crap and soft gold are you eating from? Loretta The Horny Sanchez or From Gang Bitch Janet Nguyen?
Oh, I know. Boay loves crab becuase he likes to pull down other Viets. He eats crap because he is full of it.
Just Asking is just another homeless bastard trying to be relevant.
Crappy Joey; Why don’t you confront the Bolsavik head on and tell them to stop posting news about these greedy, bickering, no good viet public figures (van tran is included)?
Scared?
Go down with Loretta you losers!
http://www.sinksanchez.com
Ha..ha .. why is everything that came out from any of Van’s worshipers’ mouth are either obsanities or bestialities? Like leader like follower?
Quang Pham’s Memoir Is Coming Out In Paperback
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/politics/quang-pham-a-sense-of-duty/
Subject: Get our Freedom Park back to our Vietnamese Community
To : Westminster Mayor Rice and Janet Nguyen
The VN WAR Memorial Park near City of Westminster is NOT the REGULAR PUBLIC SITE that anyone can use for they own personal political gain. More than ten year ago, We attended the public concert to raise money to build this park, the event took whole day on the vacant lot in the place of our Freedom park now resides. Thousand of Vietnamese from every where in the country emptied their pocket money to raise few hundred thousand dollars (final cost is $1.2 Million) to build the park and hoping some day we can visit the park on Black April to remember our suffering, sorrow, and thank you to America saving our lives. So, this PARK IS NOW PARTIALLY BELONG TO OUR VIETNAMESE COMMUNITY to use on the most important day of this park.
Mayor Rice, please help us to get the fairness to our community.
Janet, how much money did you contribute to build the park?
Have you ever lived in City of Westminster?
And now you want to take advantage of the LOOP HOLE in City of Westminster that allowing anyone to reserve and use the park in any day of the year especially our sacred April 30 – the Lost of Saigon day.
Janet, get lost, let our Community Leader handle the ceremony and you will be invite as the guest speaker of OC Supervisor as you’re usually done so in the past of many years.
We prepare for JANET NGUYEN IMPEACHMENT letter on April 30, 2010 to fight for our freedom and democracy that we have in this country.
To fellow Vietnamese, please join us at the event on on April 30 weekend to show your support and to FIGHT the RIGHT for the Freedom Park in the City of Westminster by signing IMPEACH JANET NOW! form.
Thank You
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Craig Hunter is Mike Carona the Second.
Let me disclose something about Mr Nick Lê .Frankly I didn’tknow about Mr Nick Lê or Lê Công Tâm past.During 1980,I lived in LA and sometime I dined out at some VN restaurant near the school where I studied(LACC).One day I found out a peculiar VN restaurant with a common name where in VN the commies used the most “Đoàn Kết” or United.I did stopped by and talked to the owner when he stopped by to ask how is his food.I did ask why he choose the name “đoàn kết” for his reataurant or did he was aware that the most used word in the commus dictatorship.He answered that he was aware of that.During the conversation I found out that he somewhat a communist sympathiser.Because of his politic admission i stopped to dine there even I admitted that his cooking was not bad at all.Some of my friend told me later on about Mr Nick Lê that he was a student with some questionable background.Now I found out that he is Ms Janet Nguyen chief advisor.I am quite wonder what he is doing now to create a stir in Vietnamese community is there any connection with the “36″ communist resolution to create a division between anti commuist groups and dissullison the youngs so they will fall in the commies welcome arms.I have no proof whatsoever to conclude his intentions.Any ideas from you genltlemen!!!
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I have watched from afar the many meetings, and now the video posted here on Bolsavik’s website. I am an American, I am not Vietnamese, but what I see from an American’s standpoint is that the Vietnamese community lacks what I call “American Maturity”. This character who seemed to take over the room by brute force by being loud and obnoxious should not be voted in as Mayor. He should be an outcast in his own community. He lacks the honor and diplomacy required by one who aspires to hold public office. I see many people who came to speak at the City Council meetings who did not listen and just kept repeating and repeating the same things over and over again. I think after this last City Council Meeting, where three Vietnamese City Councilmen voted to give the latecomers what they wanted and took away from the first person who was granted the permit, that the three city councilmen lack the ethical maturity to remain on this council. They bent to the rants of many although they did not get a permit. They had to be granted a “special permit” and were given the time slot of the first person who got the permit. This is a disgrace. In America, we have lines you wait in. We have peaceful discussion. We have peaceful resolutions. This was not peaceful. Please do not turn America into Vietnam. There will be no place for you to go from here. Another issue I have is that after being here for 35 years, why is it that you cannot understand and speak English? Your broken, and barely understandable accents are a result of you speaking only Vietnamese at home and only speaking English when you have to. You are not proud to be Americans. You are just glad you had a place to go to when you lost your own country. Try being proud AMERICANS. That is what America is, people from all over the world come here to enjoy freedom and become PART of America, they should not set themselves apart from the American experience or apart from other Americans. Become Americans. We all have our heritage from our ancestors, but after 35 years, you should at least be able to speak the language of America (English) where you can be understood.
@Viet Crowds need Maturity: I agree with most of what you said; the Viet Community in Little Saigon needs to grow up politically. The three slime balls: Ta, Quach, & Diep should be voted out of office because of their cowardice. Lots of people in our community who came over as first generation do have a language barrier that needs to be overcome; but you can’t lump everyone in and assume they’re all have been here for 35 yrs. Besides trying to learn a foreign tongue in your late 40s or 50s can be a bitch. And a lot of us are proud to be American citizens; that’s why we serve in the Arm Forces, getting ourselves educated, being law abiding citizens contributing to our new homeland and at the same time we’re proud of our heritage as Vietnamese. For the rest of the folks who show up at city council meeting ranting and screaming I and I’m sure lots of people in our community just don’t know how to deal with. May be the mayor and city council (not counting the three slime balls named earlier) should try to stand up to them?
Viet Crowds and Possed Off,
Your patronizing attitude toward the Viet communtiy is a big turn off. So not come on this blog to preach and sermonize on how mature Americans are in public forums. It’s a lot of manure coming out of your mouths.
You should know this, gang boss Janet Nguyen is lucky to be granted a new permit. Her original permit asked for 200-300 people max, without speakers and mikes. Now, ould you like to organiE an event wihout amplified sound? JNet Nguyen is lucky by the grace of the three Vie. Councilmen,
or she’d be talking to herself and her five supporters because nobody can hear her without amplified sound. Now do you get it?
Let’s face reality now. Gang boss Janet fcuk up and she paid a heavy price for a political disaster ofher own making. You understand?
@Bo May Da Thug: again with the profanities? You just proved yourself to be politically ignorant because if you believe in democracy then why can’t I have a different opinion from yours? Also you sound like an uneducated dirt-bag whose English skills mostly comprise of curse words! Did your parents not teach you manners? Or is it your nature to be a loud, potty mouth? By the way I’ve never said I’m in favor with either group; they can all vanish from the face of the earth for all I care. YOU UNDERSTAND?
@Bo May Da Thug: your true identity is Ngo Ky, is it not? I can’t think of any other loser in the Viet community who rants and curses like a mad man like the way you’ve been conducting yourself. You truly need help.
Pissed Off,
Keep getting pissed off and keep guessing who I am. I don’t care who you are.
All I read from you is hating this and hating that Vietnamese. You are the type of Viet who likes to tear things down. You have not said one constructive postive thing on his blog. People like you should be treated with contempt and condemnation!
@Bo May Da Thug: wow, not even one curse word in your latest post; did your potty mouth get tired or your mama discovered what you’ve been doing and slapped you silly? Now if you can just manage to put some sense in your postings then hopefully we can have an intelligent dialog. I still think you’re Ngo Ky though so I’m gonna use that as your aka.
Pissed Off,
I am not here to satisfy you bitch. How’s that SOB?
You are a Viet hater and all Viets condemn your ass bitch! I am not My Nho but if you want to think so ….. Whatever bitch.
Your daddy should bitch slap you just like Mafia boss Janet Nguyen got bitch slapped by the Viet community. You have that same air of a whiner and groaner.
@Bo May Da Thug aka: Ngo Ky
Obviously you’re a vulgar individual so I’ll treat you as such; I think you’re projecting: you seem to refer to words like bitch, moan, & whine very frequently. Is that what you do when you’re getting your freak on with your boyfriend? Does he make you squeal like a pig? Dude, keep what ever you like to do in your private life to your sick self; no need to broadcast it for everyone to know. Really!!!!
@Bo May Da Thug aka Ngo Ky:
got a question for you; you English vocabulary seems to be quite limited and does not extend beyond curse words. I’m guessing that you’re an old fart who was not educated here in the US because otherwise I really hate to think that my tax dollars all these years have gone to educate someone like yourself. Or may be you’re just as dumb as a bell and did not even graduate high school; just ended up with a GED equivalent; to be fair lots of older people came over and still managed to get themselves a good education so to put you in the same category would be an insult to those.
Here is my speech has sent on 4/21/2010. Is the city listen to me on their decision? I don’t need to be Supervisor to get the power. The real power is the RIGHT SENSE
Dear the Honorable Mayor of Westminster City Margie Rice Date: 4/21/2010
Mayor Pro-tem Frank Fry
Council Andy Quach
Council Tri Ta
Council Tyler Diep
City Manager Don Lamm
City Attorney Richard Jones
Subject: Request to revoke intend-to-meet permit granting Supervisor Janet Nguyen
Madam and Sirs,
My name is Nguyen Hung, a Vietnamese American Activist, Freelance Journalist/Reporter also member of Tet Parade Foundation. My business is located in Westminster city.
I am here, tonight to request the Westminster City Councils to revoke the “Intent-to-meet permit” which was granted to Supervisor Janet Nguyen. Reasons for this request is false or mislead information on the application. In the past, there is no Black April event ever holding the crowd of less than 500 people, especially at Vietnam War Memorial. Black April commemoration also is not an event to keep all VIP have to keep their mouth shut, I meant no sound permit.
I know that in trying to resolve the matter, City Manager Don Lamm and Police Chief Mitch Waller have worked very hard. I am also aware that the City of Westminster is facing a tough decision on this controversy. As you know all the efforts are failed. Why, I am here to tell you and clearly clarify that Black April commemoration is the event of Vietnamese Community and it should be left to the community to resolve internally.
Nobody, even elected official, can step in and take over this event from Vietnamese Community. We’ve suffered too much after April 30th, 1975 following the Fall of Saigon. Many soldiers died in Vietnam War, many people died on the sea, in the jungles, prison camps and so many families were ruined afterward. We, Vietnamese community, organize this event together every year to remember those who lost their lives for us to be here today. This is a Vietnamese event, so no one can claim or organize this event as an individual regardless who they are. Since Tony Lam, the first Vietnamese-American became elected official as councilman until today, there are many other Vietnamese American elected officials like Van Tran, Joseph Cao, Hubert Vo, Janet Nguyen, Hoang Duy Hung, Dina Nguyen, Andrew Do, Andy Quach, Tri Ta, Tyler Diep and so on. But there is no one has stepped up, I repeat no one ever step in to claim this event from Vietnamese Community, except Supervisor Janet Nguyen who used her elected official position for her political gain purpose.
Supervisor Janet Nguyen got our tax money when she ordered her employee Matthew Harper to use his administrative working time as Orange County salaried employee to file the application for this event on April 30. I believe this event is not on the Orange County Supervisor Board’s official event calendar. So I strongly request Supervisor Janet Nguyen to withdraw her application and return it, the Black April Commemoration, back to our community.
This is not threat, but as Vietnamese American voters, we will use our voting power in the next election. We may lose this event today, but we will tell the world by our decision on election days in the future. Last week, Andy Hung Xuan Nguyen won County Commissioner seat in Tarrant county Texas from an incumbent lady.
Thank you very much for your attention. God bless America and all of us.