HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A girl is in custody after allegedly vandalizing 21 flags representing the previous Republic of Vietnam alongside Bellaire Boulevard in Houston, elevating considerations throughout the Vietnamese-American neighborhood and prompting requires a hate crime investigation.
Video exhibits the 44-year-old girl, absolutely coated, utilizing scissors to chop chunks out of every flag, discarding them on the bottom as she moved from one to the subsequent. The incident occurred Sunday night. She was ultimately apprehended by Houston police.
“Put the scissors down,” Giang Nguyen heard a Houston police officer inform the girl. “They weren’t minimize, ripped sideways,” he described.
Nguyen, who witnesses the arrest, shared pictures displaying the flags ripped or shredded. He mentioned the act is deeply offensive.
“That represents us. That tells which Vietnamese we’re, not the communist facet however the Vietnamese, that fought for what we have now right now,” he mentioned.
The flags are being displayed forward of the upcoming solemn commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Fall of Saigon on April 30 and the tip of the Vietnam Battle, which led to the reunification of Vietnam underneath communist rule and compelled lots of of hundreds in South Vietnam to flee.
“My household needed to escape 6 instances,” mentioned Bryan Chu. “I used to be put in jail once I was 8 and 9 years outdated.”
Chu, a dentist, can be the president of the Vietnamese Group of Houston and Vicinities, the group that vegetation the flags yearly at the moment.
“It means freedom. It means free from communism. It means independence,” Chu mentioned, including that the vandalism seems like an assault on Vietnamese refugees.
Curiously, the American flags positioned alongside the South Vietnam flags have been untouched.
Police haven’t but launched the suspect’s identify however confirmed she is a Black feminine.
“She’s not Asian, she’s not Vietnamese. She has no affiliation with this flag,” Nguyen mentioned.
Group leaders are calling for the incident to be additional investigated.
“I hope we will cost her with a hate crime as a result of she focused all of the Vietnamese flags on goal and I hope to search out out who’s behind this,” Chu mentioned.
Thus far, the girl has been charged with disorderly conduct, however she may face extra prices, Houston police mentioned.
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