Garden Grove community activist Tony Flores is sick and tired of Republican Congressional candidate Van Tran’s claims about Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez being a racist. According to Flores, the true racist is Tran himself. Below is a letter to the editor that Flores sent to the Garden Grove Journal, exposing Tran for what he really is:
10/03/2010
Dear Editor,
The recent remarks made by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and the reaction by her opponent Van Tran seems to be another in a long line of the political pot calling the kettle black. It gives the appearance of nothing more than whining on Mr. Tran’s part and I’ll provide three examples of why I believe this to be the case in this instance.
First, am I the only one who remembers that when Tran ran for Garden Grove City Council in the year 2000, that he had the “three hands interlocking at the wrists” logo on his campaign literature? When I asked Tran what that was supposed to signify, he said that “it stands for the Hispanics, Caucasians and Asians working together”. When I asked him about the African-Americans, Native-Americans and the other ethnic groups he merely dismissed me by saying “those people don’t vote in Garden Grove.” Those people? Nice.
Second, in that same year, I ran as the only “Hispanic” candidate and was the victim of a felony penal code violation regarding political campaigns committed by a then incumbent candidate and a small business owner. I spoke to Tran about this during that campaign and he said “that does not concern me since it does not involve me.” Imagine that kind of an attitude about felony penal code violations coming from a person who ended up as a lawmaker in Sacramento and who could now be going to our U.S. Congress. So much for Hispanics and Asians working together I guess.
And third, for years I’ve been working with a group of people throughout Garden Grove who have been trying to install districts in our city to secure and maintain better representation, access and accountability from our local government. When I asked Council Member Tran for help on this issue, he told me that districts would “break up the Vietnamese vote and it would not be good for the Vietnamese community”. So am I to assume by Tran’s actions that he is not interested in representing all of us but only a select few of a certain ethnic origin?
Please understand, I am not supporting Ms. Sanchez and I am only submitting my observations about Mr. Tran and his spin on her remarks. While Mr. Tran and others like him continue to play the race card, the rest of us will keep playing the card that impacts us as “we the people” who are also known as the American taxpayer.
Tony Flores
Garden Grove, Ca. 92845
714-222-7421
CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE
115.2. (a) No person shall publish or cause to be published, with actual knowledge, and intent to deceive, any campaign advertisement containing false or fraudulent depictions, or false or fraudulent representations, of official public documents or purported official public documents.
(b) For purposes of this section, “campaign advertisement” means any communication directed to voters by means of a mass mailing as defined in Section 82041.5 of the Government Code, a paid newspaper advertisement, an outdoor advertisement, or any other printed matter, if the expenditures for that communication are required to be reported by Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 84100) of Title 9 of the Government Code.
(c) Any violation of this section is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail, or by a fine not to exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), or both.
182. (a) If two or more persons conspire:
(1) To commit any crime.
(2) Falsely and maliciously to indict another for any crime, or to procure another to be charged or arrested for any crime.
(3) Falsely to move or maintain any suit, action, or proceeding.
(4) To cheat and defraud any person of any property, by any means which are in themselves criminal, or to obtain money or property by false pretenses or by false promises with fraudulent intent not to perform those promises.
(5) To commit any act injurious to the public health, to public morals, or to pervert or obstruct justice, or the due administration of the laws.
(6) To commit any crime against the person of the President or Vice President of the United States, the Governor of any state or territory, any United States justice or judge, or the secretary of any of the executive departments of the United States.
They are punishable as follows:
When they conspire to commit any crime against the person of any official specified in paragraph (6), they are guilty of a felony and are punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for five, seven, or nine years.
When they conspire to commit any other felony, they shall be punishable in the same manner and to the same extent as is provided for the punishment of that felony. If the felony is one for which different punishments are prescribed for different degrees, the jury or court which finds the defendant guilty thereof shall determine the degree of the felony the defendant conspired to commit. If the degree is not so determined, the punishment for conspiracy to commit the felony shall be that prescribed for the lesser degree, except in the case of conspiracy to commit murder, in which case the punishment shall be that prescribed for murder in the first degree.
If the felony is conspiracy to commit two or more felonies which have different punishments and the commission of those felonies constitute but one offense of conspiracy, the penalty shall be that prescribed for the felony which has the greater maximum term.
When they conspire to do an act described in paragraph (4), they shall be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.
When they conspire to do any of the other acts described in this section, they shall be punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine. When they receive a felony conviction for conspiring to commit identity theft, as defined in Section 530.5, the court may impose a fine of up to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000).
All cases of conspiracy may be prosecuted and tried in the superior court of any county in which any overt act tending to effect the conspiracy shall be done.
(b) Upon a trial for conspiracy, in a case where an overt act is necessary to constitute the offense, the defendant cannot be convicted unless one or more overt acts are expressly alleged in the indictment or information, nor unless one of the acts alleged is proved; but other overt acts not alleged may be given in evidence.
“Garden Grove activist Tony Flores says Van Tran is playing the race card”……… Hmmm
And you do not Zorro?
Tony,
You have consistently called elected officials on the carpet when they are pandering for votes. Playing the race card is the worst kind of pandering. You should have run for city council this election.
I find it both sad and funny that local politics is the one place where it is supposedly OK to talk about racial stereotypes (“I was the only ‘Hispanic’ candidate” – what in the world does that mean? I thought that the purpose of the nobel civil rights movement was to create a color blind society with no race barriers, not one that gives preference or assumes block voting by a single race). I dare anyone to provide a working definition of what a “hispanic” or “vietnameese” or “caucasion” voter is. Zoro, the best way to get rid of racism and racists is to treat everyone as American and to stop paying so much attention to the color of their skin or the place their parents were born.
ditto
But zorro will not quit!…. to be America is racist for him.
TONY FLORES MADE NO SENSE. HE IS SUCH A BIG JOKE WITH VERY AN EXTREMELY POOR LEVEL OF JUDGEMENT AND ANALYSIS. TONY PLEASE DONT WRITE ANY MORE, YOU MAKE ME SICK