On January 4 2019, police in Ho Chi Minh City arbitrarily detained activist Nguyen Tri Dung and brutally beat his mother Duong Thi Tan, who is also a human rights defender and democracy campaigner. Ms. Tan said Dung was arrested on afternoon when he prepared to leave his private residence in District 1. Plainclothes agents forcibly took him in a car and dropped away. Being informed about the illegal detention of her son, Tan went out and was attacked by other plainclothes agents. They kicked and beat her and threw her to a corner of the building in which the family lives. The detention of Dung may be related to the land grabbing in Vuon Rau area. The city’s police were placing a number of local activists under house arrest on the same day in a bid to prevent them from gathering to support residents of Vuon Rau. On two days, Jan. 4 and 8, 2019, hundreds of security police personnel from Tân Bình District of Ho Chi Minh City surrounded the Lộc Hưng Garden as heavy equipment moved in and demolished more than 100 homes of the families. The local authority justified its action by claiming some of the houses were constructed illegally on agricultural land. The entire area was leveled by Jan. 8, then almost immediately cleared of all debris. A billboard with colorfully rendered plans for new site projects, including high rises, was soon erected on the property, which Lộc Hưng residents saw for the first time.