Onward America demonstration in Laguna Beach is canceled

The organizer of a demonstration that drew thousands to Laguna Beach’s Main Beach last month says he has canceled an event scheduled for this weekend.

Johnny Benitez, leader of the group Onward America, formerly known as America First!, said in Twitter messages that he would not stage a demonstration at Main Beach on Sunday because he had received “many death, rape and assault threats” and was slandered by a media outlet.

“It was being conflated as a Nazi/white supremacist rally despite the attendance of many legal Latinos and blacks,” he said.

Benitez responded to questions from the Daily Pilot after another media outlet reported that a demonstration would be held Sunday in Laguna Beach. Benitez said he canceled the event weeks ago.

Asked to explain the Sept. 24 entry under the “Upcoming events” portion of his Facebook page, Benitez said his account was “mass reported and deleted,” so he could not remove the listing.

Last month’s America First! demonstration on Main Beach drew more than 2,500 people, including hordes of counter-demonstrators, some of whom claimed Benitez is a white supremacist and racist.

Four people were arrested, including one man who allegedly carried a knife, according to police. Officers also found pepper spray, sticks, poles, chains and metal pipes, according to a city staff report prepared for last week’s City Council meeting.

The council on Sept. 12 passed an ordinance that prohibits participants or others attending public demonstrations, rallies or protests at city beaches and parks from carrying items Laguna police consider weapons or capable of being used as weapons.

The ordinance took effect immediately.

Benitez claims in a video that his “white advocacy has never been white supremacy. My white advocacy has been that we need to curtail the messages in academia that are training the white kids to hate themselves.”

Benitez said he is planning an Oct. 22 demonstration that will focus on “demanding justice and truth” for Extortion 17 and Benghazi.

Extortion 17 was an Army helicopter the Taliban shot down in 2011, killing all 38 occupants, according to Air & Space Magazine, a news division of the Smithsonian Institution.

Benghazi refers to a coordinated attack against two U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 by members of an Islamic militant group, killing four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Benitez said he picked Laguna for demonstrations because the city was a Hillary Clinton campaign stop in her 2016 presidential run.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce