Benavides Hatergate: Public records request made by Orange Juice

Councilman David Benavides chats with hate group member Lupe Moreno

The storm surrounding controversial Ward 4 Councilman David Benavides decision to honor a member of a known hate group and her supporters continues to worsen. Last night for the third meeting in a row fireworks erupted in the council chambers as a result of Benavides foolish decision. A high ranking source inside city hall described this as “political suicide” on the part of Benavides.
This whole issue erupted when the Orange Juice discovered that Benavides was planning to honor hate group member Lupe Moreno, a group of her supporters and other members of the community for their involvement in an Independence Day event held at the Santa Ana Public Library. As a result of emails, phone calls and the delivery of the now infamous video of Gary Hynds calling Latino residents “fuc*ing wetbacks” the council called off the award.

A defiant Benavides chose to go ahead with the honor at the next council meeting and incurred the ire of his colleagues for doing so. The public ceremony in which the awards were handed out did not include Moreno or her supporters Thomas Gordon and Anita Hynds. Benavides made sure that publicly he was distancing himself from the haters even though one of the folks on hand, Anne Menaldo, is a documented supporter of Moreno.

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