PROTESTS over masks and opening (and closing) beaches were a familiar sight in Huntington Beach in summer 2020 (Shutterstock/Max Elram).

Note to readers: This is an updated version of a story posted earlier this afternoon.

Downtown Huntington Beach’s status as a popular place for protests continues as two “anti-mask” protests are planned this week, one on Monday and another on Tuesday. According to Jennifer Carey, public information officer for the Huntington Beach Police Department, the HBPD is aware of both events.  They will be monitored and the department will “allocate resources as appropriate.”

Monday’s event will be a “Freedom March” of non-masked demonstrators from the Huntington Beach Pier to the Pacific City mall along Pacific Coast Highway.  Protesters are planning to march at 6 p.m. with the entire event scheduled from 4-8 p.m.

The date of the march coincides – as a flyer noted – with Flag Day and former President Donald Trump’s birthday.  It’s also the day before the “re-opening” of California, in which wearing face-coverings will still be required in some settings for some people.

“We open when we want to,” read the flyer.

On Tuesday, a separate “mask-burning” event in planned from 6-8 p.m.

According to a statement from a group called “Asian Industry B2B,” based in Claremont, the demonstration will be held south of the city pier, near Lifeguard Tower 9. Masks and other face-coverings mandated by the state in response to the coronavirus pandemic will be burned “in protest of Governor Gavin Newsom’s flip-flopping mandates.”

Event organizer Marc Ang said that event was originally a celebration of the state’s reopening, but is now a “peaceful protest.” Also on the agenda is support for the “vaccine-injured community,” alleging “high incidences of side effects, including deaths.”

Reuters news agency has reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has rebutted such claims – popularized by Fox News host Tucker Carlson – noting that numbers of deaths submitted to the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) are unreliable because “anyone [in the public] can report events to VAERS” and therefore that database “may include information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental or unverifiable.”