The American answer to Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” arrived outside the capital this weekend, successfully completing two loops around Washington, D.C., for four hours on Sunday.
They have plans to continue on Monday as well, as they call on the federal government to end the national COVID-19 emergency and call for more government transparency over its pandemic response.
While the “People’s Convoy,” as the largest group of truckers has dubbed itself, intends to cause a “huge pain” for Beltway motorists to make their statement, as The Washington Post reported, they also have every intention of keeping their noses clean and minimizing any chance of any violence or criminal disruptions that can be linked to the protest.
The “People’s Convoy” circled the Washington, D.C. Beltway for more than 4 hours on Sunday, The Washington Post reported. pic.twitter.com/vdcDSjaJp1
— Real America’s Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) March 7, 2022
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised—The People’s Convoy Is Stretching Over 60 Miles Long ?? pic.twitter.com/kkrVpCI3kQ
— The Vigilant Fox ? (@VigilantFox) March 5, 2022
The drivers circled the 64-mile long highway loop around the capital twice on Sunday, blaring their horns at the mostly supportive onlookers who gathered on pedestrian overpasses and sported signs “declaring their allegiance to Trump and disdain for Biden,” as the Post described. Some of these messages that Beltway drivers were forced to witness as they traveled alongside the convoy, the outlet bitterly noted, “proclaimed falsehoods such as ‘Trump won.’”
The newspaper was also careful to point out that the truckers who had gathered early that morning to launch the vehicular demonstration were “mostly white and mostly male.”
The subtle jabs at the “People’s Convoy” bear a close resemblance to the way the Canadian “Freedom Convoy” was treated by the North American media and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who routinely and blatantly slandered the diverse group of working-class Canadians, which included Native Americans, Sikhs and women, as a “fringe minority” of white racists and bigots.
For this reason, the American convoy organizers have been painstaking about keeping their demonstration above reproach — as much as lies with them, at least — and have been very clear they have no intention of entering D.C. proper.
The goal is not to shut down the Beltway, organizer Brian Brase told the Post, according to a subsequent report. “We do not want to impede traffic any more than necessary to get our message across.”
As they did on Sunday, the drivers plan to circle Interstate-495, maintaining a speed of 55 MPH so as not to obstruct traffic.
As the Post was clear to point out, Sunday’s laps left many drivers more spread out than they might have preferred to remain in a convoy, but organizers felt the display was effective nonetheless, and more truckers were expected to join for Monday’s loop around the capital.
As Just the News reported, local police departments and Washington, D.C., issued traffic advisories and alerts in anticipation of the protest on Sunday. Inside the district, DC Homeland Security & Emergency Management requested that the National Guard, which was deployed ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last week and in anticipation of the convoys, remain on hand to assist with traffic until Wednesday.
This is when Brase, who has been strongly dissuading anyone from going into D.C., hopes that the protest will be over without incident.
“It was concerns of reports that we were getting last night coming in here about things that were happening on the road,” he said, according to the Stars and Stripes. “There were concerns about people trying to come in here who didn’t belong … If your intention is to come down here and cause harm, violence and disruption, and plain and simply cause division, then I’m sorry to say, but you don’t belong here.”
As of Monday morning, there were no reports of any such thing, nor any convoy-related accidents on the Beltway.
Having clearly learned from Ottawa’s Orwellian crackdown on the jubilant people’s protest that captivated the free world, as well as how the left weaponized the Capitol Hill incursion to undermine an overwhelmingly peaceful protest contesting the results of the 2020 election, the convoy organizers appear to be determined to drive softly and issue a loud honk.
It does, of course, speak volumes about the current state of affairs that they refuse to go into the capital and gather right outside our government buildings as the Canadian truckers did because they know how easily they could be subject to a show of force that would make Ottawa’s crackdown look like child’s play.
All the same, we ought to commend the organizers for such a formidable, law-abiding and peaceful display.
Americans should never be afraid to protest or make their voices — or horns — be heard, especially after the last several years of government overreach.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
