San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘PEOPLE’S CONVOY’ ARRIVES IN MARYLAND WITH 1,000 VEHICLES
Plans uncertain, but organizers say they won’t enter D.C.
They drove pickup trucks, RVS, 18-wheelers and minivans, some making a 2,500-mile journey from Southern California. More joined as the convoy passed through Amarillo, Texas, or rallied at a farm equipment supplier in Monrovia, Ind. And others came in Friday, as about 1,000 vehicles converged at a speedway here under the rallying cry of “freedom.”
The truckers and their supporters are now the closest they have been to the nation’s capital, where they want to hold lawmakers “accountable” for the government’s pandemic responses. But their plans for coming days remained opaque on Saturday afternoon, with authorities across the region warning of potential disruptions on highways but unable to offer specifics.
The convoy’s motives are muddy, too. People gathered at this western Maryland city described frustrations with workplace vaccine mandates and restrictions designed to limit the spread of COVID — even though those rules have now been lifted in many places. The speedway crowds chanted anti-president Joe Biden slogans and displayed support for former President Donald Trump. Extremism analysts point to a broader set of right-wing causes that have motivated participants.
On Friday night, Brian Brase, a convoy organizer, looked out at the crowd, some dressed in red-whiteand-blue beanies and waving American f lags, and told them to celebrate the distance they had traveled. But they would have to wait longer to learn their final destination and what to do when they get there.
“Well, we’re going to do something,” he said, laughing. “What this is is yet to be determined. Please be patient.”
Organizers of the self-titled “People’s Convoy” have emphasized they will not be going into Washington, D.C., and previously said they would aim for the Beltway area on Saturday. But Brase announced Friday morning to supporters in Lore City, Ohio, that those plans had changed. They were staying in Hagerstown on Saturday before probably targeting another location “only two miles from the Beltway,” he said, without offering specifics.
Asked about the group’s plans, People’s Convoy organizer Mike Landis said:
“We’re going to keep annoying D.C . ... Just make them wonder a little bit.”
The possibility of caravans of truckers heading to the Beltway has prompted security concerns, drawing in police agencies from D.C., Maryland and Virginia to monitor the group.
Officials across the region advised drivers to be prepared for potentially severe traffic through the weekend. “It’s a very fluid situation,” Ellen Kamilakis, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said Saturday.
On Friday night, the mood of the group was celebratory and proud. Truckers blared “Take Me Home, Country Road” and ate spaghetti, burgers and chicken tacos donated by supporters. Leaders stood on the makeshift stage of a flatbed truck and lambasted the federal government for imposing vaccine and mask mandates, policies they believe violated their fundamental rights as Americans.
The protesters, inspired by the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” that occupied downtown Ottawa for weeks, have complained about the perceived infringement of their freedoms.
Brase said the group wants an end to the national emergency declaration in response to the coronavirus — first issued by Trump in March 2020 and later extended by President Biden — and for Congress to hold hearings investigating the government’s response to the pandemic.
One convoy participant said Friday during a livestream on Youtube that “select trucks will be going to the White House” but emphasized that the group as a whole would not be going into the city. He did not elaborate on those plans, and there were no signs they had materialized by early Saturday afternoon.