WASHINGTON — Law enforcement agencies in D.C. say there are no signs yet of a copycat trucker convoy like the one currently blockading a major U.S.-Canada border crossing materializing in the capital – although they are keeping an eye on continued encouragement from the right.
Hundreds of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protestors have occupied sections of the Canadian capital of Ottawa for more than a week. The protestors are using vehicles, including semi-trucks, to block roads as they demand the Canadian government reverse all COVID-19 restrictions. A related blockade at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, has affected trade between the two countries and forced truckers to drive an additional 70 miles north to the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a security bulletin to local and state law enforcement warning about the possibility of copycat protests in the U.S. – something right-wing personalities have increasingly begun calling for. According to the bulletin, obtained by WUSA9, DHS has seen reports of truck drivers “planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers.”
According to the DHS bulletin, the convoy could begin in Los Angeles this weekend to coincide with the Super Bowl and then travel across the country to D.C. for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1.
“While there are currently no indications of planned violence, if hundreds of trucks converge in a major metropolitan city, the potential exists to severely disrupt transportation, federal government operations, commercial facilities, and emergency services through gridlock and potential counterprotests,” the bulletin says.
The DHS bulletin also noted local law enforcement in the D.C. area have not reported an increase in hotel reservations around March 1, which would “indicate a large group planning to travel to the Washington, D.C., region.”
In a statement to WUSA9 on Thursday, the DC Police Department said it was monitoring discussions about a U.S. trucker convoy, but that there were no indications yet it would materialize.
“The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is aware of potential First Amendment activities that may take place in the National Capital Region, including Washington, DC, on March 1, 2022,” police said. “At this time, a permit application has not been submitted to MPD. As with all First Amendment demonstrations, MPD will be monitoring, assessing and planning accordingly with our law enforcement partners.”
Sources within the DC Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police Department and the D.C. National Guard also told WUSA9 officers have not been briefed about the possibility of a trucker protest in the capital region.
U.S. ‘Freedom Convoy’ Still Aspirational, but Attractive to Extremists
Jared Holt tracks extremist movements online for the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. He said, to him, the push for a U.S. response to the Canadian trucker protest still seems to be “aspirational” – an idea looking for someone to actually carry it out.
“The sentiment that’s grown nationally is sort of a very loose idea of a way to do it and then sort of a hope that something from the bottom will come up and connect at some point,” he said.
There’s plenty of evidence to support that, he said – everything from existing anti-vax or anti-government Facebook groups being repurposed to support the convoy idea to the use of “growth hacking” tactics used by online marketers.
Right-wing politicians and media personalities in the U.S. have taken up the protestors’ cause, with support coming in from everyone from Fox News host Tucker Carlson to conspiracy theorist and “Pizzagate” promoter Jack Posobiec. Ali Alexander, one of the main organizers of the “Stop the Steal” movement, has repeatedly promoted the protest on Telegram. On Facebook, conservative commentators Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino – both consistently among the site’s most-viewed pages – have shared links to fundraisers for the protests. Bongino promised in a video on Thursday that he would be dedicating part of his Fox News show over the weekend to the protest.
Despite his ban from Facebook and Twitter, former president Donald Trump weighed in on the issue as well this week with a statement blasting the online fundraising site GoFundMe, which returned millions of dollars raised in support of the protests after determining they had become an “occupation.” Supporters of the Canadian protests have since moved their donations to GiveSendGo, a “Christian crowdfunding site” that has been used in the past to raise money for acquitted Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and dozens of defendants charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
It’s unclear how much support a U.S.-based “freedom convoy” would have. Restrictions in the U.S. are largely being eased as the daily case rate continues trending toward pre-omicron levels. On Thursday, the president of the Arlington-based American Trucking Association (ATA) – the largest trucking trade association representing an estimated 37,000 members across the country – put out a statement opposing a U.S. version of the Canadian protests.
“ATA strongly opposes any protest activities that disrupt public safety and compromise the economic and national security of the United States,” ATA president and CEO Chris Spear wrote in a statement posted to the association’s website.
Spear noted the association opposed a national vaccine mandate and joined challenges to the OSHA rule that would have required businesses with more than 100 employees to enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy or test unvaccinated employees weekly. That rule was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
"It's just not clear there's a will among owner-operator truckers to do this and potentially lose out on thousands of dollars of business and receive a bad reputation in your industry while they're paying off this six-figure truck, right?" Holt said. "Even some of the more organized stuff with the convoy went from saying, oh, this is a trucker thing to being... one of the organizers posted something like, motorcycles, RVs, ATVs, whatever you've got just throw it at us."
"I don't doubt that some truck drivers would want to get involved, especially if there's a chance for them to be the star of the show," Holt said. "But it really isn't like this is primarily being driven at this point, at least, by members of the trucking industry."
Despite all that, Holt said the money and attention being paid to the trucker convoy idea on the right means something may eventually take form – though it might not be the coast-to-coast freedom ride would-be organizers are dreaming up. Whatever happens, though, will surely attract elements from extremist groups who flock to highly charged topics and events like moth to a flame.
“People are going to be crawling out of the woodwork to attach themselves to it in some way,” Holt said.