C6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 6 , 2022
two-year-old golden retriever
named Copper.
By Feb. 23, he had joined the
group on their way out of South-
ern California. Since then, Brown
said the trip has been more excit-
ing than he could have imagined.
People across the country had
made signs to support them, he
said, and so many volunteers had
brought food to rest stops that he
had hardly tapped into his non-
perishables.
“It’s a high, seeing all the peo-
ple on the overpasses and the
sides of the roads,” Brown said.
“All these people treating us like
we are heroes.”
Brown, who had the coronavi-
rus last month, does not want to
do anything political in D.C. He
said he wants to end the trip by
parking alongside the truckers
and their supporters, and eating a
meal together.
“We are going to eat, going to
celebrate and enjoy the company
of people who think we are he-
roes,” he said.
During the journey, supporters
have stood on chilly highway
overpasses to wave American
flags. They’ve cheered at rallies
and followed the journey on so-A woman offered free copies of
the Bible from a stand near an-
other supporter selling “People’s
Convoy” T-shirts.
Brase has 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 Biden — and for
Congress to hold hearings inves-
tigating the government’s re-
sponse to the pandemic.
Craig Brown, a 53-year-old
trucker, left his home in Sand-
point, Idaho, two weeks ago, tak-
ing a delivery of apples to Los
Angeles to get closer to the con-
voy’s launch point in Adelanto,
Calif. He felt uncomfortable that
the government could expect him
to receive such a new vaccine, and
he wanted to teach his teenage
daughters to stand up for what
they believe in. So he bought a
month’s worth of nonperishable
food, installed an extra freezer in
his vehicle, and set off to join a
movement.
On his way to Los Angeles,
Brown’s truck broke down and he
had to wait five days for repairs.
And before he even found the
other truckers, Brown adopted aPHOTOS BY RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POSTThe “ People’s Convoy” arrives at the speedway in Hagerstown, Md. “We don’t want to shut D.C. down,” Brian Brase, a convoy organizer, said on Saturday night to The Post. “We just want freedom, freedom.”
2008, came to Washington for the
Jan. 6, 2021, rally to show how
many people had voted for Trump
but said she didn’t learn about
the attack on the Capitol until
later. Recently, she and her 18-
year-old son climbed into their
minivan and joined the convoy.
“I was working hard. I was
driven. I spent my children’s
childhood in medical school,”
Kelly said, facing her son under
the yellow hue of truck lights, her
eyes welling up. “To see it cor-
rupted the way that it is, it’s very
sad for me.”
Jim Hasner, 40, joined the con-
voy in Indiana, driving a truck.
He owns his own company and
attributed economic struggles to
pandemic restrictions.
Like some other participants,
he accused the government and
mainstream media of hiding the
real truth about the pandemic.
He said a virus that claimed more
than 1,600 lives in the United
States on Friday “is gone.”
“It would be really great if
people could be honest about
things,” he said. “Honest about
what the government overreach
looks like, honest about what the
vaccine really is. Have some
transparency in the media be-
cause it’s just it’s not accurate.”
Robert Erikson, 58, who joined
the convoy west of Amarillo on
Feb. 27, described his truck as a
“house on wheels.”
On the outside, it said “For God
and Country.” Inside, the sleeper
was set up for long stretches on
the road, with an oven, deep fryer,
two burner stoves and a pair of
12-pound weights to “keep his
body limber.” Altoids and bottles
of metabolism-support gummies
sat on top of the fryer.
Erikson said he doesn’t usually
vote but went for Trump in 2016.
To him the convoy isn’t a political
movement. Instead, he said he
wants every person in govern-
ment to resign.
“We need to start over,” he said.Duncan reported from Washington.
Jasmine Hilton and Peter Hermann
contributed to this report.cial media. And donations have
poured in. By Monday, the group
claimed to have collected more
than $1.5 million.
One convoy participant said
Friday during a live stream 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 Satur-
day afternoon.
Large trucks are prohibited
from many roads in the District,
and there are many regulations
governing their operation, in-
cluding how long they can idle.
In response to the convoy,
about 50 people gathered Satur-
day at Freedom Plaza in the
District for a demonstration
against white nationalism. Veter-
ans, labor organizers and civil
rights advocates rallied around a
shared message — that the truck-
er convoy doesn’t speak for all
veterans, truck drivers and work-
ers.
“There’s this misunderstand-
ing that because they’re so loud
they speak for the majority of the
population, and that’s just not
true,” said Linsay Rousseau, 41,
an Army veteran and spokes-
woman for the group Continue to
Serve.
At the Hagerstown speedway,
Heather Kelly, 43, a former nurse,
said she had always got the vac-
cines required for her job b ut
didn’t want to get what she saw as
a novel covid shot. Her opposi-
tion to mask rules and vaccine
mandates — and the loss of faith
in the government she said it
triggered — upended her life. She
quit her job at a long-term-care
facility and pulled her children
out of school.
“You have free will, free
choice,” she said. “You let the
government tell you to put some-
thing on your face. Am I going to
have to have my head covered
next like I am in a Muslim coun-
try?”
Kelly, who said she voted for
Barack Obama for president inthroughout the trip, making it
difficult to estimate the size of the
convoy.
Officials across the region ad-
vised drivers to be prepared for
potentially severe traffic through
the weekend. “It’s a very fluid
situation,” said Ellen Kamilakis, a
spokeswoman for the Virginia
Department of Transportation.
On Friday night, the mood of
the group was celebratory and
proud. Truckers blared the song
“Take Me Home, Country Roads”
and ate spaghetti, burgers and
chicken tacos donated by sup-
porters. Leaders stood on the
makeshift stage of a flatbed truck
and lambasted the federal gov-
ernment for imposing vaccine
and mask mandates, policies they
believe violated their fundamen-
tal rights as Americans.
The protesters, inspired by the
self-styled “Freedom Convoy”
that occupied downtown Ottawa
for weeks, have complained
about the perceived infringement
on their freedoms. Some of the
truckers displayed flags blending
the United States’ Stars and
Stripes with the Canadian maple
leaf.
Extremism researchers follow-
ing this movement say the dem-
onstrators’ hostility toward the
vaccines is just one of several
anti-government, right-wing be-
liefs that they espouse. Flatbeds,
semis, and other trucks and cars
in the speedway parking area
were decorated with signs and
messages referencing far-right
political views and conspiracy
theories, including calls to “arrest
Fauci,” referring to Biden’s chief
medical adviser Anthony S. Fauci,
and equating the mandates to
slavery. Some supporters wore
“Make America Great Again”
caps. Others waved flags bearing
an allusion to an explicit anti-
Biden slogan.
On Saturday, signs and ban-
ners ran the gamut featuring
political slogans, Bible verses and
expressions of patriotism. “Open
Keystone pipeline,” one read.
Others: “Trump won,” and “we
will not comply.”The convoy’s motives are mud-
dy. People gathered in the West-
ern Maryland city described frus-
trations with workplace vaccine
mandates and other measures
meant to limit the spread of the
coronavirus — even though those
rules have now been lifted in
many places. The speedway
crowds chanted anti-President
Biden slogans and displayed sup-
port for former president Donald
Trump. Extremism analysts point
to a broader set of right-wing
causes that have motivated par-
ticipants.
Trucks and cars filed into the
speedway complex Saturday
morning, passing under an Amer-
ican flag waving from a cable
between two 30-foot booms at-
tached to semi tow trucks. With-
in, truckers and their supporters
were waking up after the Friday
night rally. Most in the crowd
were White men, but there were
also some young children and
dogs.
Rows and rows of tanker
trucks, flatbeds, box trailers, RVs
and pickup trucks lined the park-
ing lot, bearing license plates
from Utah, Maine, Arkansas, Tex-
as and other states. A chorus of
honking horns blared from the
area where the convoy vehicles
were stacked in lines, awaiting
their next move.
On Friday night, Brase looked
out at the crowd — some dressed
in red-white-and-blue beanies
and waving American flags — and
told them to celebrate the dis-
tance they had traveled. But he
didn’t tell them their final desti-
nation or what to do when they
get there.
“Well, we’re going to do some-
thing,” he said, laughing. “What
this is is yet to be determined.
Please be patient.”
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. Supporters
have been joining and leaving
CONVOY FROM C1
‘ People’s Convoy’ rallies in Md. with about 1,000 vehicles
At an overpass, people wave an American flag and hold signs back -
ing convoy participants. “It’s a high, seeing all the people on the
overpasses and the sides of the roads,” said trucker Craig Brown.BY ELLIE SILVERMAN
AND STEVE THOMPSONOrganizers of the “People’s
Convoy” said late Saturday that
their armada of trucks, cars and
SUVs would circle the Beltway
Sunday morning and into the
workweek at the minimum speed
limit to slow traffic without stop-
ping it and to get their message to
lawmakers.
Brian Brase, a convoy organiz-
er, said in an interview that the
plan is to drive around the Belt-
way twice before returning to the
Hagerstown Speedway, where
the protesters have spent the
weekend so far. Each day this
week, the convoy will repeat that
ritual until the group’s demands
are met, Brase said.
He said organizers are working
with local law enforcement to
identify weekday times that
would have a minimal impact on
traffic. They will drive the mini-
mum legal speed a nd increase the
number of loops around the Belt-
way each day to pressure law-
makers and public officials, Brase
said.
Sunday “is a show of just how
big we are and just how seriouswe are,” said Brase, a 37-year-old
truck driver from northwest Ohio
who helped organize the convoy.
“But it’s very easy to get rid of us.”
He has said the group wants an
end to the national emergency
declaration in response to the
coronavirus — first issued by
President Donald Trump in
March 2020 and later extended
by President Biden — and for
Congress to hold hearings inves-
tigating the government’s re-
sponse to the pandemic.
“We’re going to be a huge pain,”
Brase said. He said other convoys
from across the country are enroute to join them and he hopes
they continue to grow. “It’s flexi-
ble right now,” he said. “It’s a very
fluid situation.”
“We’re trying to work with our
local law enforcement communi-
ties because we want them to
understand that we are law-abid-
ing citizens that are just exercis-
ing our rights to this protest,” he
said. But “every day is going to
elevate what we do.”
The convoy plans to roll out of
Hagerstown about 9:30 a.m. Sun-
day, Brase said. It could take a
while for a group that large to
arrive on the Beltway.“We want to show the Ameri-
can people how large we are.” he
said. “And we want to show our
congressional leaders that we’re
serious and we are here to negoti-
ate. We are here to talk. We are
law-abiding. We are peaceful. We
don’t want to shut anything down
and we’re not coming down-
town.”
Many of the protesters in
Hagerstown on Saturday had
made a 2,500-mile journey from
Southern California. They say
they want to hold lawmakers
accountable for the government’s
pandemic responses. But many inthe Western Maryland city also
expressed support for Trump and
disgust for Biden.
Still, Brase said, they want
their message heard without vio-
lence or lawbreaking. “We would
like everybody to be able to have a
safe, normal commute to and
from their workplace,” he said.
“So we would try to do so in a time
that does not cripple the traffic
more than necessary. Don’t worry
about being late for work.
“We just have a message that
we want heard,” Brase said.
“We’re not going anywhere until
it’s heard.”Protesters plan minimum-speed loops around the Beltway starting Sunday