Everything We Know About the US 'Freedom Convoy'

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:

Tess Owen
@misstessowen
Right-wing personalities who peddled 2020 election conspiracies are throwing their support behind a "freedom convoy" from CA to DC.

Some of the rhetoric is alarming. A post on VDARE suggested this could pave the way for a "new north american nation"

vice.com
Everything We Know About the US ‘Freedom Convoy’
From mainstream GOP officials to Fox News hosts to neo-Nazis, many Americans are working to get their own anti-vaccine mandate convoy going.
8:52 AM · Feb 15, 2022

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3vqvw/us-freedom-convoy

The GOP and the far-right are cheering on the prospect of a “freedom convoy” in the U.S., which is expected to depart from Coachella Valley in Southern California in early March and snake its way across the U.S. to Washington, D.C.

The “freedom convoy” movement started in Canada in late January, in response to a new mandate requiring truckers crossing over the border from the U.S. to get vaccinated. While the protesters’ core issue is still, ostensibly, COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, the movement has ballooned into a grab bag of populist, anti-government, and anti-establishment grievances, rolling in nebulous complaints about “tyranny” and lack of “freedom.”

The Canadian movement has already sparked a wave of copycat anti-vax “freedom convoys” around the world, from Australia, to New Zealand, to France, Finland, and Israel.

But in the U.S. the prospect of a mass anti-government mobilization comes with its own set of security concerns due to the ongoing deep divisions and routine political violence since the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which the GOP recently deemed “legitimate political discourse.”

*snip*

[StClone]

1. There are a few problems

There will be a reaction, swift and strong, if a Canadian-style truck blockade occurs attempting similar results in the U.S.

First truckers could be banned from ever holding a CDL if convicted of using their truck in a blockade.
Second, real truckers are mostly vaccinated and will have less interest in this style of anti-business activity.

With Coronavirus on the verge of waning, there will be less interest in this also.

What is really annoying is if this protest IS ALLOWED it will in fact cause damage to personal rights (disrupting medicine, commerce, EMT services...) to those in affected areas.

A big sticking point is a handful of renegade truckers (pickups more likely) will have a bigger disruptive effect than thousands of actual individuals in a march. This has obviously been calculated in this minority view's approach (seemingly pushed by foreign agitators) for maximum attention.

[gibraltar72]

3. Interfering with interstate commerce is a federal crime.

[pandr32]

2. I sincerely hope every single participant will regret it

[Blue Owl]

4. Hey Freedumb Truckers, have a cigar to celebrate your precious stunt convoy

[crickets]

5. Facebook again, and nothing will done about it.

Link to tweet

Noelle Cook@_Noelle_CookReplying to @_Noelle_Cook and @misstessowen
I should add that the man speaking is Brian Brase, co-founder of The People’s Convoy, one of the larger at Facebook groups with 87k members

12:04 PM · Feb 15, 2022