It may not be necessary to repeat that the truckers’ “protest” that descended on the D.C. area a week ago [correction: two weeks] has now shed any pretence of coherent message. Or honesty. Or civil behavior.
Some participants have left. The angriest remain.
The caravan pretended to be about pandemic restrictions; virtually all of those are moot.
The leaders wanted attention from Congress. They got it, both in the form of meetings and publicity. Now they just want “freedom.”
They were going to stick to circling the Beltway. They didn’t.
They weren’t going to enter the city. They did. They are.
By the end of last week they were threatening to attack Black Lives Matter Plaza and paint it over. That has a lot to do with pandemic restrictions, right? /s
The mask is off (pun intended).
As of Friday afternoon, trucks were caught deliberately obstructing traffic on I-395 into and out of the city.
Traffic both ways continued to be impeded.
Worse, they’ve taken it on themselves to “discipline” other road users.
In the first incident, you recall, a truck driver feeling offended during a merge descended from the cab to pound on a motorist’s window and yell at him.
In the second, a truck actually struck a passenger car during a merge and when the car driver got out to speak to him, the truck driver threatened to run over the motorist, then left the scene of the accident.
Third incident now: on the road between D.C. and their encampment at Hagerstown, Md., truckers surrounded and "boxed in" an automobile with their vehicles because they thought the driver had “brake checked” them.
That action actually was too much for one convoy participant, who likened it to “kidnapping.” Police rescued the motorist but took no enforcement action.
Anger management counseling—STAT, before worse happens.
On the lighter side, Daily Beast reporter Zachary Petrizzo shares this.
BTW this is in the center of D.C. The edifice with the interesting roof line is the Old (now "Eisenhower") Executive Office Building. This area is, obviously, full of Serious Business and in the worst case, targets. Any of those trucks could contain anything.
Police can and should be IMO at least citing these characters for their continual nuisance honking. “A soft answer turneth away wrath,” according to Proverbs , but not in every situation.
Viewed as a pattern, this is mob behavior escalating as the mob is emboldened. Posturing, threatening, noise, testing boundaries; “accidental” jostling; minor and then increasing incursions; and when there is no solid response, the end point often is real violence.
Mobbing is now a RW technique.
The “Brooks Brothers riot.” Occupation of Malheur Wildlife Refuge. And remember the Republicans during the impeachment inquiry, barging into a secure committee room to stop the questioning? And of course, J6.
[Addendum: in a comment below, sweetthesound notes that the incident where pick-up trucks harried a Biden campaign bus in Texas and nearly ran it off the road (October 2020) causing a campaign event to be cancelled, could be added to these examples; Wendy Davis earlier made the connection between this and J6.]
People mock, and wonder how truckers (most of whom are economically vulnerable) can afford to waste gas, and their own time, in an unprofitable semi-siege with no specific goal. Answer: they are funded by dark money. And I’d be surprised if they aren’t getting tactical advice as well.
D.C. as another Portland, or worse, would be a tragedy.
When such people “call their attacks,” believe them.
--Cassandra of Ilion
UPDATE, 3/20, 6:30 p.m.
From my old neighborhood (famously LGBTQ these days), and its traffic circle, famously tight and challenging to navigate. As the semis have evidently found. Out-of-towners have been known to circle for weeks, like Charlie on the MTA (slight exaggeration). /s
(Hm, the gorgeous fountain is surrounded with chain link, hope that’s temporary.)
Also “FREEDOM: BRING OUT THE GUILLOTINES” (with picture of hanged person??? J6 much? Do they even know what “guillotine” means?)
Gotta give these D.C. folks one thing, they are awesome literate. ;-)
D.C. police have issued some tickets, Raw Story reports, but residents say the officers could and need to do more.
UPDATE 2, 3/21, 9:00 pm: A D.C. resident reportedly suffered a broken ankle when a vehicle that was part of the truck protest struck her, according toThe Daily Beast.
The incident happened yesterday in the Dupont Circle area. Police are investigating. Photo at link.
The vehicle involved was not a truck, the news outlet reported. The silver BMW, bearing stickers that included, “TRUCKERS RULE!!! MSM LIES” was reportedly driven by Donald Bryan Thomas II from Butler, Ohio.
Thomas claimed that the injured woman deliberately lay down in front of his car, according to the news story. A witness said the victim had walked out in front of the stopped car to remonstrate with Thomas, who then moved forward and hit her.
Police are asking any additional witnesses to contact them.