After its extended protest failed to accomplish anything earlier this spring, the People’s Convoy appears set to return to the Washington area, according to videos posted on Facebook over the weekend.
It’s still not clear what the convoy’s actionable complaints are or what they hope to accomplish during a second trip to the DC area. David Riddell, a convoy leader who goes by “Santa,” gave a speech in Olympia, Washington, that compared the convoy to Rosa Parks and touched on grievances about hunting permits, house inspections, and special-interest groups in DC.
In his stemwinder, Riddell seems to address both residents of the Washington area and GOP politicians who met with convoy participants the last time they were here:
When we left, you guys laughed at us, you made fun of us, you placated us with little—cute little words. You came out and had your little photo-op meetings with us–that’s going to happen no more. We are done listening to your lies. We bought them for a little bit. We thought you guys actually believed in what we were standing for and we actually believed you were going to do what we asked you to do as our representatives.
Convoy members have “learned some stuff since last time,” Riddell said, urging “tens of thousands of all of you to get in your vehicles and join with us and come to Washington, DC.” One convoy organizer, Marcus Sommers, perhaps unconsciously, invoked QAnon language in a separate speech, saying the group left “breadcrumbs of truth” for people while it was out here.
Violent incidents have increased around the convoy during its current adventures on the West Coast. In Portland, Oregon, last week, shots were reportedly fired during a standoff between convoy participants and locals who did not welcome them. That has been a running theme, as people have been egging convoy members in various cities.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
