Dozens of big rig drivers and long-haul truckers took to the highways around Washington, D.C., Friday in a protest of the extra-constitutional activities of Congress and the president, as a weekend of planned political statements launched.
CBS reported that at one point, truckers were side-by-side-by-side-by-side across four lanes of Interstate 95 and were blocking traffic until a Virginia State Police officer pulled them over.
After talking with the officer, the trucks resumed their drive at a speed of about 40 mph, up from the 10 mph they had been going, the report said.
The truckers met at a travel plaza near Doswell, Va., to launch their protest on the Capital Beltway of what they view as an out of control government.
WTVR reported police said as long as the truckers follow the law, there will be no interference with them.
But the station sent a reporter to a truck stop designated for a staging area, and came away with a few pointed comments about Washington operations.
“The way Congress is doing, they’ve basically throwed our Constitution in the trash,” Alabama trucker Brad Higgins told the station.
Add Stanley Levy, from Ohio. “Every time I turn around, I’m paying taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes. Come on, we’re 17 trillion dollars in debt – it’s like a credit card.”
And Tom Null from Indiana told the station, “We’re going to participate in the demonstration around the beltway in D.C. We just want to let government know that we’re tired of them doing unconstitutional things constantly. We don’t like the way the banking is going, with the Fed printing $85 billion dollars every month, diluting our money. My tires are costing 500 bucks apiece now.”
It’s just the latest in a series of citizen protests in Washington to try to get the attention of President Obama and Congress amid inside-the-beltway fights over Obamacare, funding the military, the administration’s shutdown of national parks, the poor economy and a long list of additional issues.
And it’s not the last.
The group called “2 Million Bikers to D.C.,” which held a Sept. 11 rally in Washington, clogged traffic then while expressing members’ patriotism and faith in the U.S., but opposition to the socialist agenda now being pursued.
That group has voiced its support for the “Truckers to Shut Down America,” which also has been called “Ride for the Constitution,” in a statement on their Facebook page.
The bikers also are in support – and plan to join – a rally by vets in Washington, the “Million Vet March on the Memorials, which is set for Sunday.
An online service detailing information about commutes in Washington reported there had been several accidents, and several sections where travel times were being extended, but no major closures or other impacts.
One trucker from Georgia told WND that members of Congress are not keeping their oath of office to protect the nation and the Constitution.
“If they refused to obey their oath and uphold the law we the people would find a way,” said Earl Conlon. “What is important is that the truckers and patriot’s voices get heard.”
Online, the bikers group said without truckers, consumers would have nothing.
They wrote: “If you own it – a trucker brought it to where you could buy it. If you have a garden the seed for that garden came by truck. The only thing the truck didn’t deliver was the plot of ground.”
The truckers’ event had been organized loosely on Facebook pages, and sympathetic demonstrations also were planned in other parts of the country, for those unable to make the drive to Washington.
Supporters expected several thousand trucks in Washington, which because of the size of the mostly 18-wheelers, could create a significant impact on Washington traffic.
But one of the Facebook pages had more than 123,000 “likes,” which may or may not convert into high levels of participation.
“Truckers Ride for the Constitution” co-organizer Benn Pam believes that the coming together of three rallies in D.C. on the same weekend could make things interesting.
“It is about to hit the fan in big chunks. ’2 Million Bikers to D.C.’ is organizing for a protective detail for WWII veterans to monuments,” Pam said.
Pam added that it’s time for the American people to make their will known.
“The United States is now a dictatorship, ruled by the decrees of one man. Spy agencies dominate the government and the people. There is no rule of law. The Constitution is shredded,” Pam said. “It’s time to rise up.”
A reporter filed the following phone report on Friday’s convoy:
Mark Segraves of the NBC affiliate in Washington reported at midday Sept. 11 that only “about 25 people,” including activist Cornel West, were at the Muslim march, with a group of Christians about the same size nearby.
Mark Segraves of the NBC affiliate in Washington reported at midday Sept. 11 that only “about 25 people,” including activist Cornel West, were at the Muslim march, with a group of Christians about the same size nearby.
In a video interview with MRCTV, the Muslim march organizers would not fault Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks:
However, the counter-protest by bikers, on Sept. 11, was in evidence everywhere.
Driving in from Canada and from all over the United States, the bikers, who were denied a permit for their demonstration, were flooding the capital.
At approximately 1 p.m., “2 Million Bikers to DC” Facebook page co-founder Belinda Bee posted that police had counted nearly 1 million bikers are on the streets of Washington.
The American Muslim Political Action Committee originally planned the Muslims’ march and ended up facing criticism for scheduling it on the anniversary of 9/11.
But organizers insisted the name was changed because many non-Muslim Americans “are terrified of Muslims, who are portrayed by Hollywood and the US media as fanatical terrorists.”
AMPAC also claims Muslims, too, “live in fear – of being dragged off in the night to Guantanamo and tortured, simply for the crime of being Muslim in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Organizers refused to change the date of the march, which marked 12 years since the attack by 19 Muslims on New York City and Washington.
“September 11th, 2001 was the beginning of a new era of fear,” the organizers insisted. “Since 9/11, Americans have been terrorized by the media.”
The bikers, meanwhile, have stated their opposition to Obama’s push to “fundamentally transform” the U.S.
Radio giant Rush Limbaugh said Sept. 11 the American public as a whole did not understand what Obama was intending to do when he campaigned in 2008 with that remark.
“They had no idea that fundamentally transforming the United States of America meant turning the Constitution of the United States on its head,” Limbaugh said.
“They had no idea that transforming the United States of America meant getting rid of capitalism and replacing it with socialism. They had no idea that it meant co-opting one-sixth of the U.S. economy by the government, the health-care business. They had no idea what Obama was promising. They thought they knew, but they didn’t. Some of them may now not even know, but the bikers in D.C. know – and knew.”
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