After a brutally cold weekend for The People's Convoy at the Hagerstown Speedway, thirteen trucks planned to break off from the larger convoy to pass through the city of D.C. as a part of the convoy's roll around the city. As he traveled the beltway on Monday morning, trucker Allen Kelly told UncoverDC that he was at the very tail end of the larger convoy planning to lead a smaller convoy of 13 trucks to honor the 13 American soldiers who died during the botched evacuation of Afghanistan in August.
Kelly stated that the 13 truckers had no plans to obstruct roadways or stage a stationary protest in the city. They wished only to drive through the city carrying some of the mementos and signs that had been given to them by supporters. Unfortunately, their plans were foiled because the D.C. area police, who were monitoring their movement along 395, blocked all ramps for all traffic to the city.
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As per usual, the route was preapproved on Sunday with area law enforcement for the convoy as a whole. This time, instead of rolling the 495 beltway, they would move along 395. The truckers had maintained a route along the 64-mile 495 beltway loop the other day. Monday's convoy was led in reverse order by cars and R.V.s, followed by the bobtails and finally the tractor-trailers. According to Kelly, the larger part of the convoy had no plans to enter the city. This is the first time since the convoy arrived in the D.C. area that the entire convoy went out of Hagerstown together. Last week, they staged smaller groups around the beltway to test the ability of the convoy to move safely around D.C.
The People's Convoy /Planned Route Through DC/Mar. 14, 2022
DirectionsForMonday/The People's Convoy
It has been a rough go for the Convoy in recent days despite multiple meetings in D.C. with various officials. The weather was cold and snowy at the track, requiring requests for donations of jackets and firewood. Some families had to go to hotels, and money raised by convoy leadership paid for their stays.
With approximately 100 trucks and about 300 cars and R.V.s still on the grounds over the weekend, many have felt discouraged by the lack of media coverage. There has been a virtual media blackout by the legacy media throughout the duration of the convoy's movement. It is perplexing to see the blackout because The People's Convoy trip across the country brought hundreds of thousands of Americans to overpasses and highways on their journey from Adelanto, CA to Hagerstown, MD from Feb. 23 through Mar. 4.
Kamala Harris criticized truckers in a speech near the White House on Mar. 7, just after the Convoy's arrival on Mar. 4. Per reporting by Breitbart News, Harris stated:
"Pollution from heavy-duty trucks and buses has made the air poisonous to breathe, and this pollution is also, of course, accelerating the climate crises—threatening the future not just of our communities, but of the entire world."
She made no direct mention of The People's Convoy or their roll around the beltway during her speech.
On Monday, several people who live-streamed the convoy were heard commenting that "the truckers will probably be blamed" for obstructing the roadways. The truckers did as they were told by the police and are now returning to Hagerstown. The police, not the truckers, probably slowed traffic because they blocked all exit ramps to the city.
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UncoverDC spoke with Kelly on his way back to Hagerstown. He was disappointed he could not go into D.C.
"Our route was approved by D.C. area police. We never blocked anything. No, it was the police that had had a block. I mean, it was the ramps, roadblocks. So the traffic could not get off any ramps. And that's what the problem was. It was nothing to do with us. It's just, I mean, it turned it into a nightmare real quick. I mean, for everybody. They're the ones that did it."
"The police were on the phone with Mike Landis and Brian yesterday. They would have said no, you cannot—you can't do that. You can't have guys on that route. They were fine with it. But today there was no going anywhere else because everything was blocked. The problem is they even had the locals blocked."
Kelly also reiterated his plans to take the 13 truckers in, reiterating that none of them had any intention of causing trouble for people in the city:
"That's why we were not taking a whole convoy in. I was just taking a slug—a few trucks, 13 trucks, easy in and out. We were gonna go right through. We're gonna roll right down Independence Avenue, make it right back and a left on seventh—then back out to Constitution, bang another left. Straight up to 66. Back out to 495. And out of there. I mean [we] would have been in there for 10 minutes. Yeah, 13 trucks, not the whole convoy."
"We wanted to have some more wins. I mean, we were working with law enforcement. We had a plan, and nobody was doing anything wrong, you know? I mean. I don't know. I feel kind of beat up, to be honest with you. I feel like I know that they're scared of us, afraid of us. I don't understand why."
"We have done nothing wrong. Black lives matter. People go in and burn cities down, and others support them and stand there and walk with them like Governor Wolf did when they went to Harrisburg. He sat there and went out in the street, put on a mask, and walked down the street with them. But yeah, we're doing something else. We want our freedoms back. They lock us out; they don't want us, you know. If we were Black Lives Matter going into town to burn cities down, tearing up businesses and stuff, they'd be all about it. We don't even remotely share the same narrative as they do. That's a big problem in my eyes."
Kelly feels, as do many Americans that there has been zero accountability:
"Everybody is always told November— wait till November. You know what? We don't trust our elections. We don't trust them. I don't trust them. There are a lot of people that don't trust elections anymore. That's a problem. How is that gonna be addressed? We got illegals pouring in by the thousands every day. They're letting them vote. There are so many examples of voter fraud, it ain't even any funny. But no, but no—nobody's been held accountable for any of it."
On the way home from today's convoy, Kelly and some other truckers behind them were followed by two SUVs, one black and one silver. The Kellys pulled off the road into the Northbound scale on 270 before Frederick, which was closed at the time. When the Kellys began to take photos of the SUVs, they sped away.
