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Movements Apr 06, 2022
Grand Park. | Photo by Slices of Light via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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The “People’s Convoy” of truckers that spent several weeks clogging traffic in Washington, D.C., in protest of COVID-19 public health restrictions and vaccination mandates is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles this weekend, with a downtown rally planned for Sunday.
The convoy, which included roughly 100 vehicles in Washington, D.C., initially left from San Bernardino County en route to Capitol Hill to protest COVID mandates earlier this year. After three weeks in Washington, the convoy began making its way back to the West Coast in late March.
The group was in southern New Mexico on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how many trucks are still in the convoy. Organizers of Sunday’s scheduled rally at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles said several trucks would be parked at the location, with 10 to 20 more parked off-site.
Brian Brase, a co-organizer of the convoy, is expected to be the keynote speaker at the rally, which will begin at noon and is expected to last until 6 p.m., with dozens of other people expected to address the crowd.
“The idea that our government wants to mandate forced vaccination as a prerequisite to having a job in this state is absolutely unacceptable and, we believe, unconstitutional,” John Knox of the group Firefighters4Freedom said in a statement released by rally organizers.
When the People’s Convoy left Washington, D.C., organizers announced their intent to travel back to California, highlighting a series of bills pending in the state Legislature relating to COVID and vaccine mandates that the group opposes.
“We have an opportunity to help raise awareness and hopefully stop some very atrocious bills before they become laws,” Mike Landis, a People’s Convoy co-organizer, said in a statement released when the convoy began its westward journey. “This mission directly aligns with what the People’s Convoy stands for and is fighting against. Laws first passed in California tend to spread to other states.”
Sunday’s rally will be hosted by the organization Defeat the Mandates, which has sponsored anti-vaccine and anti-mandate events across the country.
Following the Los Angeles rally Sunday, the truckers are expected to head north to Sacramento.
