Law enforcement agencies in the nation’s capital have asked for Pentagon assistance ahead of trucker protests mimicking the Canadian “Freedom Convoy” expected in the area in the coming week.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that the department is weighing a request from U.S. Capitol Police and local government agencies to deploy the National Guard. The request comes ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, against which threats of trucker protests like those that paralyzed Canada’s capital city in recent weeks have been circulating online.
“The Department is analyzing a request for assistance from the US Capitol Police and the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency,” Kirby said in a statement. “Those agencies have asked for National Guard personnel to provide support at traffic control points in and around the District to help the USCP and DC government address potential challenges stemming from possible disruptions at key traffic arteries.”
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Canada since late last month has seen a surge in demonstrations with a seemingly American flair, as Canadians outraged with a recently imposed coronavirus vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border have led to protests throughout the country.
Earlier this month, as a Canadian trucker convoy blockaded a vital supply route between the U.S. and its northern neighbor, the Department of Homeland Security warned its law enforcement partners that protests similar to those in Canada could come to the U.S., posing a threat to the Super Bowl or Biden’s State of the Union address.
The agency said it “has received reports of truck drivers potentially planning to block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates,” according to an internal memo obtained by The Hill, explaining that a similar convoy could begin in California as early as mid-February with the potential to impact the Super Bowl and the State of the Union address on March 1.
Among the protesters’ plans is one to shut down the Capital Beltway, an organizer of one of the planned trucker protests told local Fox affiliate WTTG-TV that equating the impact of shutting down the interstate that surrounds the nation’s capital to a boa constrictor snake.
The U.S. Capitol Police said Friday that the department is preparing for extra security ahead of Biden’s March 1 address.
“Law enforcement agencies across the National Capital Region are aware of plans for a series of truck convoys arriving in Washington, DC around the time of the State of the Union,” the department said in a statement, adding that it’s “closely coordinating with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.”
According to Kirby, no decisions have been made yet to approve the requests from Capitol Police and the D.C. government.
The request comes more than a year after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, where the Pentagon’s timing in deploying the Guard was heavily criticized.