D.C. Residents Heard Shouting Profanities at Trucker Convoy on Streets

After working around the various trucker convoys in Washington, D.C., since early March, residents have reached their boiling point and can be heard screaming for them to "go home!"

The convoy is part of a larger movement of conservative truckers that began in Canada. Originally formed in protest of COVID-19-related mandates, the convoys soon spread to other countries, including the U.S., where they have caused traffic disruptions in cities around the world.

A number of these convoys attempted to make their way to the nation's capital in order to protest. The main group now remaining on the outskirts of the city is known as the "People's Convoy," which traveled to the East Coast in a cross-country journey from California, adding protesters along the way.

The People's Convoy, which has been held mostly to the edge of D.C. this past week by law enforcement, is reportedly made up of around 500 trucks that have been circling a number of highways in the D.C. metropolitan area, according to WJLA-TV. This has led to significant delays in traffic, according to local news outlets.

With movement on the highways at a reported standstill and the COVID restrictions that the truckers were originally protesting having been mostly lifted, one video shows D.C. residents seeming to have had enough.

The video, captured by Axios reporter Andrew Solender, shows a few of the People's Convoy trucks driving through the Capitol Hill neighborhood. As the truckers pass by, at least two passersby on the street can be seen giving the drivers the middle finger.

As the video continues, people can be clearly heard shouting profanities at the passing convoy. This includes pedestrians telling the truckers to "go home" and "f**k off."

The truckers seem to honk at the bystanders as they go by. The convoy also appeared to have a police escort, as at least four cars from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) were seen following the truckers.

The anger directed at the conservative-leaning convoy seems to fall in line with the political makeup of the nation's capital, which leans heavily liberal. A poll from the Pew Research Center found that 56 percent of adults within the D.C. metropolitan area identified as Democratic or left-leaning, with only 28 percent saying that were Republicans or right-leaning.

This is not the first time anger has been directed toward the trucker convoys around D.C.

A viral video posted to Twitter on March 10 shows the dash cam video of one of these truckers driving on the Beltway. The driver can be heard saying that people were continually giving him the middle finger: "Birds are flying. Birds are flying everywhere."

As the original reasons for the protest—COVID-19 restrictions—are largely being mitigated across the U.S., one member of the convoy said that they are now protesting the government's ability to invoke emergency powers.

"Every American has a constitutional right to peacefully protest and visit our nation's capital," said People's Convoy co-organizer Brian Brase in a press release. "If we can't come to them, this is an open invitation to any lawmaker, any government official in the White House or on Capitol Hill to join us here in Hagerstown and hear the demands of the people you work for."

"It is a deliberate abuse of power, as law enforcement strips hard working, tax paying citizens of their constitutional right to peacefully travel on tax payer-funded streets in our nation's capital in the exercise of our first amendment right to petition an abusive government," the press release added.

Newsweek has reached out to Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and the People's Convoy for comment.