HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WDVM) — The People’s Convoy did a series of protests up and down the capitol beltway to protest pandemic restrictions. When they returned Friday from taking a break from the movement, they declared victory.

Once the word got out about the movement disbanding, the General Manager Lisa Plessinger asked them to leave. During an off-camera interview, Plessinger had said in part

“After the convoy had declared victory, fights started to break out between people. They had also left large amounts of trash during their stay and I didn’t see any point in letting them stay further after they had been disbanded,” said Plessinger.

Donny Thomas has been participating in the people’s convoy from the very start. He says there were people there who were purposely stirring up trouble which eventually led to the speedway wanting nothing more to do with them.

“There was a separation between what the convoy was aiming to do and what the organizers wanted it to do and I think that caused a rift,” Thomas said. “They began yelling at the organizers and causing a scene and those people were maybe just raptors on purpose or paid to do so.”

Thomas also feels that the people’s convoy had not earned victory due to some of their initiatives still not being done. Since the movement was starting to get out of hand he felt they had to end it to avoid any more incidents.

” Our job was to say we aren’t under our constitution, we are under an emergency declaration and so the mandates, they have the power to do that, and most of the people that I talked to, had no idea that we were even under emergency declaration,” Thomas said. “So why they claim victory is beyond me because it’s hollow to claim when you haven’t met your demand.”

Even though the people’s convoy movement has come to an end, its supporters are still continuing their fight in smaller state capitol protests.

“There were plenty of good people that had freedom and equality and all the right things in mind,” Thomas said. “So don’t let it be tainted by a few that didn’t have those things in mind because that doesn’t represent our entire group.”