About 200 people gathered Saturday afternoon for a “Stop the Steal” rally in support of President Donald Trump in downtown Vancouver’s Esther Short Park.
The rally — and car cruise that followed — was organized by Joey Gibson, founder of right-wing group Patriot Prayer. The event, organized earlier in the week, came on the heels of Democrat Joe Biden defeating Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.
The phrase “stop the steal” has united protesters behind Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in certain battleground states where votes were still being counted after Election Day.
Demonstrators — some armed with handguns and rifles, and donning tactical vests and two-way radios — waved American and pro-Trump flags, as well as Thin Blue Line flags — a term intended to support law enforcement and family of officers killed in the line of duty. It has been a source of controversy, however, due to a perceived overlap with “Blue Lives Matter,” a phrase that emerged in response to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
As the rally got underway, a few Vancouver police patrol vehicles blocked off the intersection at Esther and West Eighth streets, to allow Vancouver Farmers Market vendors to finish packing up.
A few speakers, including Gibson, addressed the crowd, saying that the election was stolen from Trump, among other things.
At one point, the group marched to the Interstate 5 Bridge.
The demonstration did not draw many counterdemonstrators. One man stood quietly on the outskirts of the park, holding a Black Lives Matter sign. A group quickly confronted him, and a tense exchange followed.
Police radio noted that occupants of a few cars passing by the park yelled taunts at the demonstrators. One person screamed: “Trump is trash!”
A handful of people danced on the corner of Eighth and Columbia streets, waving a Biden 2020 flag and exchanging taunts with those passing by in the Trump cruise.
The nearby Starbucks closed early as a precaution; the business’s windows were smashed last week during demonstrations following the police shooting of Kevin E. Peterson Jr., a young Black man from Camas.
