For example, police in Australia have admitted using a sonic "weapon" on protesting Aussies. The Australian Capital Territory Police say they're only using the long-range acoustic devices to amplify verbal warnings, but the protesters are telling a different story. Some are complaining of feeling anxiety in their hearts, suffering powerful headaches and chronic ringing in their ears.
The crackdowns aren't limited to Australia. In Canada, individuals are seeing their bank accounts frozen if they exhibit support for the Freedom Convoy truckers. And American military personnel are being forced out of the service for refusing to take the COVID "vaccination. "
Robert Knight, a columnist for The Washington Times, says he's never seen anything like the authoritarianism he's seeing today in Western democracies.
"The authorities seem terrified at giving up the control they gained because of the COVID-19 pandemic – so, they're resorting to tactics that you see in communist countries," he tells AFN.
But Knight says he's seeing something else as well. "There's tremendous pushback in all of these countries," he notes. "Look at all the people who turned out to aid the truckers [in Canada] – there's outrage there. I mean, this is not going to go away; it's just building.
He argues that it's nearing critical mass in the U.S. and around the world.
"Americans, more than ever, realize that they can't just sit back and hope the government will be nice to them anymore," Knight explains. "They have to act like we're in a representative republic and take matters into their own hands and get the bad guys out and put good people in."
A convoy about freedom and unity
That very well may be happening. AFN talked with a tea party leader in Ohio who predicts an American version of the Freedom Convoy in Canada – set to launch this week – will strike a blow against what he calls an "existential threat" being imposed by vaccine mandates.
Inspired by the truckers in Canada, organizers of "The People's Convoy" plan to launch on Wednesday, February 23, from the Barstow, California area, and drive east to Washington DC. According to the latest route information, overnight stays along the 11-day route will be only in states with a Republican governor.
Upon arrival in the DC area (scheduled for the evening of March 5), they will be joined by other truckers who will have begun their treks from other locations around the U.S. The truckers will demand that Joe Biden's declaration of national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic be lifted immediately and the U.S. Constitution reign supreme.
Tom Zawistowski is president of the tea party-affiliated We the People Convention. He says because the crackdowns are a "precursor for the tyranny that's coming," they must be stopped.
"This was a trial run," he tells AFN. "[They figure] if they can scare you to death with propaganda and make you do things that are against your best financial interests, your best health interests, and your children and your parents – if they can be successful with this COVID scare, then they can do that with anything else they deem to call an emergency."
And the stakes are high, says the conservative activist.
"That's why I said this is an existential threat to all of Western civilization," he concludes. "We must crush Trudeau; we must crush Biden and the Left – 73% of Americans are for this because we understand it's the end of our freedom and liberty if we don't stop them right here and now."
President Trump declared the U.S. national emergency in March 2020. In a letter to congressional leaders on Friday, he said he plans to extend it beyond March 1 due to what the White House considers an ongoing risk to public health posed by the coronavirus.
