New Jersey Governor & State Police Working With FBI, National Guard To Prepare For Trucker Convoy

New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan and Governor Phil Murphy answered questions about the people's freedom convoy at a press conference in Trenton on Wednesday February 23.

"New Jersey National Guard is going to DC, that was a request- over 20 vehicles and over 100 manpower. We're doing it in this case to make sure I presume, that we don't see what happened in Ottowa happen in our nation's capital," Murphy said.

Callahan said state police are working with "local, county, state and federal partners" regarding the March 5th and 6th rally. "We have had calls with our partners, the Port Authority the FBI, all of our partners in this to make sure we can mitigate if not eliminate anything happening like what we saw unfold up in Ottawa; so certainly an ongoing monitoring from our regional operations Intelligence Center."

At minute 46, Callahan is asked about potential use of tow trucks and responds “We hope it doesn’t come to that... I would hope that we don’t have to use our heavy duty wreckers, if they come to a stop they will be ordered to keep moving, but we are planning for a scenario where we would have heavy-duty wrecker standing by to tow at their expense off of our interstates.”

Asked about the fact that the National Guard will not have weapons, Callahan said "they are a force multiplier, and sometimes their presence alone helps us in mitigating some of those challenges that come with large crowds like that."

[Also see njtruckerconvoy.com.]

Also of interest, at minute 42, Governor Murphy acknowledges the "mental health strain" of mask-wearing on "our precious kids" here.