Claim: The government's plans to impose martial law on 1 January 2000 are revealed by signs spilling from a flipped-over truck.
Examples:
[Collected on the Internet, 1999]
I met a man last night that used to go to my church. Brandon moved last year before I started attending. But several people, including the pastor, say that Brandon is totally honest and does not "go off half-cocked."
Brandon told me that his wife received a call from her cousin last week. The cousin lives in Ohio and her husband is a truck driver for Wal-Mart. It seems he was driving a load early last week and stopped at a border weigh station. The inspector wanted to know what was in the load, and the driver indicated he did not know. He merely picked up the trailer and was transporting it to another state.
The inspector opened the trailer and saw hundreds of uniform boxes. He asked what was in the boxes and the driver again stated that he didn't know. So the inspector opened a box.
In the box were about a hundred large (about 2'x3') plastic signs that stated: "This City Under Martial Law" in bright colors. It said something about the federal gov't and had what looked like a legal reference (the driver claims to know nothing about legal issues, but he thought it was a reference to a law or an Executive Order or something).
There were several hundred boxes of these signs. The driver doesn't know what Wal-Mart has to do with the signs. But he DID state that Wal-Mart sometimes hires out space on their trucks if space is available. I might suggest that maybe the federal gov't was using Wal-Mart trucks to keep a low profile.
Anyway, the info came to me by way of a long route. But the sources are "innocent bystanders" with no history of right-wing reactionary politics. The driver was married to a woman who was related to Brandon's wife. Brandon swears the info is accurate and that he spoke with the driver himself to confirm what was passed between the respective wives. The driver claims there were hundreds of boxes, each one with at least a hundred large signs declaring martial law.
I thought this was worth passing along. Especially since the federal gov't is telling us (Wednesday issue of USA Today and today's press releases) that we have nothing to fear.
[Collected on the Internet, 1999]
Becky, my wife, went to her long-time doctor today. The conversation shifted to current events. This very credible doctor told her his brother-in-law followed a truck part of the way home from Beaumont. The truck was loaded with signs covered, individually, with cardboard.
The truck stopped at a stop sign, and the bro-in-law, could read a label on the boxes which said "Martial law signs".This was on Saturday March 27 1999.
Again, this was from a medical doctor who is very credible. This is not just hearsay or rumor from folks we dont know. You might want to pass this on, and keep your powder dry!
[Collected on the Internet, 1999]
This information is from an extremely reliable source from the North Idaho area:
This morning May 14, 1999 at the Coeur d'Alene Idaho truck scales, a truck came through that was accidentally overloaded. They made them bring in a another truck to unload some of it's load to reduce the weight of the truck. What was being off-loaded is what sends up a RED-FLAG.
They were unloading road signs. Some of the road signs read the following "MARTIAL LAW - ROAD CLOSED". All the signs had something to do with Martial Law.
Variations:
Where this truck supposedly spills the beans varies from telling to telling with while "traveling from Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado," at "the Coeur d'Alene Idaho truck scales," "in Michigan," "on an Interstate in Florida," "on Highway 72 in Clayton, Texas" just some of the locations so far mentioned.
Early sightings of this scare make no mention of the trucking firm the signs are being carried with, but the latest version afoot claims Wal-Mart trucks are being used for this venture. In this newest version, speculation that Wal-Mart is somehow part of the conspiracy becomes worked into the story.
Origins: As 2000 approached, our initially vague fears about what would happen on that fateful first day of the new century crystallized into forms we can understand, deal with, and ultimately feel secure in the face of. For the past few years, we've been inundated with messages that all computers will go crazy on that day, planes will fall from the skies, and automated system after system will crash and burn. Indeed, we have been so heavily saturated with these predictions that the tide is running the other way, with the average citizen now pooh-poohing most Y2K concerns as mere hype. Chicken Little told us once too often that the sky was falling for any of us to believe much of it anymore.
The average Joe figures a few minor systems will fail, but goes about making his New Year's Eve plans anyway, secure in the knowledge his world isn't going to be that
heavily affected. He's had long enough to get used to the hype to have gotten over the initial panic and is now viewing the situation quite rationally from the perspective of someone who realizes that whatever can be done is being done.
But conspiracy loons are not average Joes. They will always find something dire to fret about, hence this latest rumor.
Crazy stories about cargo trucks spilling "Road Closed - Martial Law" signs appear to have originated in February 1999. Given that the story's basic premise makes the whole thing laughable, it's no wonder nothing about these truck upendings turns up in the news. What we have here is lore born of fear, pure and simple, and this rumor should not be confused with fact by any thinking person.
While the imposition of martial law during times of national emergency is always a distinct yet distant possibility, nothing about the process mandates that signs proclaiming ". . . by order of martial law" be erected. A state of martial law is simply declared by the President, after which troops and/or National Guardsmen are deployed to enforce it. As such, if roads need to be closed, standard "Road Closed" signs are erected. It's not the presence or absence of a sign that's important; it's the authority of the armed guy manning the barricade that matters.
The more rational among us realize that even if the Government had had a contingency plan up its sleeve to suspend civil liberties on 1 January 2000, not even the dumbest Washington bureaucrat would have thought special road signs needed to printed up ahead of time to make all this legal. Again, nothing about martial law requires the erection of specific signs to make it so — martial law exists from the moment the President says it does. And as for the screwball notion that special signs would be needed to communicate this state of affairs to the civilian populace, I have to think their TVs, radios, and Internet connections would accomplish this just fine.
If roads needed to be closed, ordinary signs announcing such a closure would do just fine. Manufacturing special ones would inevitably lead to the Government's plans being found out, as leaks would soon reach the press from those who painted or transported the signs. Better to stockpile a zillion standard "Road Closed" signs than to risk inadvertently announcing what many Americans would see as an unwarranted armed takeover.
Okay, so if the signs are a ridiculous flourish in this wild rumor, why are they part of the story?
It all comes down to plot device. The signs, you see, are the means by which the Government's evil plan is revealed to the unsuspecting citizenry. If a truck full of "Road Closed" signs spilled its contents, not even the most charismatic rumormonger would convince anyone this was all tied to a federal plot to take over the country on the first of the year. But make them "By Order of Martial Law" signs, and the story now has legs to run on.
(Revelation by way of written communication turns up in urban legends whenever a device is needed to propel the story forward by way of explaining actions that have taken place. A fine example of this serves as the lynchpin for the Dishonest Note tale, wherein the miscreant gives away his ruse in the note he pens; in real life he'd either simply scribble something innocuous or just leave a blank piece of paper behind.)
Could martial law have been declared on 1 January 2000? It was certainly within the realm of possibility if everything went to hell in a handbasket and the citizenry was put at dire risk by a few handfuls of opportunists looking to make a big score without thought given to who might get hurt. Martial law is the suspension of a number of civil liberties and, as such, would be imposed only if locking up suspects without the filing of charges and holding them as long as need be without bringing them to trial were deemed necessary steps to take to break a conspiracy that threatened the physical safety of the nation's citizens.
An example of the imposition of martial law in our times comes from Canada. In 1970 Canada enacted the War Measures Act upon the Front de Liberation du Quebec's kidnappings of a British trade commissioner and the Quebec Minister of Labor and setting off bombs in downtown Montreal. Anyone and everyone who was suspected of knowing anything about the FLQ was rounded up and put in jail, and that state of affairs continued until the crisis was over. Canada took this unusual step because terrorism was afoot in that country and ordinary citizens stood in the way of harm. The rights of a few were temporarily suspended to protect the lives of many.
Martial law is what the government of a country would impose to combat terrorism. In the case of computers going haywire, it's far more likely a national state of emergency would be declared as the onus would be upon restoring services, not upon locking up dangers to society. In the wake of horrendous hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, the U.S. Army and National Guard are provided to help Americans weather the crisis until ordinary services can be restored. Both of these services traditionally lend a hand during natural disasters, and it's reasonable to think they would be called upon to help out if Y2K glitches brought the country to its knees.
Conspiracy rumors like this one play upon fears that the Government has too much power and will use it against its citizens given any opportunity to do so. Later versions of the rumor that bring Wal-Mart into the picture as a partner in the impending takeover further establish the basis for this rumor as one of fear of the all-powerful. Like the Government, Wal-Mart is seen as being too big to control and thus possibly having the ability to be a law unto itself. Wal-Mart is also somewhat perceived as evil as the belief it is responsible for putting out of business one retail store after another has become an accepted bit of popular wisdom. People may shop at Wal-Mart, but they don't like that chain.
Sources:
