Were four busloads of protesters hauled into Ada, Oklahoma, and were they met by 600 armed Americans causing them to leave? No, that's not true. A meme that went viral claiming a crisis was averted when armed Americans stopped a large group of protesters from descending on the city is false, according to police and local media reports. It didn't happen.
The claim appeared as a post published on June 18, 2020, on Facebook (archived here) with the following text:
4 busloads of protesters were hauled into Ada, Oklahoma. Were met by 600 armed americans and left. Anyone see this on.the news?
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Jun 24 17:17:10 2020 UTC)
Officer Rich Acre with the Ada Police Department told Lead Stories via a phone interview he investigated the rumor that buses of protesters were in the city on June 5, 2020, and determined the story was false.
"As far as the buses go, I was working that day," Officer Acre said. "We were told there were buses that showed up at the North Hills Center. We drove by there and we didn't see any buses. I don't know where they're getting this information and that we had 600 armed people, that's incorrect."
There was a demonstration in Ada on June 5, but it was peaceful. Public Information Director Lisa Bratcher spoke to Lead Stories about the peaceful march and the false claim of busloads of protesters and "600 armed Americans":
"That absolutely did not happen. There were no buses and no 'armed Americans.' This was a peaceful protest of about 200, organized by some recent high school graduates. They walked down Main Street to the police station and some police walked with the demonstrators. A few business owners who were nervous at first might have had guns, but there was no violence or confrontations at all."
Here is the local KTEN News coverage of the peaceful protes on June 5:
ADA, Okla. (KTEN) -- Chanting "No peace, no justice," several hundred people marched in Ada Friday evening in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The peaceful protest started around 5 o'clock and was scheduled to move down Main Street to the Ada Police Department headquarters building.
Police cooperated by blocking traffic along Main Street for the safety of the participants.
Armed protesters did peacefully march to the Oklahoma governor's mansion on June 20, 2020, the Oklahoman newspaper reported.
Between 150 and 200 protesters peacefully marched from the Ralph Ellison Library to the Governor's Mansion on Saturday to deliver a double-barreled message.
"We aren't going to allow people to come into our communities and brutalize us," event organizer Omar Chatman told the Oklahoman. "If you come into our community, know we are armed."
In addition to protesting recent killings of black men by police in the United States, the armed marchers were advocating for their Second Amendment rights to bear arms, according to the newspaper.
