On Friday, the deadline for Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all city employees came and went, but thousands of Chicago P.D. officers failed to report their vaccine status. So far, this resistance has only resulted in 21 officers being placed on no-pay status. But the city’s police union has made it clear it will fight the order tooth and nail by encouraging officers not to acquiesce. “Welcome to day three of the Hunger Games, where we find out who the city will offer up as tribute,” said Michael Mette, the first vice president of the local Fraternal Order of Police. “If we fail to make them bargain with us on this issue, what issue is next?”
In the event the police union fails to make a deal with the city, the roughly 4,000 officers who failed to report their vaccine status are already being courted by a neighboring red state. “Hey Chicago Police Officers, we’re hiring!” wrote an Indiana State Police spokesperson in a since-deleted tweet linking to an application website. “No vaccine mandate… Lower taxes, great schools, welcoming communities.” Senator Mike Braun, an Indiana Republican, made a similar pitch. “Our police do the hardest job in the world, and they deserve respect—not losing their pay or being fired for refusing to comply with a ridiculous vaccine mandate,” Braun told Fox News, adding that the thousands of “Chicago cops defying this government overreach” have a home in Indiana if they want it.
The CPD’s COVID vaccine resistance is being replicated at police departments across the country. In Washington State, roughly 120 law enforcement employees resigned or were fired after refusing to comply with vaccine mandates. In a viral post lauded by conservatives, Robert LaMay, one of the Washington State police officers who gave up his job to become an anti-vax martyr, recorded his last entry in his squad car’s dispatch system. “This is my final sign-off after 22 years serving the citizens of the state of Washington. I’ve been asked to leave because I am dirty,” the officer said, referencing his defiance against the vaccine mandate. “Numerous fatalities, injuries, I’ve worked sick, I’ve played sick, buried lots of friends over these years…. This is the last time you’ll hear me in a state patrol car… And [Washington governor] Jay Inslee can kiss my ass.”
In New York City, two police unions have threatened to sue Mayor Bill de Blasio over vaccine mandates for city workers. (According to the New York Daily News, about 70% of NYPD officers are currently vaccinated.) “From the beginning of the de Blasio administration’s haphazard vaccine rollout, we have fought to make the vaccine available to every member who chooses it, while also protecting their right to make that personal medical decision in consultation with their own doctor,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest police union in the city. De Blasio, for his part, has maintained that he wants to keep officers and their families safe—an argument that has some merit. Since the start of the pandemic, more American police officers have died from COVID-19 than for any other reason, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
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