Across the country, an awful lot of cops refuse to get vaccinated -- and it's no surprise that an awful lot of ordinary citizens feel this calls into question the officers' devotion to the mission to "protect and serve."
If they won't protect themselves and their families, they certainly aren't there for people they involuntarily interact with.
According to the August 26 LA Times:
There were 84 new coronavirus cases identified among LAPD personnel in the last week, an increase from 45 the week prior, according to police. The new total includes a “hot spot” of 26 new infections among employees at the LAPD’s Central Station in skid row — where officials were scrambling to isolate the outbreak.
... Nearly 3,000 LAPD employees have been infected by the virus, and 10 employees and three employees’ spouses have died from COVID-19.
“If we had lost 10 officers in the line of duty in this last year to gun violence, it would be devastating,” [Chief Michel] Moore told the Police Commission on Tuesday. “It is no less devastating losing 10 members of this organization to this virus.”
You bet they'd be yelling for the heads of the perps if the dead officers had been shot in the line of duty.
In New York City, only 48 percent of NYPD employees were vaccinated as of last week. TIME interviewed some who were avoiding the shots:
... one Brooklyn-based traffic enforcement agent tells TIME they have no immediate intentions of getting the vaccine: “I just don’t feel like I need it yet. I spend most of my time outside and I wear a mask,” the traffic officer says. “For me, it’s about having the choice to take it—and I just don’t want to take it yet.”
A 911 operator says they too don’t want to get vaccinated, and they don’t like the idea of being required to do so either. “[I think] people don’t want to feel obliged or forced to get the vaccine,” the operator says. “It’s not like I’m constantly in someone else’s personal space. I social distance and wear a mask. Why do I need to get vaccinated right now?”
... And last week was a particularly grim week for the NYPD as three members of the department died from COVID-19. (60 NYPD employees have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.)
If seeing their fellow officers fall to this disease doesn't get across the urgency of getting vaxxed, it's hard to see what will -- except threatening their employment.
Both the traffic cop and the 911 operator say that, if it comes down to them losing their job, then they would get their shots.
“If it’s between my job and the vaccine then I would get it. I would try to fight it but, eventually, I would get it,” the 911 operator says.
Adam Serwer, writing in the Atlantic, has no sympathy for recalcitrant cops.
Vaccination is not a “personal decision,” because eschewing vaccination puts others at risk. ... If officers want to sacrifice their salary and pension because they’d rather indulge their politics than take a basic measure—one that 200 million other Americans have already taken—to protect the public they are sworn to serve, they should find a different line of work.
The pandemic has not yet taught us that we're all in this together. Are we a society capable of learning that kindergarten lesson?
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