Facing yesterday's deadline for mandated vaccination against the COVID-19 virus, New York City's right-wing Republican police union leaders suggested that 10,000 officers would be pulled off the streets yesterday. Didn't happen. As the WaPo reports, the majority of non-compliant police filed for a medical or religious exemption and are awaiting decisions on their requests. So, out of a force of roughly 35,000 police, just 34 were put on unpaid leave for violating the mandate without any basis for noncompliance. Overall, out of a total city employee workforce of 300,000, the city put a total of 9,000 city employees on unpaid leave. The NYPD is 85% fully vaccinated, according to NYC Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.
As with anti-mask mandates and belligerent public acts in violation of COVID protocols across the nation in the past year, angry Trumpists appear to want the Biden Administration to fail to quell the pandemic, just as their Dear Leader failed, even if it means sickness and death among them. Five times as many police officers have died from COVID since the start of the pandemic than have died from gunfire in the line of duty. That's a statistic that the heads of the police unions should be taking about, not how many police they can pull off the line.
