COVID mandates oust cops nationwide, police leaders warn of fallout
COVID-19 vaccine mandates have sparked nationwide controversy and led to firings and resignations around the country. Police officers have been hit hard by the requirements, and their exodus may leave many cities understaffed even on the heels of a spike in violent crime. In New York City, officers passed the mayor’s deadline for vaccination Friday. The city announced that there are 26,000 unvaccinated municipal workers, including 17% of police officers. Those who refuse to comply will be placed on unpaid leave beginning Monday. But New York City is far from the only local government to take that route. Several municipalities have instituted vaccine mandates for police officers only to see a significant drop-off in staffing. Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Seattle police departments have all grappled over this issue as well. In some areas, like Denver, data suggest that many officers who fought the mandate were, in the end, unwilling to resign over it. However, in other areas, police departments around the country have lost many officers due to the mandate. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva grabbed headlines earlier this month after announcing he would not enforce the vaccine mandate on his staff, putting local leaders in a tough position. Last week, he called the mandate an “imminent threat to public safety.” “The Board’s vaccination mandate is causing a mass exodus within the Department, which is an absolutely absurd result,” Villaneuva said. “I have repeatedly stated the dangers to public safety when 20%-30% of my workforce is no longer available to provide service, and those dangers are quickly becoming a reality. We are experiencing an increase in unscheduled retirements, worker compensation claims, employees quitting, and a reduction in qualified applicants. As a result, homicide rates will continue to rise, response times will increase, solve rates will diminish, arrests will decline, patrol services will significantly decline, and patrol stations will close.” In Massachusetts, The State Police Association of Massachusetts (SPAM) lost a legal battle in September challenging the state’s vaccine mandate, forcing many law enforcement officers out. “The State Police are already critically short-staffed and acknowledged this by the unprecedented moves which took troopers from specialty units that investigate homicides, terrorism, computer crimes, arsons, gangs, narcotics, and human trafficking, and returned them to uniformed patrol,” SPAM said in the statement. The Seattle police department lost a few officers and has many more waiting to see if they can receive an exemption to the mandate. “As of midnight, all but six Seattle Police Department employees have submitted their COVID-19 vaccination forms or are involved in an accommodation process, per city mandate,” SPD said in mid-October. “For those six employees, the separation process has begun. Meanwhile, 103 sworn and civilian SPD employees submitted requests for either a medical or religious exemption. While away from work, those employees will be using their own accrued time balances. The decision on when and whether they will be allowed to return to work will be determined in the coming weeks.” Many of the officers leaving departments plan to head to more flexible employers. “To date, dozens of troopers have already submitted their resignation paperwork, some of whom plan to return to other departments offering reasonable alternatives such as mask-wearing and regular testing,” SPAM said. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has capitalized politically on the issue, publicly calling on ousted officers from around the nation to move to Florida. “NYPD, Minneapolis, Seattle, if you’re not being treated well, we’ll treat you better here: you fill important needs for us, and we’ll compensate you as a result,” DeSantis told Fox News. Mandates combined with growing friction between police and local governments over “defund the police” movements and other anti-police sentiments already had officers on edge. Now, many police groups have pushed back against the vaccine mandates but have failed to sway several of the nation’s larger municipalities. “The mandate-first, last, and only approach for law enforcement belies the public trust imbued on officers to make difficult, sometimes life and death decisions every day,” said Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. “They are asked to quickly assess complex situations, apply their discretion, and act decisively and fairly – to uphold the law and protect the public. The men and women who put their lives on the line for others and take on this immense responsibility are now being told their leaders’ have no faith in their judgment.” Meanwhile, the nation saw a spike in violent crime last year, according to FBI data released in September. Homicides rose nearly 30% in 2020 and aggravated assaults increased by more than 12%. That marked the first time in four years violent crime rose from the previous year. There were roughly 21,500 reported murders in 2020, the highest figure in decades. “In 2020, there were an estimated 1,277,696 violent crimes,” the FBI said. “When compared with the estimates from 2019, the estimated number of robbery offenses fell 9.3 percent, and the estimated volume of rape (revised definition) offenses decreased 12.0 percent. The estimated number of aggravated assault offenses rose 12.1 percent, and the volume of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses increased 29.4 percent.” Last weekend, Chicago saw a 220% increase in downtown shootings, raising more concerns about the need for police. “But don’t worry, [Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot] thinks the best way to solve this serious problem of increased downtown shootings is by stripping and removing cops from the street,” said Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, a local police union chapter. By Casey Harper | The Center Square
Alabama judge retiring after nearly 20 years
He’s been on the bench in Alabama’s Limestone County for nearly 20 years, but now Judge Bob Baker has decided it’s time to give someone else a shot. Baker is retiring on Tuesday, WAFF-TV reported. He said he and his wife plan to travel, play “bad” golf, and enjoy life. At a retirement party Friday, Baker said it’s the relationships that he’s made over the past two decades that he will miss the most. “I work with good people and I’ll miss them more than anything. The work, I enjoyed, but I’ll miss the people,” he said. Through the years, Baker has seen the growth of Limestone County firsthand and watched as it impacted the court system. Baker said it led to an obvious change in volume and said watching the jury demographic change has been interesting as well. “When I came here about 26 years ago, we had farmers, Saginaw workers, professionals, your typical mix. Now when I strike a jury, I’ve got engineers, computer scientists, physicists, military,” he said. Baker said he has many good memories at the courthouse and he’s presided over many high-profile cases. One of the hardest cases to preside over and one of his first involved a man named Farron Barksdale. “He was a mentally ill man, and he lured two Athens Police officers to his house and then shot them down in cold blood. And that was hard because I knew the officers, and obviously the impact on the community, that was difficult,” he recalled. Though the job carried many highs and lows, Baker thanked Limestone County for trusting him and treating him like family. “I’m not from here, I didn’t think that that was a chance, but they took me in like the native son so, it worked out,” he said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama: Vaccine mandate will lead state employees to quit
Alabama argued in a lawsuit challenging the federal vaccine requirements that many university and state agency employees would leave their jobs if required to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Alabama joined with a coalition of other states in a lawsuit filed late Friday challenging the vaccine mandate on federal contractors. The lawsuit is part of Republican-led efforts to oppose the federal requirements. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall this week also urged businesses, universities, and state agencies to consider employees’ requests for medical and religious exemptions. “From the moment the White House tried to force this vaccine on to Americans, I have said that Alabama is standing strong against it and that the way to stop this is to go to the courts,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement this weekend. Alabama has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country with just 44.7% of the population fully vaccinated, compared to a national average of 58%. In announcing the rules in September, President Joe Biden said the unvaccinated were hindering the nation’s recovery. “Without vaccination requirements, we face endless months of chaos in our hospitals, further detrimental impacts on our economy, and anxiety in our schools. With them, we will accelerate our path out of the pandemic,” the White House wrote on a page about the requirements. In the lawsuit filed late Friday, Alabama claimed that many university and Alabama Department of Public Health employees would “likely quit their jobs rather than receive the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of further employment.” Even as the state sues, Auburn University and the University of Alabama campuses have said employees must get vaccinated by Nov. 8 because the campuses all are federal contractors. Vaccine mandates have already been the subject of litigation. The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency appeal from health care workers in Maine to block a vaccine mandate that went into effect Friday. Many of Alabama’s public universities and some state agencies have received notice that they are subject to the federal-contractor vaccination mandate, according to the attorney general’s office. Marshall issued an advisory this week instructing Alabama-based employers, including public university employers, to liberally interpret “in favor of the employee” any requests for medical and religious exemptions to the vaccination mandate. When an employee requests a religious exemption, Marshall said state agencies should not “inquire into the validity of an employee’s religious beliefs, including the motives or reasons for holding the belief.” That deviates from federal guidance where federal employees are asked to participate in an interactive process and bring documentation supporting the request for an exemption. Twelve bills related to vaccinations were introduced in the ongoing special session on redistricting, but key lawmakers said they do not expect to debate the proposals before the winter regular session. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said Republicans want to fight the mandate but suggested it would be counterproductive to pass legislation that couldn’t impact federal law. The U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause is clear that federal law overrides any conflicting state laws. “The last thing we want to do is have a knee-jerk reaction on something that may sound good politically, but in substance what does it do. You haven’t done the people any justice by doing it that way,” McCutcheon said. Businesses with federal contracts could be placed in an uncomfortable situation if torn between conflicting state and federal mandates. Some current mandates — such as a hospital requiring doctors to get yearly flu shots — could be impacted by the proposed bills. Republican Sen. Arthur Orr of Decatur said there will be ongoing discussions about how to craft legislation that could help the state litigation. Orr said he is hearing more and more stories of people faced with losing their jobs because they are not vaccinated. “It’s been tragic,” Orr said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama campus no longer requiring masks if fully vaccinated
The University of Alabama will no longer require face coverings in most of its facilities for people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Beginning Friday, masks only will be mandated for unvaccinated people indoors and in crowded outdoor settings or during outdoor activities that involve sustained close contact with others who are unvaccinated, the university said in a statement. Masks are will remain required for people in patient clinical-care settings at University Medical Center, the Student Health Center, the Capstone Village assisted living and specialty care units, Brewer-Porch Children’s Center, and the Working on Womanhood program — and for those on Crimson Ride buses, WBRC-TV reported. The university said unvaccinated people will not have to wear masks when eating or drinking or while maintaining appropriate distancing, when alone in offices with closed doors, while exercising, or in residence hall rooms. Since the pandemic began, 15,573 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Alabama, according to the state Department of Public Health. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
