If you look around pretty much anywhere, hiring signs are up and out. It seems that everywhere you look, companies are short of workers. Some are, in fact, not even able to stay open because of the lack of employees.
And for police departments nationwide, things are even worse. Not only are state unemployment and COVID benefits still convincing officers to stay home, but now, thanks to the massive and nationwide “defund the police” movement, cops are finding it less and less rewarding to do their jobs. And I don’t blame them. After all, who wants to work in an industry or city where they are villainized at nearly every turn?
But now, to make officer shortages even worse, some states and cities are now requiring that all first responders, including police, be vaccinated.
Unsurprisingly, it has left more than a few law enforcement personnel looking for a new line of work.
One place where this has taken a particular toll on law enforcement is the northeastern and increasingly liberal state of Massachusetts. Here, Republican Governor Charlie Baker instituted a COVID vaccine mandate for all “executive department” state employees, which includes about 44,000 individuals. Should anyone choose not to be fully vaccinated by October 17, they could be fired, according to Governor Baker.
But unlike many other departments or states, there aren’t any exceptions or alternatives being offered, say for either medical or religious reasons.
As Mike Cherven, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, recently said in a news release, “dozens of troopers” have recently submitted their resignation, creating even more chaos and crime at a time when their state is already overrun with it.
“The State Police are already critically short-staffed and acknowledged this by the unprecedented moves with took troopers from specialty units that investigate homicides, terrorism, computer crimes, arsons, gangs, narcotics, and human trafficking and returned them to uniformed patrol.”
Cherven went on to explain that it could all be solved with just a bit of compromise, say if officers with medical or religious reasons for refusing the vaccine could instead be tested on a weekly basis or be required to wear a mask on duty as some departments have allowed.
In fact, his police union, which represents some 1,800 members of the state police, has already filed at least one lawsuit asking for just that. In the suit, the union asked that the mandate be delayed until a compromise of some sort could be made for those with serious reasons why they shouldn’t be forced into getting the vaccine.
Seems reasonable, right?
As Cherven said in his statement on the matter, all they are asking for are the “same basic accommodations that countless” other states and departments have given to their employees and first responders.
Well, Superior Court Judge Jackie Cowin didn’t agree. So on Thursday, she rejected the police union’s request.
Why?
Cowin stated that allowing officers to not be vaccinated while coming into contact with the public, especially at a time when it seems COVID cases are once again on the rise, would only further endanger the public.
However, as these recent and en masse resignations point out, keeping the mandate as is just might harm the public even more, given that the state now has dozens fewer state troopers and officers to keep the peace and put a stop to crime.
Cherven voiced his disappointment in the judge’s decision, saying that it is “unfortunate that the Governor and his team have chosen to mandate one of the most stringent vaccine mandates in the country with no reasonable alternatives.”
Unfortunately, it most certainly is. I mean, these brave men and women lay their lives down in the service of their state and country every day. And yet, somehow, because they may choose not to be double jabbed with an altogether unproven ‘vaccine’ that isn’t really even guaranteed, they could be fired and their good name tarnished?
No wonder so many are choosing leave of their own accord, seeking greener pastures where tyranny doesn’t exist in such blatant form.
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