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Seattle About to Lose One-Third of Its Police Force Due to COVID Vaccine Mandate

Seattle About to Lose One-Third of Its Police Force Due to COVID Vaccine Mandate

Is the “blue flu” just about to get a covid makeover in Seattle?

On the one hand, there is mounting evidence that the COVID-19 vaccination efficacy declines substantially with time.

On the other hand, FBI data shows that violent crime is surging across this nation.

So what are progressive governors and mayors suppose to do? Mandate vaccinations for police officers and fire those that don’t comply…of course.

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) said 292 sworn officers have not shown proof of their COVID-19 vaccination status as of Oct. 6, one day after the department’s deadline….

In August, the city of Seattle adopted Gov. Jay Inslee’s mandate that state employees and health care workers be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or be fired. There is not a COVID-19 testing option, but employees can apply for religious or medical exemptions.

Oct. 4 was the last day to receive the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and still make the deadline to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18.

Essentially, that means Seattle is poised to lose about one-third of its police force. October 4th was selected because it would take two weeks for the second booster to be “fully protective” and would align with the hard deadline.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin (D) said in August that all city employees will have to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18, unless they have a religious or medical exemption.

The policy was in line with a state mandate that Inslee announced in August, which does not allow for employees to opt for weekly testing. Some state agencies have sent employees who have not submitted proof of vaccination termination notices.

In a letter to SPD staff last week, police chief Adrian Diaz warned that Oct. 5 was the deadline for police staff to submit proof of vaccination.

Diaz also said that Oct. 4 was the last day to receive a second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, to meet the state’s guidelines.

“At the moment – we have to assume we have hundreds of unvaccinated individuals based on the information submitted,” Diaz wrote. “This could create a disruption to unit of assignments.”

It must be remembered that Mayor Jenny Durkan dismissed the summer 2020 BLM riots, derided the police, and supported the infamous city autonomous zone. She even thought Seattle “could have the summer of love.”

In a not entirely unrelated matter, the area’s King County Council’s Committee recently passed a motion for the county to take ownership of City Hall Park in Seattle’s iconic Pioneer Square neighborhood. County officials feel they are better poised to deal with the crime and homelessness.

The motion passed the committee by a 7-2 vote, with Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay and Joe McDermott voting “no.” The motion is expected to go to a full council vote in a couple of weeks.

Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles co-sponsored the motion and said King County is better prepared and has the financial resources to address certain safety issues the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has not been able to make a priority.

Kohl-Welles blamed the SPD’s staffing shortages and pointed to federal funding to help with homelessness. The area remains closed and fenced off as crews work to restore the park and make repairs.

More than 70 people living in tents at the park were relocated in August after a man allegedly attempted to rape a woman in the restroom of the King County Superior Courthouse, which is located across the street.

I am sure there are plenty of mandate-free cities, counties, and states in this country that would love to have experienced police officers join.

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Comments

Even better, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has declared that he will not enforce the vax mandate ordered earlier this week by the LA City council on the advice of the Fake Doctor:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/10/07/la-county-sheriff-alex-villanueva-will-not-enforce-vaccine-mandate/

Our sheriff has been targeted for elimination by George Soros’ flunkies and is the only one standing up to our Marxist DA George Gascon, one of the flunkies.

    guyjones in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 8, 2021 at 9:27 am

    Gascon is utterly vile. Bird of a feather with Kim Foxx in Illinois and Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. Criminal advocates, sympathizers and enablers, masquerading as “prosecutors.”

The Friendly Grizzly | October 8, 2021 at 9:11 am

I guess there will be 1/3 fewer police to stand down in the next riots.

Yes. I’m cynical.

    By mandating the jab, the Marxists gave the police a golden opportunity to quit dramatically all at once for maximum political effect. So what is the DOJ/FBI going to do about it? Replace them with Afghani “refugees”? Blue-helmeted UN troops?

      TX-rifraph in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 8, 2021 at 2:15 pm

      Antifa has applicants ready to go. This is just the next step in the plan. It is not about law enforcement. It is about control. Think Stasi. They know exactly what they are doing.

    At this point in our nation’s civics, and, given the state of our polity, this isn’t being cynical; merely realistic.

    SeiteiSouther in reply to The Friendly Grizzly. | October 8, 2021 at 11:12 am

    That’s not being cynical. That’s being factual.

    At what point do the Mayor and City Council throw up their hands, shutter the SPD and turn law enforcement over to the King County Sheriff Department? That would be the ultimate Defund they could brag to their commie constituents about, free up who knows how any millions of dollars for unicorn petting zoos or whatever, get rid of all those rebellious police officers who refused to do the Council’s bidding, and claim to have reduced the size of city government. Win for them on so many levels.

      The Friendly Grizzly in reply to Idonttweet. | October 8, 2021 at 11:30 am

      I wonder what sort of person the King County Sheriff is? Will he tell the city of Seattle, “no!”?

      (Throwing up your hands can be painful. Those fingernails are very hard on the tonsils!)

        King County (really Seattle) just voted to make the Sheriff an appointed position. The King County Exec—a raging leftist, will appoint the sheriff. So expect the department to quickly become as politically correct as the SPD.

        There is a silver lining though. Seattle recently lowered speed limits all over the city in a transparent attempt to raise revenue by abusive traffic fines. For example, a major 4 lane arterial critical for getting out of one part of the city (because the city refused to fund bridge maintenance and ended up with a closed major bridge) has a 25mph speed limit. But there aren’t enough officers for the extortion scheme to work. Every driver ignores the limit and average speed is 35mph (a safe speed).

Strangely, paraphrasing the old paranoia joke actually works here.

Yes, I’m cynical.
But am I cynical enough?

The increase in the Murder rate this last year was the largest America has seen since 9/11. If you removed the tower deaths, it was the largest increase in the Murder rate in over a Century.

If enough cops leave, fire fighters will follow. Too few fire fighters and the city will put its municipal liability insurance, and property coverage at risk of cancellation or sky high premiums.

    Dakotah in reply to Whitewall. | October 8, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    Attention all law enforcement! Please come to South Dakota where we support you and respect you!

    Subotai Bahadur in reply to Whitewall. | October 8, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    There is another trend to watch. Amazon is has already started moving out of Seattle to the suburbs to get away from the Seattle city government and its punitive taxes. How many more, albeit smaller, businesses can decide to leave because of lack of fire fighters, Paramedics, and high insurance rates if you can get it?

    I’m hoping for Detroit on Puget Sound.

    Subotai Bahadur

Unfortunately, no. The DOJ Will NOT step in. Because, unlike school boards being the target of terrorist threats, the DOJ Will say this is a local matter.

A rational mind would say there is no way in hell the city will actually fire 1/3of the police…. But from what we’ve seen.. they probably will.

It’s what happens next that will foretell the road we’re on. Not talking about rise in crime (that will be ignored). No – talking about how the city “rebuilds” the police department. Whether it’s putting Social Workers in squad card or hiring mall security wannabe-cops, the city. Council will convince the voters the situation is under control.

Watch for other cities to follow.

    CommoChief in reply to Doc-Wahala. | October 8, 2021 at 10:11 am

    The road some Cities and States are on to be sure but definitely not all. The recent shift in Austin by some to the realization that failure to enforce the law generates an environment of lawlessness as one example. Buckhead in Atlanta is another example of a different path available.

      Doc-Wahala in reply to CommoChief. | October 8, 2021 at 10:21 am

      Agreed – some cities like Buckhead will take deliberate steps to go the opposite direction. But there are still some that will think “if Seattle can, why can’t we?” (Hoping there aren’t any that say “we can do more”).

      Bottom line – so many things we considered “unthinkable” just ten years ago are happening and the pace is quickening, I shudder to imagine we’re will be just two years from now.

    henrybowman in reply to Doc-Wahala. | October 8, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    What the left wants to happen is close. They’re going to hire Social Workers who are actually Social Justice Workers. Then they own enforcement, and don’t have to follow the old rules. Or any rules, really.

You mean one-third of the half that remained after recent year’s events?

Out of those numbers, I wonder how many officers already *had* Covid, and are therefore better protected against the disease than a fellow officer with a six-month old immunization.

I really don’t see how this is not an outright violation of the ADA (but I’m not a lawyer).

    Milhouse in reply to georgfelis. | October 8, 2021 at 10:20 am

    I don’t see how it could be a violation. What disability are they discriminating against? What “major life activity” does being unvaccinated “substantially limit”?

      henrybowman in reply to Milhouse. | October 8, 2021 at 12:55 pm

      Employment.

      felixrigidus in reply to Milhouse. | October 9, 2021 at 7:45 am

      Sec. 12102. Definition of disability

      As used in this chapter:

      (1) Disability

      The term “disability” means, with respect to an individual

      (A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual;

      (B) a record of such an impairment; or

      (C) being regarded as having such an impairment (as described in paragraph (3)).

      (2) Major Life Activities

      (A) In general

      For purposes of paragraph (1), major life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working.

      (B) Major bodily functions

      For purposes of paragraph (1), a major life activity also includes the operation of a major bodily function, including but not limited to, functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions.

      (3) Regarded as having such an impairment

      For purposes of paragraph (1)(C):

      (A) An individual meets the requirement of “being regarded as having such an impairment” if the individual establishes that he or she has been subjected to an action prohibited under this chapter because of an actual or perceived physical or mental impairment whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity.

      (–)
      (4) Rules of construction regarding the definition of disability

      The definition of “disability” in paragraph (1) shall be construed in accordance with the following:

      (A) The definition of disability in this chapter shall be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals under this chapter, to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of this chapter.

      (…)

        CommoChief in reply to felixrigidus. | October 9, 2021 at 12:51 pm

        Exactly. Those with provable natural immunity, among others, have a pretty clear claim here IMO. For them the vax is all risk of side effects with little to no benefit from the vax.

I’m seeing similar stories across the country. I wonder how many police have said no to the jab and how many cities have laid them off for that. Is anyone tracking that?

Well, that’s one way to defund the police. On the minus side the city will go even more to Hell than it already was. But on the plus side spending will be “reined in” and will come in under budget, so the city should run a surplus. That should make conservatives happy, no? Well, until people stop paying taxes, anyway.

    SeiteiSouther in reply to Milhouse. | October 8, 2021 at 11:14 am

    Or leave, destroying the tax base.

    Eric R. in reply to Milhouse. | October 8, 2021 at 12:01 pm

    There are no conservatives left in the People’s Socialist Republic of Seattle.

    Ben Kent in reply to Milhouse. | October 8, 2021 at 2:16 pm

    PROGRESSIVES ARE REJOICING

    They are thrilled at the reduction of force. It’s what they wanted with their DEFUND effort. NOW Seattle gets to be guinea pigs in a giant social experiment called ” I wonder what happens to society when we remove between 1/3 and 1/2 the police force ?” No matter what actually happens – Progressives will spin it as some [pick your season] of LOVE. Reality is just a perception – in their view. A perception that can be changed when you rewrite history because 99% of history professors are woke acolytes.

    Blood on Biden’s and Fouci’s hands when the murder and OD rate soars.

      Ben Kent in reply to Ben Kent. | October 8, 2021 at 2:19 pm

      Many police who ARE vaccinated will leave the force because they don’t want to a risk and overrun by lawlessness. The physical risk to police officers from this mass exodus will grearly increase.

    Ironclaw in reply to Milhouse. | October 8, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    I don’t really care. The retards voted for it. give it to them good and hard.

    txvet2 in reply to Milhouse. | October 8, 2021 at 6:12 pm

    Conservatives live mainly in the suburbs and the county will end up having to foot the bills for law enforcement et al, so no, conservatives, if there are any left, will not be happy.

I have been fully vaccinated for months. I believe in vaccines. I do not desire to impose my will upon others.

Just like good, even great, ideas. Do not make each good/great idea a law.

Remember, eventually, each law requires someone to enforce it with a gun.

I don’t understand the problem. Since the members of the Seattle Politburo, including First Secretary Durkan, (and presumably most of the Party Members who voted for them), think cops are nothing but racist killers, shouldn’t they be ENCOURAGING more of this?

Here’s some more salt on the story. They’ve been trying to recruit and as I understand there may have been hiring bonuses which would not allow new recruits to quit to take lateral positions elsewhere w/out having to repay the bonuses. Not sure how that plays out, but I’m thinking it COULD be in play and so a bunch of new hires will depart that hell hole right out of the academy and keep their hiring bonus.

The State Patrol’s numbers were doing slightly better, but they will also lose some.

Across the state, cops are quitting/retiring ASAP because the recent laws passed increasing the jeopardy for shootings which the SJW crowd gets to lynch cops for… because George Floyd. As it is, cops are no longer responding to most calls in a lot of jurisdictions (including mine) unless it is life threatening. Since a lot of these calls are druggies trespassing or casing houses, it’s been a field day for criminals… even more so in Seattle (yay!!!! you got what you voted for- so choke on it!!!).

In my area (rural) gates and fences are popping up on the front of properties and driveways like the streets were running with buffalo.

    henrybowman in reply to Andy. | October 8, 2021 at 12:57 pm

    “gates and fences are popping up”
    Didn’t help the McCloskeys.

    amatuerwrangler in reply to Andy. | October 8, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    Some CA departments have been putting new recruits under contract that “amortizes” the training over 5 years. If they leave before the 5 year period is completed they are to pay back the remaining funds. Some other departments have been offering “hiring bonuses” that might just cover said early-out penalties. Paying only 40-60% of training cost is a net savings for the gaining department. I have not heard of any actual actions to enforce that contractual issue.

      Yeah- so I’m wondering how that plays (and pays) when the city or state are the ones breaking the contract, especially with regard to the vaccine.

      The religious /medical exemptions have been getting granted, but if the employee still has to work with the public they get fired because their job would put other people at risk (not the actual science… but that’s the left’s logic).

      In Wa, Inslee cut unemployment benefits for anyone refusing the vaccine.

      Anyone think we’re not at war????

        CommoChief in reply to Andy. | October 9, 2021 at 1:02 pm

        Andy,

        We have been in an ideological power struggle with the authoritarian d/prog my entire life; I was born in 1970. None of it is new just the speed and pervasive reach of the authoritarian tentacles. Now it’s recognizable to folks outside academia/govt service.

        Horace Mann elevated ideology over content in education, Woodrow Wilson championed governance by elite experts, FDR expanded the scope and reach of the Federal government, LBJ created the modern welfare state. Examples abound.

Lucifer Morningstar | October 8, 2021 at 12:52 pm

Seeing as how the law enforcement union is Ok with this all I’ll do is wish those officers that have their jobs terminated for simply asserting their rights not to undergo vaccination well and leave it at that. What happens to Seattle is no concern of mine.

How many cops did they lose before this because of the Dem approved Antifa/BLM ‘peaceful protests’ and the ‘Defund the Police’ hysteria? Cops who had enough and decided to retire or quit.

If it was 1/6th or more of the pre-St. George Floyd martyrdom then they will have lost 50% or more of their force in about a year and a half.

Meanwhile the Dems and their Dem-media propaganda complex blame the murder and crime surge on Republicans and guns. Anyone stupid enough to believe that deserves to live in a high crime area.

FJB.

DANGER OF WHITE SUPREMACISTS AND POLICE KILLING BLACKS

Only one inconvenient fact – About 95% of murders of Black folk is by Black people. Typically 15 to 29 years old young black males. Media NEVER report this. It does not fit their narrative of the White man (or cop) hunting Black people. (see LeBron’s famous tweet – google it). But the only one’s who seem to be hunting Black people are Black people. Look at the nation crimes statistics that are kept by the DOJ. It shows consistently – ever y year for decades – Blacks are the biggest risk to Black people. Why doesn’t BLM or Biden or DNC want to address the real problems affecting the black community? Because it is easier to win election if you’re race-bating and blaming Whitey.

REDUCTION in Police force will end up KILLING BLACKS.

Not sure what they’re complaining about. They’re getting exactly what they voted for.