 police unions across the country are essentially going to war in order to stop vaccine mandates from applying to police officers and vice news has a report that is depressing but really not surprising in the slightest so Trone doubt reports more US cops have died in the last year from COVID-19 than any other cause But they're still not getting vaccinated In fact, they're suing to avoid it as cities around the country have begun to mandate vaccinations Powerful unions like those in New York, Illinois and Ohio say they're ready to fight the policies in court And some have already filed the paperwork law enforcement leaders aren't necessarily against the vaccine But argue the mandates impede on officers right to make medical decisions for themselves Especially as members of unions are entitled to bargain for their conditions of employment the law However, may not be on their side courts have already struck down some of the legal challenges ultimately forcing officers to get the life-saving shot Oh, no Patrick Lynch the president of New York's largest police union the police benevolent Association Said he's ready to file a lawsuit when the mayor's vaccine mandate is set to take effect late this month right now The NYPD's vaccination rate is hovering at around 47 percent That is terrible Chicago's fraternal order of police president John Katanzaro Also alluded to legal action in a bizarre statement to the Chicago Sun Times quote We're in America. God damn it Katanzaro told the outlet We don't want to be forced to do anything period This ain't Nazi fucking Germany three-quarters of officers in Chicago weren't vaccinated as of May and cops in Wayne, New Jersey Briefly halted the police department's mandate because of a lawsuit filed by the local union But a state arbiter ruled this week that the township was within its right to enforce the mandate Many of these unions aren't against the vaccine itself But they're determined to protect their members right to make their own medical decisions Lynch For example successfully lobbied earlier this year to make the vaccine available to NYPD officers first in Dayton, Ohio Where city workers are being asked to either get vaccinated by September 20th or be subject to weekly tests The fraternal order of police said it's prepared to file a lawsuit against the city because it believes officers shouldn't have to foot the bill for testing And Tucson the police officers Association said the city's mandate simply interferes with an officer's extremely complicated and deeply personal decision Over the vaccine according to a Facebook post from last month Now it's weird to me that all of these police unions are making the same argument Well, look, we just want to protect union members right to personal medical Autonomy Except when it comes to a public health crisis a global pandemic you choosing to not get vaccinated That's not an individual choice your individual quote-unquote choice here affects the entire health of the community When we're talking about highly transmissible diseases like COVID-19 and the Delta variant I mean if you choose to not get vaccinated I mean you having to go to a hospital taking up an ICU bed That's in limited supply currently that affects everyone in your community So this isn't some personal decision, but the union, you know, they're just looking out for their members Originally, they tried to give their police officers access to these vaccines immediately before anyone else And now they're trying to make sure that police officers can choose to opt out of these vaccine mandates But let me just say something real quick since we're talking about police officer unions When I talk about unionization on the left and the need for unionization in order to enhance the rights that Workers have in the United States. I'm absolutely excluding police unions Police unions are bad. They're way too powerful and we need to bust up police unions I am a union buster when it comes to police unions when it comes to Unionization across the board for workers and construction and retail and fast food I think that every single worker in the United States should have a union when it comes to police officers We got to break that up because these unions are absolutely tyrannical And I think it's part of the reason why so many cities are almost afraid of their police department. I mean these These departments, they're supposed to serve their communities But it seems like they're a little mini Dictatorships who's lording over who they believe to be subjects. I mean look at Bill de Blasio You know during black lives matter when he was sucking up to police officers like he was totally whipped by them so This is like this is unacceptable. Their argument is absolutely absurd and police unions are absolutely tyrannical Having said that though the good news the silver lining here is that I don't think that there's much Of an argument to be made illegally here. I think that mostly these claims these lawsuits are going to fail So they're trying to use the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 Which basically it says that these union members they have the right to negotiate the terms of their employment, right and choosing to Institute a mask or excuse me a vaccine mandate that leads to them Losing their employment or their employment status getting terminated that obviously violates that except when it comes to a Pandemic and viruses and vaccine mandates the law actually It's pretty clear and these vaccine mandates aren't new in the United States contrary to popular belief So legally it seems like this is doomed to fail in 1905 when smallpox was still a threat to the American public the Supreme Court definitively decided that states have the authority to enforce Vaccination laws as they see fit the decision declared that a recently passed Cambridge, Massachusetts law which made turning down the vaccine a Finable offense was constitutional the case Jacobson versus Massachusetts has already been cited in a US 7th Court of Appeals case earlier this month Ryan Klassen et al. Versus the University of Indiana that challenged vaccine mandates when eight students attending the University of Indiana Filed a federal lawsuit against the school in June for mandating vaccines unless exempt for medical or religious reasons The court decided that the institution was within its right to require vaccination against COVID-19 Because of the rules established in the 1905 case for one the University made an accommodating policy for those who don't want to get Vaccinated regular testing and a mask mandate The judge also ruled that the right of institutions of learning to enforce their own rules of safety is well-established quote health exams and Vaccinations against other diseases are common requirements of higher education the decision reads Vaccinations protect not only the vaccinated persons But also those who come into contact with them and at a university close contact is inevitable a federal judge in Arizona last month struck Down a legal challenge just days after the Tucson Police Officers Association Filed a lawsuit over the county's vaccine mandate the judge ruled that while getting vaccinated is a personal choice The union failed to show how the mandate harms employees without some sort of exemption and so what I'm anticipating here with these cases is that You know, they're going to apply the same standard that they applied to schools here to these Police vaccine mandates, which is good. I think that police officers should be required to be vaccinated Having an anti-vaxxer on the police force is a little bit worrying. Is it not? I mean, these are people who are supposed to protect their communities in theory right in theory not necessarily in practice But in theory so the fact that they're these like far right anti-vaxx Extremists is really worrying and so if they don't want to get the vaccine and they end up quitting because of it Adios, I think that's perfectly fine I think that's a good result as many anti-vaxxers as we can weed out of police forces out of healthcare I think that is a net good for society these people do not belong in these sectors where they serve the public if they're refusing to take a vaccine that will reduce This devastating virus that is ravaging communities So I anticipate them to kind of use the same logic here As they did in the university case as I stated But one thing that I kind of fear even if right now it seems as if this is legally doomed to fail is that in the event One of these cases gets appealed all the way to the Supreme Court Well, we have a far right Conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court so they can easily overturn the president of former cases where they found You know a standard for vaccine mandates So who knows we'll have to wait and see but the mere fact that this is happening like the fact that police officers are protesting vaccine mandates and they're going to their unions to try to stop vaccine mandates It's truly like it says so much about them. Does it not? Anyone who refuses this life-saving vaccine that people in other countries are desperate to take it goes to show you that they're just They're not good people. They're misinformed and they're reactionary and Sometimes you have to compel people to do things that are good for the health of their community And this is no different here vaccine mandates are good Not just good for police officers, but good for every single job in America because I don't believe that workers in America Should be dealing with Non-stop plague and disease so vaccine mandates protect workers and if you don't support vaccine mandates, you don't support workers So yeah, I'll leave that there