Some LAPD Officers Refuse Vaccines Even As Mandate Nears
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Although Los Angeles Police Department employees must get vaccinated to keep their jobs, a group of officers continues to vehemently defy their leadership's orders.
"I will not comply," said Officer Mike McMahon. "I will not comply at all. The only thing mandatory for me right now is defiance."
McMahon, a 14-year veteran of the LAPD, is part of a group opposed to vaccine mandates known as "Roll Call For Freedom". They were one of the groups that helped organize the protest at Grand Park, right across from City Hall on Tuesday, where about a thousand city workers called for an end to vaccine mandates like the one LAPD has put in place.
According to the LAPD vaccine mandate, all employees, both sworn and civilian, must be fully vaccinated, apply for a religious or medical exemption or risk being fired if they do not comply by Dec. 18.
"It is our intention to have a fully vaccinated workforce," Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday. "We continue to provide information relative to the power of the value of this vaccine and its protective values for all of our personnel, their families and those that they come into contact with."
So far, 73% of all LAPD employees are fully vaccinated and another 5% partially vaccinated. The department also sent notices to 1,357 employees who have not stated their vaccination status and 2,239 notices to those who wish to file for an exemption. As of Tuesday, two officers and one civilian employee have been placed on paid leave for refusing to get a vaccine. One of the officers stripped of their badge and gun is McMahon.
"I refuse everything," he said. "I will not acquiesce to testing or the mandate to get vaccinated."
McMahon claimed that the mandate will cause a max exodus of police officers who oppose the mandate.
"To the people of Los Angeles just know that your police department is now weaker," he said. "Your police department is now smaller. And response times and police presence, they're significantly diminished."
This was a similar threat that New York police unions made prior to their vaccine mandate. The heads of five major police unions threatened that 10,000 police officers would resign or be fired if the vaccine mandate was passed. After the Nov. 1 deadline, 34 out of the 35,000 officers were placed on leave.
Chief Moore said he is confident that the department won't see mass firings.