It would appear that an impressive number of Los Angeles Police Department employees are seeking religious exemptions from vaccination for COVID-19.
While the City of Los Angeles has mandated vaccines for all employees, The Los Angeles Times reports that nearly 2600 LAPD employees have indicated an intent to seek a religious exemption.
Roughly 54% of LAPD employees have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Chief Michel Moore. That rate lags the general public, raising concerns about the health risk posed to the people LAPD employees interact with on streets and in confined spaces such as jails and courthouses.
Activists have routinely recorded police officers without masks in public spaces, despite a department directive to wear them "whenever in public or in the workplace." Ten LAPD employees have died of COVID-19, and thousands have been infected. Moore told the Police Commission on Tuesday that there had been 66 new infections in the department in the last two weeks, with more than 140 employees at home recovering and four hospitalized.
In recent days, a group of LAPD employees filed a federal lawsuit challenging the vaccination mandate, arguing that it violates their constitutional rights to privacy and due process. Among those who sued are employees "who could not assert a medical or religious exemption," as well as those who contend they have natural antibodies from contracting the coronavirus, according to the legal complaint, filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Perhaps these employees are unsatisfied with simply killing people with guns and fireworks.
