Chicago grapples with police vaccine revolt | Hacker News Reader

Chicago grapples with police vaccine revolt

bbc.com

23 pointsversion_five44 comments

I am very pro vaccine but absolutely against mandates. Bodily autonomy is a fundamental civil liberty and constitutional right (as the ACLU previously asserted). Discrimination based on medical or health status is unacceptable. It is also illogical to institute such a mandate: COVID-19 has a very low IFR, and vaccines aren’t perfect. When comparing the risks with and without vaccination, we are talking about two low probability but nonzero risks. If people are scared, they need to take measures to protect or quarantine themselves, not demand that everyone else undergo a medical procedure against their will. Lastly, it is dangerous for cities like Chicago and Seattle, who are grappling with surging crime and a shortage of police officers, to risk further crime by losing trained and experienced police staff.

> Discrimination based on medical or health status is unacceptable.

Weird take when vaccine mandates have been a normal part of life for decades.

Sort of. They have been in force in some states for some applications (like K-12 schools) for some vaccines. Many of those states have also had broad exemptions for philosophical or religious reasons (https://vaccines.procon.org/state-vaccination-exemptions-for...). But we haven't had a federal mandate for vaccination across the board (in public agencies, private companies, events, stores, schools, universities, etc), especially without exemptions.

Even with that precedent, I feel the Jacbosen ruling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts) which enabled vaccine mandates was an incorrect one and that autonomy over one's physical body is the most basic level of civil liberty. The ACLU also agreed previously and pushed back on vaccine mandates (https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/privacy/pemic_...), although the more recent ACLU supports vaccine mandates and treats civil liberties as a gray area rather than a principled right.

But do you have a right to any job you want?

Reminds me of air traffic controller strike https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Con.... If anyone think they are not replaceable they are in for a rude shock. City can easily hire private security/bring in the guard/hire new officers/reassign officers in desk jobs.

I'm pretty sure you're overestimating just how many people are going to be eager to step into the line of fire in violent crime-ridden Chicago.

All of the leo deaths in Chicago for 2020 were covid

Any cop quiting because they don't want to protect others is a cop that should find a new line of work

Article says:

> Last year, 374 officers died - 245 of them due to Covid-19, more than any other cause combined.

But yes it's very high!

> All of the leo deaths in Chicago for 2020 were covid

And? This does not mean that being in law enforcement in Chicago is a risk-free, attractive proposition, even to those who are vaccinated.

> Any cop quiting because they don't want to protect others is a cop that should find a new line of work

That's a fair argument but it doesn't change the reality that Chicago is very unlikely to be able to easily replace the officers it terminates.

Except that police union contracts tend to be somewhat more constraining than the ATC contract, and municipalities don't have the power of the federal executive branch to back them up for capriciously terminating employees.

That’s an easy one: just play the stare-down game till the end. The day after the deadline it will turn out that only 0.5% of the cops are unvaccinated. Happened everywhere.

Good. It’s not like cops are hard to find. It’s basically an unskilled position with excellent benefits. It’s not even particularly dangerous unless you’re in very, very specific neighborhoods.

If you’re not willing to put the safety of the civilians you serve above your own comfort, maybe you shouldn’t be a cop?

Wasn’t Chicago screaming to defund the police last year anyway? Seattle fired those that wouldn’t comply. I expect Chicago will follow suit.

Who?

Definitely not the mayor. From the other day, at https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2021/10/20/22737171/d...

> Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday she will “never yield” to the voices who want to defund the police because the Chicagoans who make up what Police Supt. David Brown calls the “silent majority” overwhelmingly support the police.

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