The city of Seattle is considering firing 40% of its police officers for failing to take the COVID-19 injection by its October 18 deadline.
The 1,000-person police force, which has already suffered mass layoffs following the George Floyd riots in 2020, may see an additional 403 officers fired from the force.
“The environment has been pretty toxic and negative,” an unnamed officer told Fox 13 News. “Not just from this whole mandate, but prior to that as well. I’m not sure this would be a good place for me to work long-term for my mental health. It has been very stressful.”
Another unnamed patrol officer said she hopes Seattle will scrap the draconian mandates, adding she applied for a religious exemption but doesn’t believe it will be approved.
“Losing even 50 to 75 officers in one day, the response times for the city will go up drastically,” said the officer.
“I will continue working until the day that they fire me and that’s about all that I can do,” he added.
The Seattle Police Department has already lost about 300 officers since the Black Lives Matters’ “defund the police” crusade began after Floyd’s death.
Mayor Jenny Durkan defended the vaccine mandates in an email this week urging the police holdouts to get the COVID injection before the deadline.
“We value each of you, and do not want to lose you as employees,” Durkan said in the email. “But the people that count on you the most are the ones that need you to get vaccinated.”
In response to the imminent law enforcement crisis in the city, interim police chief Adrian Diaz advised his department to transition into “Phase 3 Mobilization” starting Oct. 13, which requires all sworn personnel to be on standby duty to respond to 911 calls, according to Fox 13 News.
Beats dyin’….