Chicago's Lawsuit Against Its Own Police Over Vaccine Mandates Is Dropped as Mayor Lightfoot Limps Away

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

The city of Chicago was already known for being a place where crime and murder are atrociously common occurrences, but it was set to get even worse when Mayor Lori Lightfoot decreed that the Democrat-run city put a vaccine mandate on all city employees. This obviously included police officers.

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But many in the department didn’t want to get the jab, feeling much safer taking their chances with a virus that has a 99.9 percent survival rate. So the city took the police union to court in hopes to strongarm it into compliance. Needless to say, they didn’t comply.

According to the Daily Mail, the police union has won the day and the vaccine mandates cannot be forced on the officers, and while Lightfoot is claiming that the lawsuit was dropped because enough officers met compliance standards, the timing of it comes not long after Lightfoot was embarrassed by the judge in the case:

The City of Chicago has dropped its lawsuit Wednesday against the police union in its fight over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city employees.

The city claims the complaint became unnecessary as more officers complied, but it comes a month after a judge embarrassed Mayor Lori Lightfoot by suspending her December 31 deadline.

Chicago had sued the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 in October, accusing President John Catanzara of encouraging an ‘illegal strike’ by encouraging officers to disobey the order.

The lawsuit was a standoff between an already defunded police department and Lightfoot’s willingness to enact party-line measures upheld by Democrats. The vaccine mandate would have forced officers to get the vaccine or enter a “no-pay” status after December 31.

However, a judge suspended the deadline, embarrassing Lightfoot and taking much of the power to enforce the mandate out of her hands.

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With crime already at record levels, the prospect of more police officers abandoning the force, and no way to enforce the mandates, Lightfoot retreated from her position but still claimed she only did so because enough officers (87 percent) have gotten the vaccine so the mandate was unnecessary.

“From day one when this requirement was announced in August, this entire process has been and will continue to be about protecting the lives and safety of all Chicagoans,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “The data shows that we are succeeding in that mission, and that police officers recognize that protecting and serving in the times of global pandemic means ensuring that they are vaccinated against COVID-19.”

Given the chain of events, it’s likely just an excuse to cover her retreat.

As of this writing, Chicago has seen 739 murders according to The Mail, up three percent since last year. Shootings are up nine percent to boot. While Chicago has always had a murder problem, much of the increase comes from the call to defund the police department during the last Black Lives Matter movement, which Lightfoot was on board for.

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