We’ve seen numerous instances of employees standing up to their employer regarding vaccine mandates. Southwest Airlines actually had to reverse its policy because of so many disruptions to service. A picture was circulating for a while of a Southwest plane with a Gadsden Flag hanging out of a cockpit window. Pretty Epic.
Here in Los Angeles, the City Council has ordered vaccine mandates for all City employees. This has included both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department. While many other departments in the City are creeping toward full compliance, sources tell RedState that Police and Fire still lag those numbers by up to 30%. Sources also state that the Police Department had to extend their vaccine mandate deadline because nearly 30% of the department was refusing the vaccine. Terminating employees in non-compliance per the City Mandate would send those departments into total chaos.
However, yesterday, I read the single most epic response to a COVID vaccine mandate of which I have ever before heard.
From the LA Times:
“The Los Angeles Fire Department is investigating an incident in which a firefighter “responded inappropriately” after being handed a letter to comply with the city’s vaccine mandate, a department spokeswoman said Wednesday.”
Responded inappropriately, you say? I’ll be the judge of that.
“The LAFD member responded to receiving the non-compliance letter by dropping his pants and wiping his buttocks with the letter, leaving fecal matter on the document, before dropping it to the ground, according to the Stentorians of Los Angeles City, a group representing African American firefighters.”
*Pauses for laughter for three to five minutes*
*Wipes tears from eyes*
Yes, this firefighter, who clearly has had enough of being harassed by his employer about engaging in a medical procedure to which he did not consent, acted in an “inappropriate way.” Funny? Absolutely. Justified? Potentially. But no one at the Los Angeles Times or on the Los Angeles City Council is asking about the inappropriateness of legislating what anyone does with their body. These same people who were chanting “My body, my choice!” just two short years ago have now jumped to demanding that someone else do something for a reason, which the vaccine that they have received and are advocating, admittedly doesn’t do.
This firefighter being Black has little to do with the enforcement of the mandate, but ignores a great deal of context of why Black people may not trust the government when it comes to the vaccine. Much of the adult Black population, and certainly their parents, lived through a time when the United States federal government used Black people as guinea pigs in conducting medical experiments. This isn’t ancient history. Man landed on the moon during the time in which these experiments were occurring. This occurred in a post-civil-rights-era time. Yet, here is the government, yet again, forcing Black people to engage in a medical procedure to which they don’t consent.
Our firefighter friend is certainly not going to escape punishment for his backdoor antics. This firefighter has been suspended pending immediate termination from the department, not for non-compliance with the department’s vaccine mandate, but rather for his hilarious protest to the compliance notice.
I am sure he will land somewhere better than LA.
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