Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issues a deadline for all police to be vaccinated—Even those with natural immunity. Officers who refused were placed on a no-pay leave with orders to comply by the end of the year or face terminations. According to The Block Club Chicago, two Cook County judges ruled in favor of the police.
Lightfoot was clearly infuriated with their pro-freedom ruling which was evident in later interviews where she vowed to press on with mandates until she reached 100 obedience amount officers.
“Raymond Mitchell, Cook County Circuit Court judge, ruled Monday that while there could be remedies for the police union if an arbitrator struck down the city’s reporting and testing requirements, they could not provide remedies for officers who had already gotten vaccinated.
“An award of back pay or reinstatement cannot undo a vaccine. Nothing can,” Mitchell wrote in an order.
The city’s vaccination policy represents a “legitimate effort to protect public health,” Mitchell wrote, but “the city’s public health objective and the police union’s desire to pursue their grievances are not wholly irreconcilable.”
The effect of Mitchell’s order is to “send these parties back to the bargaining table,” he wrote.
“The city has it within its own power to avoid any burden, harm, or inconvenience occasioned by this order simply by pursuing an accelerated arbitration,” he wrote.
Last week, another Cook County judge ruled against extending and expanding a temporary restraining order she had entered against police union President John Catanzara that had barred him from publicly urging union members from complying with the city’s mandate.”
BREAKING: A Cook County judge has suspended the requirement that all Chicago police officers be vaccinated by the end of the year. A major legal victory for Chicago's police unions.
— Patrick Smith (@pksmid) November 1, 2021
“Catanzara held rallies against the mandate last week. A group of aldermen — who are not required to get vaccinated — have also pushed back, with some organizing a City Council meeting Friday where an effort to ditch the mandate was voted down,” the report explained.
Some 18 of the 34 departments have already reached 100% obedience to Lightfoots demands but the Democrat wants all districts, no matter their risk levels or immunity, to get on board or get out.
