We have previously noted how cities are losing school bus drivers and corrections officers and nurses and other health care professionals to mask and vaccine mandates. I tend to concentrate on Kentucky and Pennsylvania, but now it’s time to go to the left coast:
‘I’ll likely get fired for this’: First responders fight Oregon’s vaccine mandate with lawsuit, social media posts
First responders are waging war on Oregon’s vaccine mandate, taking the state to court and posting plans to defy the order on social media.
by Maggie Vespa | September 3, 2021 | 7:39 PM PDT
PORTLAND, Ore. — First responders are waging war on Oregon’s vaccine mandate, taking the state to court, posting plans to defy the order on Instagram and sending open letters to the governor, informing her they won’t be enforcing mandates in their jurisdictions.
As much as the lovely Amanda Marcotte wants you to believe that vaccine resistance is all done by evil reich wing Trumpelstiltskins, Joe Biden defeated President Trump fairly handily there, 56.45% to 40.37%. The last Republican presidential candidate to carry Oregon was Ronald Reagan in 1984.
- The latest blow came Friday, in Jefferson County court. Dozens of firefighters, Oregon state troopers and the Oregon Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit against the state and Gov. Kate Brown. The suit, first reported by the Oregonian/OregonLive, alleged the governor’s decision to mandate state employees get the COVID vaccine by Oct. 18 or lose their jobs violates the state and federal constitutions.
The suit came two days after another trooper in Bend was placed on leave.
“I’ll likely get fired for this video,” Trooper Zachary Kowing said in a clip, posted on Instagram last week.
In the video, Trooper Kowing sits in uniform, in his patrol car and blasts the governor, her mandate and anyone who gets the vaccine “out of fear.” By Wednesday, Oregon State Police had placed Kowing on paid leave, pending an investigation.
Portland attorney Dan Thenell is representing Kowing, as well as the plaintiffs in Friday’s lawsuit. He said the cases are separate, but the point is clear.
“There are many troopers who are not going to get this vaccine and are prepared to lose their job over this,” Thenell said in an interview Friday.
There’s more at the original.
Those are kind of brave words; we don’t really know how many police officers, state troopers and firemen will actually let themselves be fired rather than take the vaccines, but it’s safe to say that the number will be greater than zero. With COVID surging in the Beaver State, and the homicide rate in liberal Portland on its way to a new record, these first responders are needed personnel.