San Diego Cops Lied to Own the Libs
It Was "Me First" When It Came to Protect and Serve During the Pandemic
Two big stories —one about guns and the other about shots— are on the front page of today’s local paper. Although many people won’t see it, there is a connection between the two.
The City of San Diego’s COVID-19 emergency declaration and employee vaccine mandate will expire at the end of February, following a City Council vote on Tuesday.
In the first three weeks of 2023, there have already been 39 mass shootings in the United States.
Both stories reflect on the inability of government to effectively intervene in situations that by rights should be considered public health emergencies.
More than 1.1 million people have died in the US from COVID. Between 400 and 500 people are still dying daily. Death rates in our country were 63% higher than other comparable large wealthy nations in early 2022, according to the New York Times. Our expected life span has dropped by 1.87 years.
Americans own more guns per capita than any other country: about 120 firearms for every 100 residents, by some estimates. In the last three years there have been more than 600 mass shootings - almost two a day on average. In the U.S., firearms are the number one cause of death for children ages 1-19 and guns kill (homicide + suicide) more than 38,000 people and cause nearly 85,000 injuries annually.
In addition to killing lots of people, both of these situations have something else in common: campaigns by right wing groups and politicians effectively blocking measures that would reduce the death toll. These crusades have their origins in fringe conspiracy theories and are sold on the premise that government intervention equals the “taking of rights” from the public.
Misinformation is the currency of choice in these circles. Lately there have been faux videos circulating showing people with tremors alleged to be induced by COVID vaccinations. The gun’s rights narrative evokes images of a society devoid of rule of law and under constant threat of attack from an unidentified but ever-present enemy.
The City of San Diego’s failure to protect people is best explained by the Swiss cheese approach taken for mandate enforcement. Despite claims about super majorities of employees being vaccinated, the door was left open for anybody with internet access to copy and paste requests for religious exemptions.
Hundreds of sworn law enforcement officers took this route out of compliance, urged on by their “union” which obliquely threatened a crime wave if unprotected cops couldn’t avoid vaccinations. So some obviously “served and protected” citizens while shedding the virus.
From a 10News interview with an anti vax SDPD officer:
"Ask yourself when a criminal is threatening you or your family, does the vaccination status matter to the officer coming to help you?"
I’ll bet that status might be considered important if Gramma ended up in the ICU a few days later. Doesn’t the public have a right to be safe from the people their government employs?
KPBS reviewed 105 exemption requests filed by SDPD officers;
Several responses were copied word-for-word among multiple police staff, and most of the answers were pulled from form letters posted on the internet from organizations including the Liberty Counsel and Founding Freedoms Law Center. Only eight employees had completely original answers.
The uprising in the SDPD wasn’t a local phenomenon. Police officials nationwide suddenly were confronted with officers spouting misinformation and claiming their rights were threatened. Basically, the federal government decided to throw money at this problem. The American Rescue Plan diverted $350 billion to funding police and jails — even though there’s no evidence about spending on police reducing crime, and even less evidence that spending on police protects people from COVID.
One motivation for dropping official health mandates is the onslaught of lawsuits from allegedly grassroots organizations which are really just recruitment modules for right wing ideologists.
Take a look at the Twitter feed of PERK (the Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids), which filed lawsuits on behalf of San Diego employees and others throughout the state. It’s a mishmash of right wing propaganda from the likes of the Epoch Times, misinformation from publicly discredited conspiracists, and the utterings of those who invoke the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Here’s an excerpt from their press release issued after the city announced its intention to drop the vax mandate: (References to Nuremberg are the hallmark of those advocating for a criminal trial of Dr. Anthony Fauci)
The City of San Diego issued the mandate disregarding the science and violation of bodily autonomy as protected by Federal and State discrimination laws, privacy rights and the Nuremberg code.
ReOpen San Diego, another group involved in suing the city and other agencies told the Union-Tribune that they would continue to press for a court order banning any vaccine mandates in the future.
So enjoy your building permit after you get over smallpox, folks.
I’ll keep it simple here. There was (and is) an insurgent movement which seeks to undermine the effectiveness of public service in favor of an authoritarian approach to societal problems. Police agencies, which were largely exempt from outside oversight and tended to keep a lower profile in politics, openly bought into this thinking in the wake of protests following the death of George Floyd.
Opposition to vaccine and mask mandates has become a purity test for Republican officials, who –in case you haven’t noticed– are increasingly under the sway of extremists.
At this point the “me first” folks are winning. The government and the public have largely given up on COVID health measures AND on the possibility of gun laws that could prevent the next mass shooting.
An annual COVID shot + flu is going to take a big sell. Large employers are going to have to lead the way.
The horse has left the barn when it comes to banning guns. But we could require gun owners to have insurance and register their weapons for taxation purposes.
The larger philosophical question has to do with empathy. We are being told that the rights of the individual are more important than the needs of the society. In order for this thinking to succeed, we need to be numbed to the consequences and told we ourselves are at fault when confronted with disaster.
Our inability to address gun violence and the current wave of anti-science speaks to a deeper, and sweeping failure of government and our culture to care for the lives and health of our neighbors. This “me-me-me” thinking is a prerequisite for totalitarianism.
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