The president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) could not have been blunter about the potential loss of manpower due to city and state vaccination mandates for government employees: “Be prepared to defend yourself and your family because it’s going to be a long time before a cop can get there. That’s not alarmist talk. That’s a reality.”
SPOG President Mike Solan, who does an online YouTube program called “Hold the Line,” made the remark during an interview with Seattle’s KIRO Eyewitness News, the local CBS affiliate. It came as Seattle police officers were facing a vaccination reporting requirement or face termination, a situation that appears to be happening around the country.
Liberty Park Press reached out to Solan, but he did not immediately respond.
Lame duck Mayor Jenny Durkan, who opted not to seek re-election in the wake of last year’s disastrous, and deadly, “summer of love” demonstrations that occasionally developed into riots and frequently involved property damage and assaults, insisted at a press event, “If someone calls 911, there will not be a significant impact on the response.”
Mandates from Joe Biden on down through state governors and big city mayors have begun taking a toll. In Chicago, there are reports of some officers being sent home without pay because they have defied a vaccination reporting order from Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Like Seattle’s Durkan, Lightfoot is a far left Democrat who has tried to play down the police manpower situation.
However, according to WBBM Newsradio, “Union leaders have said nearly one-third of CPD officers have refused to report their vaccination status risking losing their police powers.”
In the Evergreen State, the trouble goes well beyond Seattle’s city limits. As noted by MyNorthwest.com, a 22-year veteran of the Washington State Patrol (WSP) in central Washington’s Yakima County ended his Friday night shift by signing off permanently. In his final broadcast, now-ex-trooper Robert LeMay observed, “I’d like to thank you guys. I’d like to thank the citizens of Yakima County as well as my fellow officers within the valley. Without you guys, I wouldn’t have been very successful. And you kept me safe and got me to my family every night. Thank you for that.”
However, that was not the end of it. After explaining this was “the last time you’ll hear me in a state patrol car,” LeMay added, “And (Gov.) Jay Inslee can kiss my a–.”
LeMay evidently has lots of company. According to the Seattle Times, 127 people have “separated from employment” at the WSP, including 67 troopers, six sergeants and one captain.
The story also noted that since Gov. Inslee, a Democrat, issued his mandate with no provision for frequent testing of anyone who opted to remain unvaccinated, “state employees have protested, filed lawsuits and sought exemptions to avoid the vaccines.”
Washington is one of 15 states with more than 10 percent of the adult population licensed to carry, according to the new report on concealed carry from the Crime Prevention Research Center. A lot of Evergreen State residents have firearms, and the number of concealed pistol licenses active in Seattle and surrounding King County is approaching 100,000, which is roughly one-fifth of all the active CPLs in the state.
