Letters to the Editor: LAPD officers should get vaccinated or find another job

Los Angeles Times Opinion
·2 min read
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 14, 2021 - - Los Angeles police officers keep an eye out after advocates against vaccine mandates and pro-vaccine advocates confronted each other in front of the L.A.P.D. Headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on August 14, 2021. A man was stabbed during the melee and taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital. No arrests were made in the confrontation. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
LAPD officers watch over a protest over vaccine mandates in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 14. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: To all you police officers and firefighters who are paid to protect the people of Los Angeles, the city I'm proud to claim as my birthplace, I challenge you all to respond the way firefighters in New York City did 20 years ago. ("LAPD employees sue city over vaccination mandate," Sept. 12)

If they could find the courage within themselves to run toward that hellish calamity without a thought about their own safety, surely you all can show what big men and women you are by summoning the courage to get a vaccine.

Darlene Moses Olympius, Yorba Linda

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To the editor: You cannot defund them, you cannot prosecute them or fire with cause, you cannot disobey an order from them — yet when the officers in the Los Angeles Police Department are told to get a simple shot to protect themselves and the people who pay them, they whine like babies.

"To protect and to serve" should be a two-way street.

Perhaps we should get some tougher people for this job, such as the children who are vaccinated by pediatricians every year.

Richard Harger, Redondo Beach

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To the editor: Chances are slim I'll be stopped by an LAPD officer because I respect the law and my fellow humans — unlike the six employees of the department who believe it is their right to potentially share a deadly disease on the job.

Regardless, my rights would be violated if an unvaccinated officer came to my car window and breathed in my face, touched my driver's license and registration and, on a really bad day, pulled me out of my car and handcuffed me, all while threatening my life because he or she refused "to protect and to serve" by getting a few shots.

I don't live in the city of Los Angeles, but I grew up there, work there and visit frequently. It bothers me that nearly half the LAPD's workforce isn't vaccinated. It shows a lack of intelligence, respect and critical thought, but mostly it shows tremendous disrespect for family, friends, co-workers and the people who count on the police in emergencies.

Patricia Farrell Aidem, Valencia

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.