"There's nothing more American than saying, 'I won't do it,' " Mike the Cop said Oct. 30 in explaining why so many of his colleagues resisted getting the coronavirus vaccine even after Mayor de Blasio made it a mandate for them 10 days earlier, with 30-day unpaid suspensions the price they would pay for continuing to hold out.
"Firefighters and cops consider themselves really staunch patriots," Mike, which is not his real name, said late that afternoon, 24 hours after all city workers were required to have gotten at least their first shot if they didn't want to be restricted from working starting Nov. 1. "Folks in the [NYPD] get wary when they're told they have to do something—ever. So there was this bizarre contrarian reaction. At this point, it's on a personal level of us vs. de Blasio. This is all a visceral reaction to their hatred of him."
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