The union that represents the officers of the New York State Police was totally caught off guard by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order that mandated COVID-19 shots for all state workers, which has led the organization to mull over some potential options it has available as a response, according to the president of the Police Benevolent Association, Thomas Mungeer, stated Monday.
“We’re still waiting to see what his plan is (and) we’re still reviewing our legal options, Mungeer stated during an interview on Newsmax’s “National Report.”
He added that he’s already gotten his vaccines as have a large percentage of the New York state troopers, but said what he opposes is that the troopers “cannot make up their own minds to get the vaccination or not.”
“Some of them don’t want to get it for whatever reason, whether it’s personal, religious, you know,” Mungeer continued. “It ‘s something that the individual should be able to decide, not the government.”
Last week, Cuomo announced that all state workers would either be required to get their shots before Labor Day or have to go through regular testing, an order made because of the highly contagious delta variant. He also urged local governments to issue their own orders.
The Civil Service Employees Association, which is New York’s largest state workers union, is in full support of Cuomo’s orders, however, the troopers’ union stated it is going to explore what legal options are available to it.
Mungeer told Newsmax Monday that last year when businesses were shuttered because of the pandemic, “my people, the men and women who wear that great uniform of a New York State Trooper, were out here every day, fighting crime that didn’t really slow down too much during the pandemic” and were able to “navigate around getting infected.”
There were troopers who ended up getting sick, but all survived, said Mungeer.
“So if we were able to protect ourselves adequately and the public for the last year-and-a-half, how can we not make up our own minds to protect ourselves going forward,” Mungeer went on to say.
When Mungeer was asked if he thought all of the stuff surrounding the pandemic is becoming too politicized, he said, “we’re all getting weary of the restrictions.”
“We all did our part for the last year-and-a-half,” Mungeer explained. “We’ve pretty much beat this back. I’m not a scientist. This delta variant is supposed to be a little bit worse. But listen, my people, again, have been doing a really good job out there protecting themselves in the public both with COVID preventions and enforcing the law.”
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