NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s largest police union has filed a lawsuit to keep a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for police officers from going into effect. The Police Benevolent Association represents about 24,000 police officers in the New York Police Department. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that the entire municipal workforce including police and firefighters had to be vaccinated or be put on unpaid leave. They must get a first shot by at least Nov. 1. The city’s Law Department says the mandates are lawful. A large group of demonstrators also protested the mandate on Monday. They marched from Brooklyn to City Hall.
Photo: FILE – In this Oct. 5, 2020, file photo, New York Police Department officers in masks stand during a service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to honor 46 colleagues who have died due to COVID-19 related illness. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
