A flashpoint may be approaching between President Biden and the tens of millions of Americans who have no intention of getting the vaccine. On Thursday, the President announced plans to penalize American workers who choose not to get a COVID vaccine.
Like earlier mask mandates, a vaccination mandate is useless without enforcement mechanisms, and undoubtedly police agencies will be asked to assist with enforcing that mandate, most likely by quelling protests. But what will that look like?
American police have to look no further than their counterparts in Europe, Canada, and Australia to see what is in store for them should American police try to pushing mandates on unwilling Americans. Although European, Canadian, and Australian citizens seemed willing to accept endless rounds of lockdowns in the early periods of the pandemic, in recent times they reached a breaking point.
In April of 2021, Canada’s Ontario Premier Doug Ford gave police the power to “stop and question people who leave home,” effectively declaring a lite version of martial law. After nearly a year of fighting Canadian citizens in their own homes for occupancy violations and other dubious infractions, Canadian police figured out that alienating half the population was bad for business. Mind you, we’re talking about C-A-N-A-D-A here, the country that boasts the Royal Mounties and had fewer total homicides across the entire country than the city of Chicago. So what did Canadian police agencies do with their stepped up authorities?
They told Ford to pound sand.
It hasn’t stopped anti-lockdown protests, but at least their officers aren’t fist-fighting in the streets with their citizens to the degree the German, French, and Australian police are.
So what should American police agencies do if or when the protests come and mayors and President Biden ask the police to enforce mandates against unwilling citizens?
Ignore them. Police should focus their limited resources on criminal laws, like assaults and robberies. Police do not and should not have anything to do with enforcing “house rules” like homeowner’s association rules, administrative decisions by school boards, or guidelines from health departments. Those entities occasionally need reminding that they can find their own ways to enforce their policies.
Ontario police agencies sort-of figured that out, and the decision has served them well.
As Amnesty International points out, American police agencies should remember that their purpose is to protect the public and keep the peace. Police need public trust to fulfill that purpose, and wasting it by fist-fighting with the public over vaccination mandates is a poor choice, especially agencies that are already dealing with defunding and staffing shortages.
Just because German police agencies think beatings should continue until public health improves doesn’t mean American agencies have to follow suit. If President Biden chooses an increasingly coercive, provoking approach to dealing with COVID, that doesn’t mean that police need to feel any obligation to hop on the mandate wagon and throw themselves in front of public anger.
Increasing public acceptance of vaccines should be done through education and leadership, not coercion by the state.
Regardless of what COVID-reduction plans American politicians come up with, other than keeping the peace during anti-mandate protests police agencies would do themselves and their officers a solid by staying out of the COVID enforcement business.