From [CHD] New York City paused its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for New York Police Department (NYPD) employees so the department can retain roughly 5,000 police and other employees who have not received the vaccine.

The May 19 announcement came one day after Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon issued an orderallowing depositions to be taken in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of NYPD and municipal employees alleging the city violated their religious and constitutional rights through widespread discrimination.

According to city officials, 91% of the NYPD uniformed cops and other employees are vaccinated, leaving approximately 4,659 NYPD unvaccinated employees despite a deadline to get the jabs by Oct. 29, 2021.

“In a nutshell, no decisions will be made, no further members will be forced to leave until further notice,” an NYPD sergeant told the New York Post. “There hasn’t been any memo, just basically keep everything status quo and if issues arise we will revisit it down the road.”

Last month, an unknown number of officers received final notices rejecting their requests for religious or medical exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees.

As of November 2021, NYPD employees had filed 6,170 requests for religious or medical exemptions.

“The city’s legal argument for upholding religious discrimination is falling apart in real time as the litigation progresses,” lead attorney Sujata Gibson told The Defender. [MORE]

According to the class action suit,

"Both mandates were to take effect on September 27, 2021. The day before the state mandate was supposed to take effect, Governor Hochul gave a sermon at a Brooklyn church [a black church], during which she said that God made the vaccine and that she was recruiting apostles to coerce those who did not understand God’s will and what God wants (that we be vaccinated). Governor Hochul then told the press that the Pope supports vaccination and that no religious objections to vaccination are valid, and this is why she removed the religious exemption from the state healthcare mandate. [MORE] and [MORE]

Hochul stated, "All of you, yes, I know you're vaccinated, you're the smart ones. But you know there's people out there who aren't listening to God. ... I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other."

Clearly, the governor said, getting vaccinated was the best way to obey God in this crisis.