John Oliver criticises US police who threaten to quit over vaccine mandate: ‘F****** let them’

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John Oliver has criticised police in America who are threatening to quit if they are forced to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

On his US TV show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the British comedian slammed the thousands of police officers across the US refusing to get vaccinated: “So you know what, if an officer wants to quit over this, f****** let them. Let the individuals who clearly don’t care about public safety stop being in charge of public safety. It’s really that simple.”

He then claimed: “The constant refrain we hear from cops every time they kill an unarmed black person is, ‘They should have complied with commands’, because as long as you comply, things will supposedly go well. But that only seems to work one way. When officers are asked to follow simple rules or face consequences, a not insignificant amount of them flip their s***.”

Oliver added: “There is also the key matter of fact that the police are supposed to keep the public safe. That is the point of their jobs, yet some don’t seem to give much of a s*** about that.”

Some police unions are still urging their members to refuse vaccination despite the fact that the leading cause of death for police officers is Covid-19, according to CNN. Nearly 476 US police officers have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic started, compared to the 93 deaths as a result of gunfire in the same time period, it also reported.

So far, in the city of Chicago, 23 officers are on unpaid leave for refusing to report their vaccination status.

It is believed around 1000 of Chicago’s 13000 police officers would be terminated if the vaccine mandates go ahead.