Thousands of people, including medical workers, firefighters, and truckers from the “People’s Convoy,” gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall on Sunday to protest COVID-19 mandates.
Local mandates require county and city employees to be fully vaccinated, have a medical or religious exemption, or face termination.
“I’m pro-choice,” Paul Chaffe told FOX11. “Our whole life is about choice. We live in a free country to choose what we want to do, and so a mandate is not choice.”
?? Thousands protest COVID vaccine mandates in downtown Los Angeles pic.twitter.com/o3b1eICBMK
— Based ??????? (@Based_ENG) April 11, 2022
Protesters emphasized they were gathering to oppose all COVID-19 mandates, not just those related to vaccination.
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“This is not right,” Julie Roberts said. “We deserve to have medical freedom, in America especially.”
Chaffe added concerns that the mandates could grow, saying, “They restrict us now from one. They’re going to restrict us from others.”
BREAKING: Thousands, including People’s Convoy drivers, have gathered in Los Angeles to protest vaccine mandates at the #DefeatTheMandates rally. pic.twitter.com/7ztNuhD18Z
— Haddon Lockyer (@HaddonLockyer) April 10, 2022
Last month, two dozen Los Angeles employees, including a dozen emergency responders, were fired for not complying with the vaccine mandate, according to a report.
“The people that held out this long believe that this is not about a shot. It’s about the freedom to make the choice for yourself for your own bodily autonomy,” said Paul Schweit, a New York firefighter who flew out for the event.
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“We are 100% not anti-vaccine,” Schweit added. “We support the individual. We believe the threat to the individual is a threat to all freedoms of the people.”
