Two NYPD officers allegedly faked vaxx paperwork and submitted them to…the NYPD. The police division studies that they’ve been stripped of their weapons and badges and demoted to desk obligation. They’re the latest representatives of the unmasked, vaxx-resistant cop contingent, recurrently sighted maskless on subways, some shoving a essential rider out of a subway station, allegedly for questioning their refusal to comply with the easy security rule.

All this at a time when New York City covid-19 hospitalizations are up 48 percent over a two-week interval.

Just earlier than the October twenty ninth vaccine deadline, police unions reported that 10,000 cops—practically a 3rd of officers—had been nonetheless unvaccinated. Days later, Bill de Blasio claimed that 84 % of all NYPD staff had been vaccinated, although solely 34 had been positioned on unpaid go away for refusing to comply with the rule. The largest New York City police union sued the city in October over the mandate, which a federal choose refused to dam.

The New York Post, which first reported the story, identifies the officers as Lieutenant Joseph Marsella and Captain Desmond Morales. A “high-ranking police source” reportedly knowledgeable the outlet that “numerous people” are “being summonsed by the Attorney General and FBI.”

The NYPD didn’t affirm state or federal investigations to Gizmodo, however, in an emailed assertion, it stated that the Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating.

“We were clear from the outset that vaccine compliance was a serious matter,” it reads. “It is not just about the individual NYPD employee’s health, but also the health of their coworkers and others around them. We worked out a process. It included how to apply for an exemption and a two-level appeals process.”

City staff had been required to get the primary dose of vaccine by 5pm on October twenty ninth or else be placed on unpaid go away. By November twelfth, Gothamist reported, virtually 6,200 out of 52,000 NYPD staff had filed for spiritual or medical exemptions.

The NYPD goes on to say that “[i]f the investigation finds that these two officers substituted false documentation to the department it is a serious breach of integrity and the law.”

The Post, the outlet most tapped into NYPD sources, hints at a attainable “widespread department scam.”