Jehovah's Witness files second suit over his firing as a Boston cop for refusing Covid-19 shots, tests
A former Boston cop who sued the city over his firing in state court in 2022 last week filed a similar suit in federal court - but added the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association to his list of defendants he says did him wrong.
In his newest suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Saviel Colón charges the city deprived him of a number of his constitutional rights, including his religious, due process and equal-protection rights and his right against discrimination on the basis of race and disabilities, and that the union joined in by allegedly opposing his efforts to keep his job. He is seeking actual and punitive damages against both the city and the union.
Colón argues the city knew he was a Jehovah's Witness when it hired him as a BPD officer in 2019 and that it could have made reasonable accommodations so that he could continue working even without being vaccinated - or even tested via the swabs in use during the early days of the pandemic - which he says would have violated his religious beliefs and made him "unholy." Besides:
To stay healthy, Mr. Colón maintains a vegetarian diet and uses natural remedies like honey, garlic, ginger, herbs, and teas instead of foreign substances. Mr. Colón also exercises regularly to keep his body strong and ensure that he does not get sick.
The suit names Boston Public Health Executive Director Bisola Ojikutu, who is Black, proved racist against Black employees such as Colón because she routinely refused to grant their requests for vaccination exemptions out of her concern over low vaccination rates in the Black community.
And it names Boston Police Patrolmen's Association President Larry Calderone for allegedly refusing to support Colón in his effort to win an exemption against Covid-19 testing with swabs, which the suit claims was "akin to forcing a Muslim to eat a bacon sandwich while awaiting a religious exemption on eating pork."
Calderone told Mr. Colón that he supports Boston’s position on the testing policy, and that he did not understand why it was such a big deal to Mr. Colón. In a mocking fashion, Calderone told Mr. Colón that he voluntarily tests himself for COVID-19 every five days.
The emphasis on rights deprivation makes the suit different from the state one in Suffolk Superior Court, which alleges various contract issues and the alleged fact that ordering him to get vaccinated amounted to assault.
The federal suit was filed by attorney Illya Feoktisov of Boston. Colón was originally represented by Richard Chambers of Lynnfield - who has filed numerous Covid-19 suits - but Colón replaced him with Feoktisov sometime after a Suffolk Superior Court judge terminated the suit in March, 2023 because the city had not been served a copy of the complaint in time. The judge later gave Chambers additional time to serve the city, which he did, although the case is still marked as "closed" on the court docket. In that suit, Chambers said his client was seeking at least $2 million in damages.
Chambers also represented Colón - and a number of other people - in a failed suit against the city over its brief requirement to show proof of vaccination for admission to various public locales. Colón, seeking $6 million in that case, said the requirement kept him from taking his kids to the zoo and other locations; the judge said he failed to prove damages because he never showed he was actually denied entry anywhere.
Complete complaint (1.8M PDF).
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Comments
My friend is a JW...she got
My friend is a JW...she got her shots.
MRNA vaccines are JW-compliant.
All the components are plain chemicals derived from normal chemical feedstocks. No religious cooties.
Not the same
Different Jehovah
what's next? you have a black friend and...
they did_____?
Why penalize those who
Why penalize those who volunteer to be in the control group I ask somewhat facetiously. My family and I got every single iteration of the Covid vaccinations, but in spite of our (very limited) trials and experience with mRNA delivery, humanity’s population-wide “experience” with a novel vaccine delivery type is a step into the unknown.
More on point, they knew when
More on point, they knew when they hired him.
Which was BC, before Covid.
Which was BC, before Covid.
That suggests the death of
That suggests the death of meaning. We’re always living before the next pandemic.
Also, in spite of assertions
Also, in spite of assertions to the contrary, our political leaders were engaged in the classical pandemic dilemma of saving as many lives as you can, yet knowingly spending the minimum number of lives to prevent societal collapse. How did Massachusetts do? I remember hearing Governor Baker on NPR shouting at journalists during a daily/weekly update/availability for their audacity, temerity in questioning the wisdom of jeopardizing the safety of kitchen staff and restaurant workers and others to which he barked, “COVID SPREADS IN THE HOME!” Well, that’s not wrong, but it also spreads at work. How well did the Governor’s panel of civic experts do in saving lives and choosing winners and losers?
Why don't you answer some of your own questions?
In your eagerness to engage with the internet for the first time, you really are coming across as a bad-faith questioner. The framing of your questions is a dead giveaway: you've got an ax to grind, maybe not any particular ax -- maybe you just love that sound. Do you even care about the answers? If so, why don't you avail yourself of the ample resources to get them, rather than asking the air? If you still have questions when you're done, why don't you frame them in a manner that doesn't reek of an agenda (or plain old feces-agitation)?
Written like someone...
with an agenda.
Because of job duties.
An inherent part of being a cop involves barging into the personal space of random members of the public, including many who have done absolutely no wrong. If you won't take adequate precautions to protect them you should don't be a cop.
He could’a had alternate
He could’a had alternate duties, wore a mask, stay home if sick.
People would've needed to
People would've needed to wait until he was symptomatic before being able to send him home, by which time he would've already been contageous for several days, because as the lawsuit notes he also refused to be tested.
Fair.
Fair.
What part of...
What part of "the requirements of the job include interacting with the public at close quarters" don't you understand? "alternate duties"? You're talking about an alternate job, my dude, and no one is stopping him from going out there and finding one.
And if he did, he'd be suing
And if he did, he'd be suing over that as well.
No
There aren't control groups when vaccinating a population against a disease. mRNA vaccines are nothing new and have been studied for decades.
On my own "tangentalism ", this has to be the most annoying 'just asking questions'/stating opinions as "facts" account in a long time. From the replying to itself, to going into a multiple reply chain of completely unrelated political nonsense on Caribbean Carnival thread, to the complete fact free takes on female Olympic boxer thread, it's turning worse than the Mr Magoo account.
Your facts are feelings....
their feelings are facts.
Got it?
Replying to “themself.”
When referring to person of unknown gender I’d use “themself,” not “itself,” I’m not a thing. (But, I’m male.) And, look: I admit to jumping on the bandwagon when it was wrongly thought /appeared certain that the olympians misrepresented their (xy) genders. Walz is right, I need to “mind my own damn business,” but with respect to people whose bodies were built by androgens playing in sports for people built by estrogens it’s a question of fairness for all of humanity to discuss and ponder.
I'm old fashioned
I was taught that "they" is plural, and a person of unspecified gender is "he or she".
In Old English, by the way, the word "man" meant a person of either gender. The word for an adult male person was "wer" (pronounced "ware"), which survives in modern English only as the first syllable of "werewolf".
Yes ... and?
There was a time when thee and thou were in common use.
Language changes. There was a time when a woman's marital status was systematically coded in her term of address. We don't do that shit anymore unless the person indicates that preference.
“They” is still ambiguous and confusing ….
… in many cases. And people are coming up with other possibly better alternatives.
Yeah, language changes. But it remains to be seen if the newer meanings of “they” will stick.
"people are saying"
This is a classic "people are saying" comment. If you don't like the singular "they", don't use it. But own it as your own thing, don't try to enlist nameless "people" as your unwilling allies in this crusade against change.
These unwilling people you claim I hold captive…
… are all in your permanently pissed off head.
Sort of sad how you go looking for motives, causes and any reason you can think up to gaslight and twist words.
Please do not attribute quotes to me or anyone else that only exist in your fevered mind.
Grammar and history
Singular "they" has been in common use since the 14th century, it is certainly not new. If for some reason you consider singular "they" too new to use, you should also stop using singular "you" in favor of "thou" as the singular use of you is actually newer than the singular use of "they".
"Somebody left their umbrella
"Somebody left their umbrella in the office. Could you please let them know where they can get it?"
"When my child cries, I hug them."
"Had the Doctor been contented to take my dining tables as any body in their senses would have done ..." — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814)
directly found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Those examples are quantified within the phrases.
To indicate that the use of they or their refers to individuals and is singular.
Not what nectarus is talking about.
"They" has always been
"They" has always been correct when describing an unknown number of people that could be zero, one, or many. The alternative, "he, she, or they," is probably not a phrase you or anybody else has ever used in this context.
"They" has never been only plural
If someone taught you that, they were making stuff up.
I learned/ the lesson was
I learned/ the lesson was brought home about “man” versus “male” when Doctor Elizabeth Corday was upbraided on ER.
Jane Austen used "they" ...
... as a neutral/unspecific pronoun on occasion (when she wanted to) over 200 years ago. See: https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/opinion/story/2021-10-13/a-wor...
It isn't
It isn't. It is simply none of your god damned business. Now put a sock in it.
I agree with the need for
I agree with the need for being uncompromising in affirming one’s actualization, but there is without doubt competing injustices.
Horsefeathers
Your comments are nothing but hot takes with nothing to back them up. Stop white-knighting for bigots, it's really not a good look.
Well, the anti-vaxxers are
Well, the anti-vaxxers are our control group. I’m not asserting any “facts,” nor am I taking any liberties, I’m just speaking differently. (I’d say I’m attempting to say something “artfully” but then I’d be courting “wonton” abuse ;)
The politics, or the politicizing of emergency public health measures is at the heart of this story and comments are not too tangental. (Though, spring boarding off of good police-work to note my dismay at the malpractice on CNN, FOX and MSNBC is perhaps a bit too tangental. And, referencing EEE in a story on a bike safety playground feature in anticipation of tv coverage wanting in details and muddled (incorrect) facts is… well… I’m ok with your opinion/ efforts at squelching. But please note, I do take it under advisement. I don’t care if I’m a bore, but I don’t want to be a bore and I am but a guest here.
Yes, decades of very limited safety and efficacy studies is a far cry from the Covid roll out. I know the issue is politically fraught, but there is room for conversation.
They are not a proper control group
They are self-selecting, for one thing. You don't want a self-selecting control group because there might be factors driving those choices that might end up invalidating the experiment.
Major factors. Imperfect
Major factors. Imperfect control group. Not generalized group, probably over-represented lifestyles.
There already was a control group during testing
A large group of high-risk folks with oversampling of minority participants (who were at higher risk due to jobs and living conditions) volunteered to test the vaccine. Those folks were randomized into treatment and control groups - control groups receiving a vaccine that was fully approved (I believe it may have been a hepatitis B booster - something this group could use). The cohort was followed for infections, side effects, and even deaths due to COVID (most were front-line health care and emergency workers). The vaccine worked - infections and deaths were far lower in the COVID vaccinated group - and the testing phase ended when vaccine was submitted for approval to be released to the general public.
There is no general public control group. The vaccine was tested with treatment and control groups and then approved because it worked.
Post-hoc, we do know that unvaccinated people were overrepresented among those who suffered permanent damage or died in subsequent waves of the pandemic. But that just supports the original testing data. It isn't how you test vaccines before releasing them.
Thank you. I remember hearing
Thank you. I remember hearing that on the radio and haven’t thought about it since the early days of the pandemic. I’m in no way opposed to vaccines. I’m often in a state of wonder and fascination with everything about this chapter of human experience.
I probably read too much science fiction, and I’m cognizant of the need not to provide the “swich licóur” to anti-vax hooligans, bad-actors, profiteers and plain ol’ misguided, but I don’t want to turn off my doubt, or be forgetful of avarice and apply my imagination to “what could go wrong?” Yes, the control groups are over-represented in morbidity & mortality. Naturally. I think enough time has passed that we can discuss any hints of longitudinal effects to come (if any), such as inflammation, arthritis, vascular issues &c…. All of which, I know are less harmful than SARS-CoV-2.
What is the fatality rate for
What is the fatality rate for EEE?
Facts are important and the news is being lazy.
There’s a difference between being infected by the Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus and being among the 7-10% of infected who develop encephalitis. I am in no way diminishing the risk of EEE, but the news can throw in two more sentences without any hubbub.
What is the fatality rate for Eastern Equine Encephalitis?
Boston.com says “ The virus causes severe illness and has a 30 percent fatality rate.”
MyCleavelendClinic says “About 30% of people bitten by an EEE-infected mosquito develop encephalitis and die from the infection,” but elsewhere notes “Most people don’t have any symptoms of EEE.”
NBC 10 Boston says the CDC says it’s 30% and gives airtime to some guy who incorrectly says EEE prevalence is the same year to year.
The CDC says the truth, “Most people infected with eastern equine encephalitis virus do not develop symptoms,” and goes on to correctly note that it is the the 1-in-3 fatality rate is among those who experience disease/neuroinvasion/encephalitis.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/08/24/first-human-case-of-ee...
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21187-eastern-equine-ence...
Viewed today.
https://www.cdc.gov/eastern-equine-encephalitis/symptoms-diagnosis-treat...
Wut
What is this even replying to?
The tangential or outright off-topic reply spam is really pushing the limits of even this comment section.
And as I’ve said before, this all really seems like a bot.
It is
It is for sure a bot, possibly/probably piloted by a human, but the text screeds are straight up ChatGPT.
Old skool sentence construction
That would require training ChatGPT on a bevy of early to mid-20th century essays.
I'm seeing a flight of ideas situation in someone who had English teachers that rewarded embellishment.
Ouch. :(
Ouch. :(
It’s about the quality and
It’s about the quality and character of our local media.
Infection rate and death rate
There is a large difference between the rate of infection and the rate of symptomatic infection. The reported death rate applies only to those who develop symptoms. You said it applies to those who develop encephalitis; this would be equivalent, if all such cases are symptomatic.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp1914328?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id...
This is from the New England Journal of Medicine, 2019. Anthony Fauci is one of the authors.
Some of the above quotes you give are flat-out wrong. The ones from media outlets are predictably so, but the one from the Cleveland Clinic is shockingly irresponsible.
Yes. That’s one of my sources
Yes. That’s one of my sources of knowledge.
Maybe it’s confusing for the news, (or a matter of paternalism and it’s too confusing for their audience) that “encephalitis” is part of the pathogen name.
Maybe it’s more sensational to say without context that the fatality rate is 33%
Maybe it’s an editorial position excise the context to drive home the potential risk.
I am just askin.
But, also to BGL, Adam said a similar thing to me about my “just askin” and yeah, I’m blind here and my only “echolocation” is to ask questions. The one thing I know most well is I don’t know shit. I spent most of my life my life not asking questions and when I ask a rhetorical, or for the most salient books to read to better understand the real Boston and Massachusetts and its inhabitants I genuinely want to know plan to read them and have read the blurbs and did some pre-read research. (I’m not a fast reader. I like to grok each sentence in its fullness.)
Then read
There's a whole internet out there. I suggest starting with an online course in critical reading skills. You don't have to be a fast reader, just a careful one. If your education has been lacking (or often even if it hasn't), it can be a bit frustrating as you run into concepts or facts you're unfamiliar with, and you have to pause and learn about them before proceeding. But if you're not a complete bullshit artist, this is what you will do.
"just asking"
The thing about rhetorical questions is that they aren't looking really questions. They're trying to set the other person up to be lectured at, or "proven" wrong. This goes back at least to Socrates, who was sure he knew more than the other characters in his dialogues. He also had the advantage that Plato only wrote down what made Socrates and his arguments look good.
If any of the things you're "just asking" are sincere questions, you're asking in the wrong place. You need a reference librarian, not the comments section of an Internet news site. In the meantime, I suggest you look up "JAQing off."
Vicki
I love you more and more everyday!!!
I’m trying to find out if I’m
I’m trying to find out if I’m wrong.
You make some good points.
But Magoo is still the absolute worst. No redeeming value at all.
This one has talent.
I agree
But case in point, I just got 4 separate mini-essays as a replies to my single post. At least Magoo is like... a one sentence post per article. Magoo is worse, though.
Kid's young, give'em time
Ah, I fondly remember my formative years on internet forums.
I had a wealth of questions and no answers and I knew if I framed them all just so, then everyone would be amazed at my elocution and prose and find me deep and insightful!
I figured it out eventually and cut out the bullshit. He will too.
Except that they ARE new
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-are-mrna-vaccines-so-exciting-20...
Your ClaIm
How did I learn about mRNA vaccines at UMass 30 years ago... if they are so 'novel'.
Stay wrong, try not to strain anything with that patting yourself on the back
Too prideful to just fucking help when asked in an emergency. Go You!
oh it was too much for you? Keep reminding us that was you, every chance you get, in person though, not anonymously online. K?
Dip stick.
?
?
Look. Hubris is a bitch. I’m just saying we are not yet fully wise to the intricacies of four billion years of evolution. CRISPR has also gone off-script.
what the...
...french fried fuck would you know about CRISPR?
Mmmm. Crispy french fries.
Mmmm. Crispy french fries.
“ There are some recent
“ There are some recent reports in the scientific literature that this approach is not as precise as advertised. In other words, we think we are editing one letter of the book of life, but it actually entire pages might be getting altered in unintended areas. The long-term danger is unintended changes to the genome of an organism that go on and get carried through to the next generation. The safety risk is unknown changes in genes that get transferred to the population that could have no consequence or could be harmful.” -*
* https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/is-crispr-worth-the-risk
Nature has a 4 billion year
Nature has a 4 billion year head start of trial and error, some extinct, some extant. Even if we’re confident our somatic work doesn’t “life finds a way” into the germ-line, we (not just scientists, but politicians and industry) opened the door last year to germ-line editing. Stephen Jay Gould said we are an puny, insignificant, and unspecdial branch on the bush of life. We should have some humility before the 4 billion years of catch up -and the next population bottleneck won’t give us thousands of years to progress. When we start producing “designer babies” and curing diseases that may confer and disadvantages and advantages respectively in catastrophic, bottleneck times we may be eliminating a necessary, diverse trait that will bring us through to the other side.
Caught a lecture by Dr. Eric
Caught a lecture by Dr. Eric Lander.
Missing Refugly and Magoo?
Grow up, middle school bully.
To throw another one of your tired clichés back at you. That’s just not a good look you’ve got going on.
I will give you props for an entertaining expletive.
Act your age
You get more childish every day.
I'm just surprised a JW would
I'm just surprised a JW would even want to be a cop
He addresses that
In the complaint.
Why? Every religion has its maniacs.
Just look at the Catholics.
You are about to meet John Costello...
It's going to be a bumpy ride!
I know
I know.. I thought that when I read that comment... "Here comes John Costello"
Fasten your seatbelts, slutpuppy.. this gonna be no cake walk.
Oh boy!
You’re in trouble now.
Not cool Homer. I'm Catholic
Not cool Homer. I'm Catholic
I'm Catholic too
... and there are more than a few folks who claim to be Catholic who are, in essence, "maniacs". Hard to think of many large groups that do not share this problem.
Yep!
Certain serious mental health disorders - like bipolar with hallucinations or schizophrenia - manifest in what is called "religious ideation".
People with mental health crises of these types can end up cloaking their disorder in and attaching to religion as the train heads off the rails. If you come from a particular tradition, then that tradition may become your fixation or a twisted anchor.
Catholicism is a pretty popular religion, so of course it will be represented in the mix. That doesn't mean the content of crazy is attributable to that faith in any specific way.
You're Catholic...
and Homer is just a dumb bigot.
How does he even have a case?
There's nothing in their religion that prohibits vaccines so I have no idea how he can say his religious rights are being violated.
trial should have plenty of Witnesses
but no experts
I am really surprised no one
I am really surprised no one has done this yet…
“MATTHIAS: Look. I don’t think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying ‘Jehovah’.
MOB: (squealing) Oooh! He said it again! Ooooh!
HIGH PRIEST: You’re only making it worse for yourself!
MATTHIAS: Making it worse?! How could it be worse?! (Starting to dance) Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!”
#montypython #lifeofbrian
No problem suing yet problem
No problem suing yet problem with seeking medical treatment for disease treatment. My opinion.
Knock knock
It's SARS-CoV-2!
Here to tell you the Good News about [insert 30,000 base pairs here].
he said it best elsewhere
Our new buddy Frelmont said this on another article, and I think it says a whole lot in not many words.
"I ought to take a class, or read a book on it, but I grope about to develop my own thesis."
More books and classes, and less loaded questions and EEE talk in the thread about Covid and religious exemptions, please.
Fair. Rhetorical, if maybe a
Fair. Rhetorical, if maybe a bit loaded.
Help me out here
How is it "rhetorical"? Or were you referring to your own questions?