Reporting by Dennis Byron
With the spread of the Omicron virus that has made its way to America, NY Governor Kathy Hochul has taken measures to make it a state crime to make or produce fraudulent vaccination cards. This comes as as high-ranking NYPD cops have been caught doing just that.
This newest legislation that is intended to combat the spread of the virus was signed into law on Wednesday which included other pandemic-response related measures, makes the falsification of such documents a class A misdemeanor. The Feds have already made such related type of crimes a felony.
The new law also makes it a felony to access a computer to tamper with COVID-19 records so yes hacking into digital records or accessing them for the purpose of committing a crime is punishable by a prison sentence in New York State.
“We need to make sure we learn the lessons of the pandemic so we don’t make the same mistakes twice,” Hochul said in a statement after signing the bills. “These new laws will help us improve our response to the pandemic now, crack down on fraudulent use of vaccination records, and help us better understand the areas of improvement we need to make to our health care system so we can be even more prepared down the road.”
Vaccination Fraud Within New York City’s Police Department
Earlier this month, there were reports that EMS employees were selling fake vaccination cards to city workers after Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a mandate requiring all city employees to be vaccinated as a condition of keeping their jobs.
A police lieutenant and captain was stripped of their badges and guns and placed on desk duty after someone snitched on them for using bogus vaccination cards. Prior to that discovery, Police commissioner Shea told reporters in a statement that he knew of “zero’ evidence of cops committing these types of crimes. Those cops have been identified as Lt. Joseph Marsella and Capt. Desmond Morales. They both are currently under investigation by NYPD’s internal affairs.
This is a developing story.
