A video made by a captain with the Los Angeles City Fire Department is hitting social media.
In the over 12-minute video, Captain Christian Granucci, a 31-year-veteran with the department, called Los Angeles' vaccine mandate for city employees "tyranny."
"We saw this tyranny coming," he said in the video.
Granucci also claimed in the video that if the union and administration don't step up, then he and others are prepared to take legal action.
"There is a large group of us, in the hundreds, that we have an attorney on retainer and he is a shark," he claimed.
"We’ll give you the opportunity to stand up and take the firey arrows from the adversary of tyranny and step in front of this and fight for us. But if you don’t our plan B… a large group, and it is growing by the day…we have [the attorney] on retainer and we will seek legal counsel and we will take the fight to you, the city of Los Angeles."
Granucci believes this isn't about politics, but about something bigger.
"This is not about left or right," he said. "This is not red versus blue. This is not about Republican versus Democrat. This isn’t even about vaccinated versus unvaccinated. This is tyranny. This is about freedom of choice."
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KNX reached to LAFD for further comment and was given the following statement:
"On August 18th, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to require COVID vaccinations for city employees by early October. The legislation is awaiting the Mayor’s signature approving the ordinance. The Department’s Oath and Affirmation require all members to obey the Laws and Ordinances of the City of LA.
This morning, the LAFD was made aware of the video posted on social media. While we respect the individual’s right to his opinion, he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the Department. The individual is in uniform and appears to be on duty, thereby giving the impression that he is speaking in an official capacity.
Therefore, this matter has been submitted to our Professional Standards Division for investigation, which may lead to disciplinary review."
Freddy Escobar, the president of United Firefighters of L.A. City also provided at statement to KNX:
"LAFD Firefighters and Paramedics have been at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus for almost 18 months providing vaccinations, testing, and emergency medical care for hundreds of thousands of Angelenos. When the City shut down, it was our first responders who continued to show up to care for our residents in the face of uncertainty.
Similar to the debate taking place throughout our country over vaccinations, there is passionate discussion regarding this issue in our fire stations. The majority of our firefighters have voluntarily been vaccinated and more are choosing to do so each week. We continue to encourage our members to get vaccinated, but we do not support any City policies that make it a condition of employment.
We are in discussions with the City because our highly skilled and experienced LAFD Firefighters and Paramedics cannot be easily replaced - especially in a department that is already understaffed. The unexpected departure of even a small percentage of our workforce would have a devastating impact on public safety in Los Angeles."
The full video is available to watch above.
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