{"id":886,"date":"2026-05-31T16:40:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T16:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=886"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:40:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T16:40:03","slug":"exclusive-how-states-bureaucracy-turned-its-wrath-on-cops-opposing-covid-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=886","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: How State\u2019s Bureaucracy Turned Its Wrath On Cops Opposing COVID Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Massachusetts cops showed up at Bob Burch\u2019s door in November 2021, he suspected the visit had something to do with COVID-19 rules.<\/p>\n

Read more Wheels Start Coming Off Socialist Seattle Mayor\u2019s Admin As Homeless Housing Scheme Sputters<\/a><\/p>\n

The Westfield-based web designer had ruffled feathers in the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) by creating a website where MSP employees criticized the agency\u2019s COVID vaccine mandate, according to \u00a0 by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Nearly 30 of them have since battled the MSP in federal court after the agency responded to their exemption claims with investigations, suspensions and firings. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: COVID Mandates Derailed Massachusetts Cops\u2019 Careers. They\u2019re Still Picking Up The Pieces.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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An archived webpage shows the now-defunct \u201cMSP Medical Freedom\u201d website created for Massachusetts police officers resisting the state\u2019s 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandates. (Screenshot\/MSP Medical Freedom\/Wayback Machine)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That crackdown was so extensive that it brought two MSP officers with badges around their necks to Bright Cloud Studio, Burch\u2019s company, to investigate the now-defunct Massachusetts State Protectors of Medical Freedom\u00a0website, he recalled in a DCNF interview. \u201cThey asked who the website came from, who paid for the website, and I was just like, \u2018Well, I can\u2019t just give my clients up like that,’\u201d Burch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t just going through the motions. They were trying to get something,\u201d Burch told the DCNF.<\/p>\n

Burch was not their target, however. Former state troopers Josh Ulrich, Chris Dolan and Thomas Mace and former sergeants Dan Clemens and Michael Murphy faced disciplinary charges for their involvement in the group before leaving the MSP over the vaccine requirements, according to records and interviews. The website probe \u2014 which has not been previously reported \u2014 shows how far some officials went to pressure critics of former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker\u2019s August 2021 vaccine mandate for state workers.<\/p>\n

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The MSP declined to comment to the DCNF due to pending litigation with the former cops.<\/p>\n

Bringing The Hammer Down<\/h3>\n

MSP leaders complained the \u201cMSP Medical Freedom\u201d website might make a viewer think it referred to Massachusetts State Police and violate a rule against officers criticizing the agency, documents show. The vaccine mandate critics argued in a that their group was criticizing the governor\u2019s vaccine policy, not the MSP, and that the agency has no ownership over the \u201cMSP\u201d acronym. But the higher-ups did not relent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a layman or as a sworn member of the state police, the term MSP to me means Mass State Police,\u201d a senior officer told Clemens in a November 2021 lasting two and a half hours. \u201cI guess I\u2019ll just leave that as a statement. Obviously, that term is subject to interpretation. Is that a fair statement?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYes,\u201d said Clemens, then a seasoned . He explained that the group consisted of MSP employees claiming religious or other exemptions to the vaccine mandate. (RELATED: Blue State \u2018Hate Crimes\u2019 Official Behind Police Course Comparing Concerned Parent Activists To Neo-Nazis)<\/strong><\/p>\n