He’s not backing down.
Jim Chambers is the owner of the EAV Barbell Club. Image via 11 Alive Atlanta.
Over the past few years, there have been numerous controversies over businesses refusing to serve people because of their political or religious beliefs. Progressives were outraged a few years back when a baker in Colorado refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Earlier this week, conservatives were upset that a boy in California couldn’t find a baker to make a pro-Donald Trump cake. So, who’s being the hypocrite?
The difference between the two is that being gay is not a choice whereas supporting a xenophobic politician most certainly is. But, at the same time, when a 9-year-old kid wants a cake supporting the president, he’s most likely doing so out of boyish patriotism rather than ethnic resentment.
Now, a gym owner in Atlanta, Georgia, is causing a stir for refusing to allow police officers in his gym.
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Jim Chambers, owner of the EAV Barbell Club, posted a sign on the front door of his gym that reads “Do whatever the hell you want, correctly, except CrossFit cultism. No fucking cops.”
The sign caused a stir after a military veteran saw it and reported it to a local news outlet. But Cwhambers has no intention of backing down. “We’ve had an explicitly stated ‘No Cop’ policy since we opened, and we also don’t open membership to active members of the military,” the lifelong political activist told 11 Alive News.
Chambers believes that a police presence in his gym would only make his minority customers uncomfortable. He has removed the sign but posted a picture of it on his Instagram feed alongside photos of Mike Brown, an 18-year-old black man fatally shot by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The Atlanta Police Department hasn’t commented on the sign but stands by its duty to protect the gym, its owner, and and customers if necessary. It said the gym’s policy “would not stop us from lawfully doing our job.”
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