Police officers had to storm a gymnasium after its owner repeatedly refused to close despite a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Metropolitan Police officers arrived at the Gym Zone in Wood Green, London, at 6:00 p.m. on November 10 to find people training despite the lockdown. After being asked to close the gym and risking a fine of 10,000 pounds ($13,194), the owner of the gym, Andreas Michli, reopened the gym as soon as the police left the building. The officers arrived back at the gym yesterday morning to close it again.
A nationwide ban is in effect throughout England until December 2, which means that all non-essential businesses must be closed until then. Michli went on to post a video on Facebook and said he would not close.
He said, “We are not closing! We’re staying open because it’s the right thing to do, and we need the message to get to the public. I am amazed that gyms are being forced to close. Gyms have one of the lowest infection rates in the economy.
“The police have asked us to close them, but we will do the right thing to our members, even if the legislation says otherwise. We are keeping people healthy. The police arrived for the first time yesterday evening around 6 pm when 30 people were in the building. Then they came back around 8:30 when there were already seven people inside.
“This is not about the police, and we understand that they have a job to do. It is about people at the top of the government making the wrong decisions. Closing gyms is the worst decision I have made in my life. The benefits of keeping gyms open outweigh any reasons for closing them.
“You improve your immune system by going to the gym, which means there is no point in closing it. It’s about people at the top of government making the wrong decisions. Closing gyms is the worst decision I have made in my life.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson’s government has met with resistance from its own MPs over the closure measures, with some saying that the “cure” of restrictive measures could be “worse than the disease.
Rumor has it that the group will include up to 50 deputies.
“The country urgently needs a different and permanent strategy to live with the virus, one that does not require us to continue to live under a series of harmful closures and seemingly arbitrary restrictions,” Congressman Mark Harper, former head of government and chairman of the group, wrote in the Telegraph newspaper.
Scotland Yard officers confirmed that they had visited Zone Gym.
A police spokesman said: “Police visited Zone Gym at Coburg Road, N22, on several occasions last week to assist council officers dealing with store owners in enforcing Covid regulations.
In his latest post on Facebook, Michli insisted that he is still doing the right thing.
“There is no way we are throwing in the towel, this has always been a one-way street for us. It will always come down to doing the right thing! Right is right, and wrong is wrong! Sooner or later people will wake up and in those moments you let your true face shine through! Peace and Love”.
Washington Newsday has asked the government to comment….
