Kahron Spearman
An anti-mask New Jersey gym owner says he will continue to challenge coronavirus guidelines no matter the fines, which are now up to $1.2 million.
Ian Smith, the owner of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, has refused to obey city and state regulations directing how many people can work out inside his gym during the ongoing pandemic.
Smith produced a now-viral video showing Smith inside his packed gym, with written captions listing the actions taken against his business by the state. Most people shown in the video are not wearing masks. Smith claims he’s received over 60 citations and had his business license revoked, on top of the fines.
The gym owner says he won’t require his patrons to wear masks and argues that rules designed to limit the COVID-19 virus’s spread aren’t based on science.
In an interview with Fox News last week, Smith says he will not pay the fines and will continue to ignore masking guidelines put in place by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
“Governor Murphy has thrown everything he possibly could to shut us down. He has arrested my partner and I, given us over 60 citations, some of them criminal,” Smith stated. “He fines us $15,497.76 per day for every day we’re in operation. Our fines are totaling over $1.2 million, but every single day, Frank and I open our gym.”
“What’s happening to the middle class and small businesses in America is nothing short of a complete tragedy,” he said. “I would go so far as to call it criminal. You are putting people out of business for good. You are making them reliant on big government. You are taking away their civil liberties under the guise of pretending like you care about public health.”
Smith also told Fox News host Stuart Varney that no coronavirus cases have been linked to Atilis Gym.
Because of the attention, people began to dig into Smith’s life and found he was responsible for a fatal crash in 2007 that killed a Galloway Township resident, 19-year-old student Kevin Ade.
According to court records obtained by The Press of Atlantic City, Smith pled guilty to vehicular homicide and sentenced to 5½ years in prison in June 2008.
“My actions caused the death of a young man and broke the hearts of an entire community,” Smith said. “And that’s something that they’ll never fully ever recover from, and there’s nothing that I can do other than try to live a good life and give back and promote as much love and positivity in the world as I can.”