An Atlanta gym owner has banned police officers and military members from working out at his gym, 11 alive first reported.
The owner of the gym, Jim Chambers, put up a sign on the door of EAV Barbell Club that read “No Fu***** cops.”
Despite taking down the sign, Chambers said that the gym still has a “no cop policy” and does not allow membership to active duty military.
“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,” Chambers told the news outlet.
Chambers said that the people who work in the area are mostly minorities who are uncomfortable with law enforcement.
He added that the gym wanted a space that wasn’t “an aggressive hetero jock space that’s dominated by cops and soldiers.”
“We don’t want to make police stronger so that they can make people hurt more efficiently,” he continued. “You put a uniform on and quite honestly, I view that as an occupying enemy army.”
The Atlanta Police Department did not comment on the policy to the news station, but did say that if they had an emergency to respond to there, they would still go.
“Were we to respond to an emergency there, this sign would not stop us from lawfully doing our job,” the police department said.
Chambers said he would put a sign back up conveying the same message without the vulgarity.
“It was really just that the vulgarity in that sign that seems to bring it out for people,” he said.
[revad2]
