MA Gym Owner Defies State COVID Crackdown, Sees His Doors LOCKED – Will Hold Protest

P. Gardner Goldsmith | June 19, 2020
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A gym and health food store owner in the small town of Oxford, MA, is ready to take his defiance of state COVID authoritarianism a step further.

Deemed by Governor Charlie Baker (R) to be one of the thousands whose offerings are simply too tawdry and low to be called “essential”, Prime Fitness and Nutrition owner David Blondin is fighting back.

Ordered by the Superior Court to stay closed, slapped May 22 with a $300 per day fine that was bumped up to $1,000 per day last week (a fine that the Oxford attorney wants to increase to $3,000 per day, according to the owner), Mr. Blondin opened the fitness center and nutritional supplements store on May 18, and now appears to be the reinvigorated spirit of freedom that once lived in Massachusetts residents.

Despite the fines and orders from on high – orders from a Governor who, also issued an edict in the first week of May that all residents must wear facemasks in public – Mr. Blondin has not given up.

This in the face of not only legal pressure, but the town shutting off the gym’s electricity and water, and, later in the day on June 18th, seeing to it that the DOOR LOCKS WERE REPLACED.

 

 

According to Elisha Fieldstadt, of NBC:

On Thursday evening, attorney Mark Reich, who is representing the town, told NBC News that ‘the locks have been changed and the building secured with the cooperation of the building owner, who is not Mr. Blondin.’

But he is not giving up, and, thankfully, Boston radio host and writer Howie Carr spoke to him by phone yesterday, offering a chance for the audience to hear more from Mr. Blondin.

The businessman and health advisor noted that after the town shut off power while he was in bed Wednesday night, clientele worked-out Thursday morning wearing headlamps, they brought camping lamps, and refused to be pushed around by the government.

The water? Yeah, that I was there for. That I let them do… but I recorded the whole thing. So we actually filed a lawsuit against the electric company and the water company today.

Imagine. A man simply offering for people to voluntarily enter and exercise, seeing agents of the government try to shut him down as if the government gang was a bunch of mobsters from “The Godfather”. Imagine bureaucrats, politicians, and judges promoting the act of stopping people even from getting hydration or using the toilet when engaging in private, voluntary activities like trying to exercise to stay fit.

When Carr asked Blondin if he was going to stay open, Blondin informed him of the new development: the literal lockout that government lawyer Reich put into the passive voice and told NBC, “the locks had been changed”.

Who changed them?

“So, right now,” Blondin told Carr. “The doors are locked, so I can’t even get into my building.”

“The town changed the LOCKS?!” asked a clearly stunned Carr.

“Yep,” replied Mr. Blondin.

“How—Who did that? Did they hire somebody, or was it someone from Town Hall?” asked Carr.

“Yeah. They hired a locksmith, so they’ll, uh, they’ll be part of the lawsuit, as well.”

So it appears that either the town hired the locksmith, or the town put pressure on the landowner to hire the locksmith. As one can see, attorney Reich’s information was cloudy, while Mr. Blondin’s observation appears more specific.

 

In quick response to the moves, Blondin has filed for immediate injunction and…

He has scheduled a mass protest for 10 AM Saturday at his Oxford location, Prime Fitness, the information about which can be found on his Instagram and Facebook accounts.

“It’s no longer about my business anymore,” Blondin told Mr. Carr. “Now, this is about all small business.”

Indeed, it is.

Back in the mid-1980s, the Massachusetts government spent oodles of money on a cheesy ad campaign, complete with insufferably dumb jingle and cliched visuals, proclaiming that “The spirit of Massachusetts is the spirit of America.

It seems like there are two kinds in that old state.

One is the spirit of the government, which is not only no different than that of King George and Parliament in the 18th century, it’s far, far more authoritarian and repulsive.

The other is the spirit of freedom, the freedom to choose how and with whom one wants to engage in peaceful activity. And from the Sons of Liberty, to Mr. Blondin’s Prime Fitness in Oxford, it seems clear which spirit is good and which spirit needs to be exorcised for the sake of liberty, peace, and free will.

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