BEAVERTON, Ore. (KOIN) — For the past 5 years, Chris Green has owned Invictus Defense Academy in Beaverton. But he’s protesting Gov. Kate Brown’s orders to close gyms by doing what he says is a “peaceful protest” — if his paying members want to “protest” by training in his gym, he’s not going to stop them.
“I understand this is in the interest of health,” Green told KOIN 6 News. “But again, there’s a reasonableness standard. And again, what you’re doing is intentionally and recklessly crashing our economy.”
He said Brown’s order is an overreach of government and unfairly targeting small businesses like his and he doesn’t believe the gym could survive another shutdown.
“Small business owners are losing their homes. They are losing everything,” he said.
Green is not using the term “staying open” for the Invictus Defense Academy, but members are working out inside the gym — their form of protest.
“I’m not forcing anyone to come in here,” he said, noting members have the option to freeze their memberships.
In Salem, OSHA recently fined Courthouse Club Fitness facilities $90,000 for staying open.
‘Shocked to see blatant violations’
Across the river in Vancouver, a frustrated health care worker says people are dining in at a Kray’s Coffee café. She sent KOIN 6 News a video and said, “I wanted to support a local business and had heard good things about Krays coffee shop. I was shocked to see such blatant violations of Governor Inslee’s current COVID regulations: dozens of people unmasked and dining indoors with no social distancing.”
A representative with the Washington Department of Health said they have received multiple complaints about that location.
In a statement to KOIN 6 News, officials with Kray’s said:
“We have served over 7,000 people for the past 2 weeks and only a few of them have complained that we are open. Thank God for everyone else’s support. We are staying open because we know our customers are responsible enough to make decisions to come if they aren’t sick and feel comfortable being with other people around. So much people have felt such a relief that we are open, they can come in for fellowship, just some study time or alone time with God. Support a friend who’s going through a tough time. We aren’t here to make any political statements but to show love and support. Our employees are essential and deserve to get a paycheck before Christmas and all the holidays. Being a new business we barely made it with with first lockdown in March. During this lockdown thousands of people have asked us to stay open and they are coming daily to support and help us stay open. And we want to thank our community for supporting us while we support them! So yes, we are in this together!”