A store owner has been facing scrutiny after banning people from wearing face masks, which he refers to as ‘government muzzles’, in his tea room.
57-year-old Michael Schneider is the owner of J. Voke Vintage Tea Room located in Chichester, UK, who decided to put an end to face masks within the boundaries of his business.
As the business owner insisted, he will not let people wearing face masks inside his tearoom and will charge them extra if they put a “muzzle” on.
In a poster displayed next to the store’s entrance, Schneider claimed that face masks suppress the immune system and reduce oxygen intake as he insisted that the government “refused to do a risk assessment against the dangers of wearing a face mask.”
“Turn off your Television and engage your brain before you spend the rest of your lives living on your knees… OWNED BY THE STATE,” the controversial poster displayed at the J. Voke Vintage Tearoom reads.
“The reason you’re being ordered to stand two metres apart and wear a muzzle is nothing to do with a virus it’s Applied Behavioural Psychology to CONTROL YOU,” the poster adds.
At the entrance of the tearoom, Schneider also placed a doormat that reads: “Stand here until you realise your government is brainwashing you! (You may be here sometime)”
In an interview with Metro, the tearoom owner defended his decision to ban people from wearing face masks in his store and suggested that human rights are being violated in the current conditions.
“What’s happening now, where you can’t get more than six people in one place without having the police on you, that violates Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he said.
“I’ve had the police around, I’ve had the Council round twice and they all want me to take my poster down and I’m not going to do it because it’s the truth.”
According to the 57-year-old, he allows customers to wear a face mask inside the tearoom if they do so because “it makes them feel safe.”
“It’s not a complete ban, if it makes you feel better or safer, come in no problem. It’s because they’re doing it of their own volition,” he added as he claimed the reaction to his ban has been positive despite some people accusing him of spreading misinformation.
As the Chichester Council confirmed, they “have received some complaints about the face covering signage at J Voke Vintage Tearoom” and passed the information “to Sussex Police, as the agency responsible for face covering guidance, so that they can investigate this.”
According to the police, however, the owner “assured a city PCSO he wouldn’t refuse entry to anybody” whereas “he was neither asked nor directed to remove the poster.”
Additionally, the Sussex Police spokesperson confirmed that they “are not aware of any complaints from the public.”
Replaced!