Louisiana pastor Tony Spell's followers jammed police phone lines to protest his arrest. He says it'll keep happening until cops 'get this ankle bracelet off of me.'

• Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell has persistently fought against the state's lockdown regulations, resulting in his house arrest.
• After authorities asked him to pay a $25,000 fine, saying breaking house arrest on Sunday, Spell's mother asked supporters to call the local police department in protest.
• So many people have called, that it has clogged the phone lines and interfered with emergency responses.
• The pastor is unapologetic: "When they get this ankle bracelet off of me so I can minister to my people, we will unjam their phone lines," he told Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell has consistently defied social distancing regulations, even after being placed under house arrest.

Now, facing thousands of dollars in fines, his family called on his followers to contact the police and voice their support for him.

So many people have called, that the police department's phone lines were overwhelmed and it began to interfere with their ability to tend to emergencies, the department wrote on Facebook.

Spell is unapologetic about his supporters potentially putting other citizens in danger.

"When they get this ankle bracelet off of me so I can minister to my people, we will unjam their phone lines," Spell told Business Insider on Thursday. "Those are Christians nationwide who realize this is not about a virus, it's about an attack on our civil and religious liberties. Whenever you take my religious freedoms from me, the next thing to go is the freedom of your breath."

The department apologized to residents about the jammed lines and told them to "keep trying" if they're having trouble getting through to the department.

"Magi Spell, mother of Pastor Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church has posted the Central Police Department's phone number on her Facebook page encouraging everyone to call our Department," the department wrote. "This phone number is the line we receive all of our calls on including our emergency calls from Citizens needing our assistance or help due to a life changing emergency."

Authorities placed Spell under house arrest following a litany of charges related to him fighting stay-at-home orders and continuing to hold church services. He turned himself in to police earlier this month after cops said he backed a bus toward a man who was protesting outside his church, Life Tabernacle, earlier this month.

Spell said he plans to, once again, leave his house on Sunday to hold his 10 a.m. service.

"I leave my house to go to my pulpit and preach," he said. "The feds are too gutless to get me because I'm surrounded by 50 men at all times. ... my church members."

While many churches have transitioned to live-streamed services to protect parishioners from COVID-19, Spell told Insider on April 1 that he doesn't like such services because he can't "lay hands" on his parishioners as he can in person.

On Thursday, when asked again about why he doesn't hold livestream services, he had a different answer.

"Why would I? My flock doesn't have access to the internet," he said. "Impoverished poor people do not have access to phones or internet."

"They're concerned that other people have stopped holding services, and they're losing faith in other Christians across the country who have closed their doors," he continued.

According to The Advocate, one of Spell's congregants has died, and a lawyer hired to represent the church has been hospitalized. Both tested positive for COVID-19, the paper reported.

While it's not clear where they caught the virus, Spell claimed the coroner's determination that the congregant died from coronavirus was "a lie."

He told Business Insider that the only people he knows who had the virus experienced "three days" of upper respiratory symptoms and recovered. The virus is deadly and symptoms can linger for weeks, medical research overwhelmingly concludes.

Spell isn't concerned about the threat of the coronavirus, or the possible repercussions for breaking the law.

"When you have convictions, jail does not make you afraid," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider