For the better part of March and April, Baton Rouge-area pastor Tony Spell has openly flouted a statewide ban on mass gatherings in Louisiana intended to stem the spread of coronavirus. Never mind that there has been story after story about coronavirus outbreaks that can be traced right to the doors of churches. Never mind that he has already been cited for flouting the order.

A week after busing in hundreds of people for services at his Life Tabernacle, Spell intends to do the same for Easter Sunday. For now, anyway, police and prosecutors have no plans to break it up. Instead, according to TMZ, they’re mounting a slow-motion strangulation.

Baton Rouge Central PD Chief Roger Corcoran tells us he believes Pastor Spell's defying state guidelines purely to gain publicity for himself and his Life Tabernacle Church. He also says it's not a First Amendment issue because Spell is jeopardizing the health of his parishioners and all Louisiana residents. Despite that, Chief Corcoran tells us police will not interfere with the pastor's scheduled Easter Sunday service, which is expected to draw more than 1,000 faithful -- a clear violation of the state's stay-at-home orders. Instead, we're told cops will document the gathering and present it as evidence to the District Attorney for future prosecution.

Normally, this restraint would be understandable. After all, even though there is no way Spell’s actions would be protected even under the most warped interpretation of the First Amendment, it’s still Louisiana, and it’s still the Bible Belt.

But in recent days, Spell has displayed behavior that would lead any reasonable person to conclude that he is a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the Baton Rouge area, and possibly to the state of Louisiana as well. First, on Tuesday, he channeled Jim Jones by claiming that true Christians ought to be willing to die of COVID-19.

Then, on Friday, he told Houston-area podcaster Jess Fields that if anyone in his flock catches coronavirus, he won’t tell anyone because—wait for it—he didn’t want to make them feel like “lepers.” So the health and safety of your own flock, and those who interact with them, doesn’t matter? Apparently not.

If that wasn’t even more evidence of his depravity, Spell claimed that he wasn’t concerned about kids spreading the virus to their families. Why? Due to his faith, he doesn’t worry about “what-ifs,” especially since he believes such concerns are being driven by “media terrorists.” Uh huh. What about the CDC?

These are the words of a man who has nada, zip, zero regard for human life. These are the words of a man you simply can’t leave out there. If it is legally possible to do so, Spell has to be locked up as soon as possible.

I’m reminded of the saga of Rebecca Sedwick, the Florida girl who committed suicide back in 2013 after a long and sustained campaign of in-person and online bullying. Two of the ringleaders were arrested on charges of felony stalking after one of them crassly posted that she’d bullied Rebecca, “but IDGAF.” Polk County sheriff Grady Judd said they had to act right then because it was apparent “we can’t leave her out there.” They were subsequently rendered to juvenile services, but the message was clear—this kind of disregard for human life is not acceptable.

What Spell is doing makes what Sedwick’s bullies did look minor league. He has openly admitted that he doesn’t really care if there’s an outbreak in his flock, or if members of his church spread it. I repeat—this guy needs to be in jail as soon as legally possible, and prosecutors must spare no expense to make sure he is convicted and imprisoned for as long as legally possible.