Last summer, many of us watched as Mark and Patricia McCloskey brandished weapons to protect their home from rioters who had broken down the gate into their neighborhood. Although I would not recommend the McCloskey’s gun safety techniques, after watching the video of the incident, I suspect what they did may have saved their lives. They were responding to threats by a mob. The overzealous St. Louis judicial system charged them with various violations of the law, and the case proceeded.
Today, MRC TV reported the following:
The St. Louis, Missouri couple who became famous for defending their home against an aggressive Black Lives Matter mob have been pardoned by their Governor after picking up misdemeanor charges and some convictions for brandishing guns at the rioters.
Fox News reported on August 3 that Missouri Governor Mike Parson pardoned both Mark and Patricia McCloskey of their misdemeanor convictions after they had pled guilty for “threatening the passersby with an AR-15 rifle and was fined $750.”
The infamous incident for which they were fined was, of course, was when the couple – feeling threatened by a Black Lives Matter mob which had broken down the gate to their private road – brandished a semi-auto rifle and pistol to keep the mob off of their property.
The dramatic self-defense situation occurred at the peak of the George Floyd riots in June 2020.
The article concludes:
Several of the BLM protesters received citations for their actions on that day, but prosecutors deemed that their actions were more peaceful than threatening and didn’t pursue charges. Though that treatment seems a bit lenient, at least compared to how the McCloskeys described the event.
Thankfully Governor Parsons disagreed with the charges and convictions and issued the couple a pardon on July 30. Mr. McCloskey expressed satisfaction at the pardon and slammed his charges and misdemeanor convictions. “It’s a correction of something that should have never happened in the first place,” he told Fox News.
Well thank goodness for the pardon. At the very least we are not at a point in our country’s history where we can’t defend our own private property. Still the left is testing those waters.
Notice that charges were pursued on the McCloskeys, but not on the BLM protesters (who did actually break down a gate — trespassing and destruction of property — to get into the McCloskey’s neighborhood). That tells you all you need to know about the St. Louis judicial system.