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.
Many Americans – notably conservatives – felt as though the McCloskeys were well within their rights to defend their multi-million dollar St. Louis home from the mob, especially considering the violent nature of many of the BLM protests. The McCloskeys – both lawyers who were politically supportive of BLM at the time – maintained that the protestors who broke down the gate to their neighborhood and got on to their property, threatened to kill them and their dog while they were having dinner on their back porch.
For many, the second amendment exists for situations just like that one. But for others, like those who said that the protesters weren’t as dangerous as the couple claimed, the McCloskeys appeared aggressive, unhinged and threatening with their dangerous weapons.
The St. Louis judicial system charged them for actions. Mark McCloskey “pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault for threatening the passersby with an AR-15 rifle and was fined $750.” His wife, Patricia “pleaded guilty to harassment and was given a $2,000 fine. They did not lose their law licenses or their firearms.”
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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.