St. Louis prosecutors made good on their threat this week by convincing a grand jury to return an indictment against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple whose crime was to defend their private property while out-of-control protesters broke into their neighborhood back in June.
After photos of them standing in front of their home, each armed with a gun, went viral, St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner vowed to bring the couple to justice. And shortly after police began their investigation into the couple, Missouri Gov. Michael Parson (R) said that if the McCloskeys wind up with charges stemming from the incident, he would personally step in and pardon them.
On Wednesday of this week, Parson confirmed to a reporter that he “most certainly would” live up to that promise if the McCloskeys are convicted on the weapons charges the grand jury brought against them.
“We’ll let it play out and see how this all comes out in the courts, but I stand by what I said,” Parsons said.
In a statement to the media outside the courthouse on Tuesday, Mark McCloskey said the indictment was an omen of what the entire country can expect if Democrats seize power in November.
“To everybody out there that’s thinking about voting for Joe Biden, the Harris-Biden administration, this is a sign of the times of things to come, the government that views its task as protecting criminals from honest citizens, rather than protecting honest citizens from criminals,” McCloskey said.
By the way, we adore this little snippet from The New York Times’s story about the indictment: “The couple’s confrontation with protesters came as Mr. Trump, playing on racist fears, baselessly warned that the unrest in American cities following the police killing of George Floyd would spread to the suburbs.”
Baselessly! Never mind that protesters did indeed create unrest in the McCloskey’s neighborhood (not in the suburbs, but certainly an exclusive part of St. Louis where residents should expect to be insulated from metropolitan violence). And apparently the Times has already forgotten about what we’ve seen in Portland, where anarchist protesters have indeed gotten bored with their courthouse riots and have supplemented their fun with shouting, threatening trips into the suburbs.
We fully expect that the McCloskeys will avoid jail time one way or the other (hopefully via a sensible jury, but a pardon if not), but that doesn’t change the central terrifying part of this, which is that they were charged in the first place.
