Mark and Patricia McCloskey “brandished” firearms outside their homes to dissuade “protesters” from doing, what a lot of “protesters” have been doing. Attacking and looting. ‘Circuit attorney’ Kim Gardner charged them with a crime and then proceeded to campaign fundraise off the case.
Related: Sen. LIES About the ANTIFA Riots and … as Always … WMUR Gives Her a Pass.
Attorneys representing Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who displayed firearms after a group of protesters broke a gate and approached their private property, want St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner disqualified from the case after she cited her prosecution of the pair in a fundraising email for her re-election campaign.
My first question is, did you charge them to fundraise off them, or did you realize you could fundraise off them after you charged them?
My second question? Which of these makes you look like less of a scumbag?
Gardner leveled felony weapons charges against the McCloskeys on July 20. On July 22, her campaign sent out another fundraising email that directly leveraged her decision to charge the couple.
“In the last 24 hours, there has been a lot of national attention surrounding Kim’s decision to press charges against a couple that brandished guns at a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest,” the July 22 email said, according to court documents. The email went on to ask supporters to “rush a donation today” to signal their support for her in the case, court documents show.
The couple did brandish guns but the reporting says they did so after the “peaceful protesters” broke down an iron gate to access the property. The individuals at whom they brandished their weapons were white and walking toward them. They allege threats of property damage and violence against them, in defense of their actions.
“This is all private property. There are no public sidewalks or public streets,” McCloskey said. “We were told that we would be killed, our home burned and our dog killed. We were all alone facing an angry mob.”
The actual target of the protest march into this private neighborhood was Mayor Lyda Krewson. They are demanding her resignation and (of course) defunding the police.
Both McCloskeys are lawyers practicing civil rights law. Most of their clients, according to reports, are people of color.
Missouri has the castle doctrine and Gardner has a history of politicizing her office. Fundraising off people she is prosecuting seems to fit that profile.
The State AG has moved to drop all charges against the McCloskey’s. I assume they are well connected and may even be liberals, for all we know, but that would not deny them their second amendment rights.
On the whole, Gardner’s case looks frivolous and opportunistic. The fundraising scheme does not help matters.
