Patricia and Mark McCloskey
A gun-toting lawyer couple has received pardons for an infamous stand-off with Black Lives Matter protesters. Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey were among 14 people to receive some manner of clemency from Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) on Tuesday.
The husband pleaded guilty in June to fourth-degree assault, and the wife to second-degree harassment, both misdemeanors. Parson has long backed them up, though he botched the relevant law in explaining his stance last year. He promised to pardon them. That promise has been kept.
As seen on viral video, the McCloskeys stood armed outside their home in St. Louis, Missouri, staring down protesters who passed by. This was more than a month after George Floyd died in police custody, sparking an array of high-profile protests. The encounter involving the McCloskeys happened as protesters attempted to march toward the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, according to The Riverfront Times. The city’s politician faced calls for her resignation after she doxxed people who wanted to defund the police department.
A couple has come out of their house and is pointing guns at protesters in their neighborhood #StLouis #lydakrewson pic.twitter.com/ZJ8a553PAU
— Daniel Shular (@xshularx) June 29, 2020
The McCloskeys, who emphatically insisted they acted in self-defense, used the incident to bolster their profiles at the national level. They showed no contrition after pleading guilty. It was quite the opposite. Mark McCloskey, who is running for the U.S. Senate, appeared in a video in which he said he would “do it again.”
A year ago, the mob came to my door to attack my family— I backed them down
The mob came for me, the media attacked me & prosecutors tried to punish me for defending my family
They dropped all charges, except for a claim I instilled “imminent fear” in the mob
I’d do it again. pic.twitter.com/ECPsSwa2Iw
— Mark McCloskey (@mccloskeyusa) June 17, 2021
In a brief phone interview, McCloskey attorney Joel J. Schwartz said that the couple looked forward to putting this episode behind them and to moving forward with the campaign. The attorney referenced McCloskey’s earlier statement about doing it again, and he said that, based on the pardon, McCloskey believed that the governor felt the same way as him about the incident.
[Screenshot via Daniel Shular @xshularx]
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