Nine Black Lives Matter protesters cited for trespassing in confrontation with armed McCloskey couple in St Louis
NINE Black Lives Matter protesters were cited for trespassing after confronting the armed McCloskey couple in St Louis.
Mark, 63, and Patricia McCloskey, 61, were filmed brandishing their guns at demonstrators marching on St Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s residence on June 28.
The Missouri couple were recorded pointing guns at the Black Lives Matter march without firing any shots but the encounter made headlines.
Now, the protesters are reportedly getting a slap on the wrist for venturing onto their property.
The office of City Counselor Julian Bush said citations were mailed to nine people but he has “not yet determined whether to file charges,” reported Fox News.
They could face a whopping $500 in fines and up to 90 days in jail.
Speaking to NPR, Bush admitted that these harsh penalties weren’t common when it came to just a municipal ordinance violation.
BLM protester Ohun Ashe revealed that she’d received such a “summons to appear in court for ‘trespassing on private property’ on Portland Pl aka the street Patricia and Mark McCloskey live on.”
“I had a gun waved in my face by them but trespassing is what matters?” she tweeted on September 4, two months after the encounter in the couple’s gated community.
Footage of the dramatic incident emerged on social media as around 300 demonstrators marched through the McCloskey’s neighborhood.
They said they were on the way to the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson.
The McCloskeys claimed that they felt their lives were under threat from protesters and aimed their weapons at the marchers.
Mark and Patricia were charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon as a result – but the state’s Republican Gov Mike Parson said he intends to pardon the McCloskeys if they’re convicted.
The gun-slinging pair gave a speech at the Republican National Convention touting their Second Amendment rights.
“The radicals are not content just marching in the streets,” Mark McCloskey told his fellow attendees.
“They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want power. This is Joe Biden’s party. These are the people who will be in charge.”
Previously, the couple also alleged that lawyers presented a false evidence and are wrongfully pursuing persecution against them, reported Newsmax.
“[Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is] prosecuting us for doing nothing more than what we have a right under the Constitution and the laws of Missouri to do,” Mark raged.
“And everybody agrees with us from the president to Gov. [Mike] Parsons to Eric Schmitt, our attorney general, to Sen. [Josh] Hawley.”
The personal injury lawyer – who previously claimed protesters caused him and his wife fear for their lives – argued that “everybody,” bar Gardner, believes they “did nothing wrong.”
He cited Patricia’s use of a supposedly inoperable weapon to illustrate his point.
Mark explained that even though Patricia had an inoperable gun when she whipped it out at demonstrators, it kept their family safe.
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At the time, Gardner’s office pointed out that it “is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump also defended the couple back in July, telling Townhall‘s Katie Pavlich “the house was going to be totally ransacked and probably burned down.”
“And these people were standing there, never used it, and they were legal, the weapons,” the president said.