The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal accused a St. Louis prosecutor of siding with what the paper described as a “mob” of Black Lives Matter protesters instead of the couple who turned guns on the group last month.
“A politically motivated prosecutor on Monday charged the couple with unlawful use of a weapon,” the board wrote in a staff editorial published Tuesday. “Even if the charges are dismissed, or the McCloskeys are pardoned after being convicted, again we have a public official responsible for upholding law and order wink at a mob while treating law-abiding citizens as criminals.”
District Attorney Kim Gardner charged Mark and Patricia McCloskey with one count each of unlawful use of a weapon, a Class D felony with a penalty of up to four years in prison and fines of up to $5,000.
The charges stem from a June 28 incident when the McCloskeys brandished guns, including an AR-15 and a handgun, at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched through the couple’s private, gated community in an affluent neighborhood of St. Louis.
Mark McCloskey told police and media outlets he and his wife feared for their lives after protesters threatened to burn their house and kill their pets.
Gardner argued that was no excuse to point a potentially deadly weapon at the protesters.
“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner — that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis,” Gardner said when announcing the charges.
Police seized the McCloskeys’s AR-15 earlier in July.
Several high-ranking Republican officials in Missouri, including Gov. Mike Parson, have defended the couple, saying their Second Amendment rights are being infringed upon by Gardner. Parson said he would pardon the couple if they are convicted.
“This case casts an ominous shadow over those fundamental rights,” said Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is also a Republican, in filing an amicus brief with the court to dismiss the case. “The prosecution sends a powerful message to all Missourians that they exercise their fundamental right to self-defense at their peril.”
The Wall Street Journal has spent recent weeks criticizing Democrats for an uptick in violent crime in major cities across the country and warning of local leaders’ hesitation to stomp out anti-government protests in cities such as Seattle and Portland.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter protesters have demanded that systemic racism be addressed in local police departments and some funding be pulled from law enforcement in the meantime.
President Trump and Republicans have warned this could have dangerous consequences, especially for minority communities.
The McCloskey case highlights what a police-free state could look like, the Wall Street Journal suggested.
“If police cannot be counted on to deal with mobs, it’s even more vital that law-abiding Americans are free to exercise their Second Amendment right to protect themselves,” the op-ed stated.
