"Politically-Motivated Prosecution" in Missouri
July 22, 2020
Mike Huckabee
As most expected, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the city’s hyper-partisan top prosecutor, set aside the city’s huge backlog of homicides and charged Mark and Patricia McCloskey with felony unlawful use of a weapon for brandishing a rifle and a pistol to warn protesters away from their home. The case made national headlines. Mark McCloskey, who is an attorney himself, said the protesters (sorry: “peaceful protesters”) broke through a gate, entered his private property, and were advancing toward his home, threatening him, his family, and their dog.
Worth noting: When Gardner ran in the Democratic primary in 2016, she was backed by a far-left PAC partially funded by George Soros. This is part of a heavily-financed campaign (the type that got AOC into the House) which targets low-turnout races in one-party districts and cities, winning the nomination, and hence the election, for Democrat DA’s who then institute “criminal justice reform” by legalizing crime and refusing to prosecute criminals. Of course, if you dare try to protect yourself from the criminals they release, then they’ll prosecute you. From her public statement:
“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis. We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation will not be tolerated.”
Fortunately, it appears that almost as soon as Gardner released that statement, her case against the McCloskeys began unraveling. For one thing, the “peaceful protesters” were on private property and behaving in a threatening manner as verified on video, and Missouri has a strong Castle Doctrine law that protects the right to use a weapon to defend your life and property. There are also reports that the McCloskeys were only bluffing: the rifle wasn’t loaded and the pistol was a prop, which means neither would meet the law’s definition of a weapon “readily capable of lethal use.”
On top of that, within hours of the charges being filed, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a brief seeking to dismiss the charges, calling it “a politically-motivated prosecution by a prosecutor who is not interested in prosecuting violent crimes.” He said he would “not stand by while Missouri law is being ignored,” and he’s doing this not just for the McCloskeys but “for every Missourian whose rights are threatened by a rogue prosecutor who seeks to punish people for exercising their fundamental right to self-defense."
And if somehow, this case does come to trial, Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons says he’s already considering pardoning them.
Like all these leftist DA’s, Ms Gardner has her job definition backwards. She’s supposed to jail criminals and protect law-abiding citizens, not the other way around. On August 4th, she’s facing one challenger in the Democratic primary, Mary Pat Carl. St. Louis voters will have a very stark choice. Critics of Carl claim she will represent the law enforcement “status quo” and will end the “progressive” direction that Gardner has set the city on.
Look around you, St. Louis residents. Look at all the damage and the graffiti, the crime and bullying and assaults on police. That's the "change" Ms. Gardner has helped usher in. Does it look like “progress” to you?