US Election
2020
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The couple
claimed protesters knocked down a gate and disregarded a do not trespass sign;
protesters said their demonstration was peaceful. Charges were filed against
the couple, drawing criticism from Republican officials; the state’s attorney
general asked the court to throw out the charges, and the governor said he
would pardon the couple if convicted.
Freelance photographer and University of Missouri journalism graduate student Daniel Shular told the BBC that the gate was unlocked when the first marchers entered. "People just walked up to it and opened the gate," he said, estimating he was the sixth person through. "It looked normal to me when I passed through."
(...) "In a piece for the St Louis Post-Dispatch, investigative journalist Jeremy Kohler detailed a long list of alleged legal battles Mark McCloskey has waged against his neighbours, colleagues, and even his own father and sister, mostly over matters to do with property.
In one court filing, they are said to admit to using a gun to force a fellow resident of Portland Place off of a patch of grass they claimed to own because he "refused to heed the McCloskeys' warnings to stay off such property".
According to Kohler's reporting, the McCloskeys also sued the trustees to enforce the neighbourhood rules that said only married couples could live there."
Mark and Patricia McCloskey: What really went on in St Louis that day?
By Jessica
Lussenhop
BBC News,
Washington
25 August
2020
Mark and
Patricia McCloskey gained instant notoriety after video of them waving and
pointing guns at Black Lives Matter demonstrators from the front yard of their
St Louis mansion spread across the internet. Now they've appeared as speakers
at the Republican National Convention.
It was 28
June and just as dusk was beginning to settle over the city of St Louis,
Missouri, a group of several hundred protesters converged at the intersection
of a busy six-lane street called Kingshighway. It is a main thoroughfare in a
well-to-do section of the city known as the Central West End.
Some pushed
bicycles, some carried Black Lives Matter signs, nearly all wore masks as they
chanted, sang and began moving up and down the street, which was shut down to
traffic. Their ultimate destination was the home of the mayor of St Louis, Lyda
Krewson, several blocks away.
"Resign
Lyda," they chanted at an intersection outside of a four-star hotel.
"Take the cops with you!"
Marchers
had been in the streets for weeks protesting the killing of George Floyd in
Minneapolis, and many were veterans of the protest movement that arose after
the death of Michael Brown in 2014 in nearby Ferguson.
On this
particular evening, protesters were upset about a specific incident. Two days
earlier, during Mayor Krewson's regularly scheduled Covid-19 live stream
briefing, the mayor read aloud from letters from protesters who were urging her
to defund the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
She also
read the full names and, in some cases, addresses of the letter-writers. Some
people took this as an attempt to "doxx" the protesters - publicly
sharing identifying information - and accused Krewson of intimidation tactics.
The following day, she apologised and removed the Facebook Live.
Nevertheless,
the call went out across the city for demonstrators to converge on Krewson's
doorstep in the Central West End, demanding her resignation. Hundreds
responded. They included members of the clergy and politicians, such US House
of Representative candidate Cori Bush, who would go on to win her primary
against a long-time incumbent in early August.
About two
hours into the demonstration on Kingshighway, the marchers began making their
way towards Krewson's home. They walked north and made a left toward a street
called Portland Place, which is blocked at both ends with imposing stone and
wrought iron gates. Signs marked "Private Property" are posted at
either end.
One of the
houses on Portland Place is a spectacular, $1.15m (£880,730) Renaissance-style
palazzo, built by an Anheuser-Busch beer fortune heiress in the early 1900s.
This is the home of husband and wife Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both
personal injury lawyers.
The
confrontation
How it all
began has been hotly contested. Mark McCloskey in one subsequent media
interview said the protesters "smashed down" the gate.
"As
soon as I said the words 'private property,' it seemed to enrage them," he
told Fox News "I ran in, got my rifle. I started standing on the wing of
the patio saying, 'Private property! Get out! Get out of here!' They kept
pouring in. That seemed to make them want to come forward."
The
couple's lawyer at the time shared pictures of the gate, which was twisted and
broken on its left side. "A mob of at least 100 smashed through the
historic wrought iron gates of Portland Place, destroying them, rushed towards
my home where my family was having dinner outside and put us in fear for our
lives," Mark McCloskey also told KMOV.
However, a
live stream from the front of the march shows that the first protesters walked
through an intact gate that was being held open. Freelance photographer and
University of Missouri journalism graduate student Daniel Shular told the BBC
that the gate was unlocked when the first marchers entered. "People just
walked up to it and opened the gate," he said, estimating he was the sixth
person through. "It looked normal to me when I passed through."
Most legal
analysts agree that the protesters were trespassing when they entered Portland
Place.
Rasheen
Aldridge, a state representative and one of the organisers of the march, said
that crossing onto Portland Place should be considered an act of civil
disobedience. "Just like in many disobedient protests, even in the 60s,
you break laws, make people feel uncomfortable. We're not doing anything where
we're hurting anyone or putting anyone in danger," he told KMOV.
It remains
unclear at what point the gate was damaged, and by whom.
Moments
later, Mark McCloskey appeared on his patio holding a rifle. He was separated
from the protesters by a large hedge. "Get the hell out of my
neighbourhood," he yelled. "Private property - get out. Get
out." Some protesters yelled "calm down," while others swore at
him.
Demonstrators
shouted back at McCloskey that the street is "public property," which
is not true of Portland Place - it is private property owned by a trust.
Residents pay towards its management and the upkeep of the street, as well as
private security.
According
to analysis by St Louis Post-Dispatch investigative reporter Jeremy Kohler,
video evidence does not show the protesters crossing onto the McCloskey's
property, remaining instead on the sidewalks and in the roadway.
A little
over a minute later, Patricia McCloskey came out of the front door, barefoot,
with a small silver pistol. She aimed it directly at demonstrators on the
pavement, while shouting, "Go!"
A volley of
shouts came back from the protesters, everything from pleas for calm to insults
and expletives. "Why are you pointing that gun at us?" "We got
kids out here!" "You're a coward!" "Nobody wants to hurt
you."
Some
protesters urged others to file quickly past, others stopped to continue to
argue and insult the couple as they stood side-by-side with their weapons on
their front steps. For much of the time, Patricia McCloskey kept her pistol
levelled towards protesters.
"I
absolutely thought Patricia McCloskey was going to murder me and I haven't
slept since she aimed her gun at my face," protester James Cooper told the
St Louis Post-Dispatch.
The
McCloskeys claimed later that two white males in the group threatened their
lives, though little of what was said between the two sides is intelligible in
the live streams of the confrontation.
The
McCloskeys would later tell police that the protesters were armed. Marchers say
no-one on their side drew a weapon. The state of Missouri does allow the open
carrying of firearms, as long as it is not done in a threatening manner.
The couple
also said they drew their weapons because of the threats on their lives.
However, Mark McCloskey also told an interviewer at KMOV that "the threats
happened probably after we got the guns".
The fallout
The videos
and photographs of the McCloskeys - a wealthy white couple pointing firearms
from the front lawn of their palatial estate at protesters, which included
black and white activists - went viral instantly. But the incident also turned
political just as quickly.
Through
their lawyer, the McCloskeys declined a request to be interviewed by the BBC,
and did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the incident.
President
Donald Trump retweeted video of the confrontation and later commented that the
McCloskeys were going to be "beat up badly, if they were lucky".
The
McCloskeys hired a lawyer and began giving interviews to CNN, Fox News and
other national outlets. Mark McCloskey called the protesters a "mob",
the incident "terrorism", and said the incident had ruined his life.
An initial
statement from their lawyer read, "Both Mr and Mrs McCloskey acted
lawfully on their property which sits on a private gated lane in the City of St
Louis. Their actions were borne solely of fear and apprehension, the genesis of
which was not race related."
The lawyer
added: "My clients, as melanin-deficient human beings, are completely
respectful of the message Black Lives Matter needs to get out, especially to
whites."
On 10 July,
city police searched and seized both of the guns from the couple. About a month
later, St Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged both with "unlawful
use of a weapon", which is a felony. The complaint said that both had
displayed their semi-automatic weapons "readily capable of lethal use, in
an angry or threatening manner".
"We
are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force," Gardner
wrote in a statement at the time. "I will recommend the McCloskey's
participate in diversion programs that are designed to reduce unnecessary
involvement with the courts. I believe this would serve as a fair resolution to
this matter."
Conservative
politicians reacted immediately. Republican Senator Josh Hawley called it
"an outrageous abuse of power" by the circuit attorney. Missouri's
conservative governor said if convicted, he would pardon the McCloskeys. And
according to his press secretary, President Trump said that what was happening
to the McCloskeys was "absolutely absurd". He said they were merely
"defending themselves against violent protesters".
Missouri's
Attorney General Eric Schmitt also filed a legal brief in support of dismissing
the case, writing that prosecuting the McCloskeys is a violation of their right
to bear arms, and their right to defend their property under Missouri's
"castle doctrine" law.
"As
long as this case continues, it will send a public message to all Missourians
that, if they dare to exercise their fundamental right to keep and bear arms in
defence of family and home, they may be prosecuted and sent to prison,"
Schmitt wrote in his brief.
The couple
The
McCloskeys own a personal injury law firm together, and claim that in their
work they have defended the civil rights of their clients. Currently, Mark
McCloskey is representing a client in a federal police brutality suit.
However,
according to court documents and other media reports, the McCloskeys' residency
on Portland Place has, at times, been contentious.
In a piece
for the St Louis Post-Dispatch, investigative journalist Jeremy Kohler detailed
a long list of alleged legal battles Mark McCloskey has waged against his
neighbours, colleagues, and even his own father and sister, mostly over matters
to do with property.
In one
court filing, they are said to admit to using a gun to force a fellow resident
of Portland Place off of a patch of grass they claimed to own because he
"refused to heed the McCloskeys' warnings to stay off such property".
According
to Kohler's reporting, the McCloskeys also sued the trustees to enforce the
neighbourhood rules that said only married couples could live there.
In one of
the stranger reported conflicts, Kohler found the McCloskeys destroyed beehives
along the outside of their northern wall that were placed there by the
neighbouring synagogue as a part of their childrens' programming. "The
children were crying," the rabbi told Kohler.
The
Republican National Convention
In an
interview with a radio station in St Louis, Mark McCloskey expressed concern
about the recent primary victory of Democrat Cori Bush. He mentioned the fact
that she had been at the march outside his home, calling her all but assured
election to Congress "frightening". "I think the issue is law
and order, and the left, the people in the left end of the spectrum that
influence the government through violence," he said.
Protesters
on the other hand have said that the incident is just further proof that the
right to peaceful protest is not being respected, and in fact met with threats
of violence.
"When
people like Mark and Patricia McCloskey pull guns on non-violent protestors
marching in the streets, they become instant idols," Cori Bush wrote on
Twitter. "It emboldens hate and puts our safety and our lives further at
risk. I'm already seeing it directly in my inbox."
But in the
couple's speaking slot at the Republican convention on Monday night, Mr
McCloskey was in no doubt that he and his wife were the real victims.
"Not a
single person in the out-of-control mob you saw at our house was charged with a
crime," he said.
"But
you know who was? We were. They've actually charged us with a felony for daring
to defend our home."
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