On June 6, 2024, Judge Joseph P. Whyte ordered the convictions of Mark and Patricia McCloskey to be expunged. The McCloskeys gained fame for defending their home in St. Louis, Missouri, from an unruly mob of BLM protestors who threatened them. Disgraced prosecutor Kim Gardner brought the prosecutions against the McCloskeys. Gardner was politically aligned with the BLM protestors.
The pistol Patricia McCloskey brandished appears to have been inoperable. When the police impounded the McCloskeys’ guns, it was reported they did not find ammunition for the rifle that was held by Mark McCloskey. The McCloskeys may have been bluffing. Eventually, Kim Gardner was removed from the case, and the McCloskeys negotiated a plea deal to misdemeanor charges. Missouri Governor Mike Parson granted pardons to Mark and Patricia McCloskey on July 30, 2021. The McCloskeys were placed on probation for a year, with their law licenses facing suspension, by the Missouri Supreme Court in February of 2022. The pardons for misdemeanors by the Governor did not affect the disciplinary action by the Supreme Court. Both McCloskeys are lawyers. The potential loss of their law licenses is a serious threat.
Now, in 2024, the misdemeanor convictions have been expunged. From the nypost.com:
Attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey filed a request in January to have the convictions wiped away. Judge Joseph P. Whyte wrote in an order Wednesday that the purpose of an expungement is to give people who have rehabilitated themselves a second chance, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Most media have characterized the incident as the McCloskeys “waving guns at racial justice protestors.” Video of the incident has been shown widely. The entry into the private community was planned and executed by organizers, probably affiliated with BLM. The protestors were unruly. Some of them were armed.
Mark McCloskey, whose convictions have now been expunged, is demanding their guns be returned. The action is mostly symbolic. The firearms may have some value as historical artifacts. The Bryco pistol has little practical value. The AR15-type rifle is likely worth less than a thousand dollars. After what the McCloskeys have been through, a thousand dollars is a relatively small amount. If the City of St. Louis refuses to return the disputed firearms, McCloskey has said he will file a lawsuit.
The continued persecution of the McCloskeys is part of the pattern by the far left to use lawfare to attack anyone who dares oppose the supremacy of far-left street activists. Opposition to the activists who threaten people, destroy property, and intimidate the population is not to be allowed. The poster child for this is Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The McCloskeys are another example in St. Louis, Missouri. A third is Daniel Perry in Austin, Texas.
The point is to make it impossible for Americans to exercise their birthright to armed self-defense. When armed self-defense is discredited, the takeover of the streets by leftist thugs will be unopposed. Defense of the individual against a mob does not require significant organization. Such defense is embedded in the United States Constitution with the Second Amendment. Street activists are careful to organize these efforts so that the local government, or at least local prosecutors, are ideologically aligned with the street activists. This was certainly the case in Kenosha, in St. Louis, and became the case in Austin when Jose Garza was elected prosecutor.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
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