The St. Louis husband and wife duo who were seen in a viral video taking up arms to defend their home when about 500 Black Lives Matter protesters reportedly stormed their private property could face charges, according to a city prosecutor.
Kimberly M. Gardner, the St. Louis Circuit attorney, said in a tweet Monday that she was “alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend where peaceful protestors (sic) were met by guns and a violent assault.”
She continued, “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated. Make no mistake: we will not tolerate the use of force against those exercising their First Amendment rights, and will use the full power of Missouri law to hold people accountable.”
Her remarks were stunning, according to some legal scholars who say the couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, were well within their rights under the state’s Castle Doctrine.
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“At any point that you enter the property, they can then, in Missouri, use deadly force to get you off the lawn,” Anders Walker, a constitutional law professor at St. Louis University, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Hundreds of protesters were on the march to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson‘s home Sunday night in the gated community to call for her resignation.
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Mark McCloskey told KMOV4 that he was having dinner with his family when a mob of at least 100 smashed through the historic wrought iron gates of Portland Place, destroying them, rushed towards my home.”
“This is all private property,” he told the station. “There are no public sidewalks or public streets. I was terrified that we’d be murdered within seconds, our house would be burned down, our pets would be killed. We were all alone facing an angry mob.”
Liz Harrington, the GOP national spokeswoman, told the “Todd Starnes Show” said it is incredible to see the “failures” in Democrat-run cities across the U.S. She said it is interesting to see how the same Democrat leadership that would threaten to arrest a mother and her daughter at a playground allows over 100 protesters to break into private property in the name of social reform.
She said that Americans are watching these cities, which are a reminder that their vote has real consequences in November.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, denied the report that the homeowners were “pointing” their guns at the protesters. But he said that they made it clear that they were going to defend their home.
“I think what they were trying to say was, ‘We have a constitutional right to protect our property and ourselves and if you get any closer—and start making a move to the house—we’re not going to just stand here and let you do it without a fight.”
Huckabee pointed out that the St. Louis police said the couple had called police for help once they saw the large crowd enter Portland Place.
Todd Starnes, the host of the program, said that the St. Louis couple seems to be symbolic of many Americans who feel abandoned by their elected leaders and police departments that have essentially been given stand-down orders.
Starnes said he believes the couple did what every “law-abiding American citizen would do.”