'Legally unsound': Senator Hawley demands DOJ investigate circuit attorney ’targeting’ St. Louis couple who pointed firearms at protesters
Washington Examiner
July 16, 2020
Sen.
Josh Hawley is requesting the Department of Justice to open a civil
rights investigation into the St. Louis district attorney who is
reportedly pursuing an indictment against a couple who drew guns on
Black Lives Matter protesters last month.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said she was "alarmed" by the June 28 incident, during which Mark and Patricia McCloskey brandished guns in the direction of demonstrators passing through their gated community.
Hawley, who represents Missouri in the U.S. Senate, said Gardner was unnecessarily targeting the McCloskeys for political reasons.
"Unfortunately, this family is facing new threats, not from demonstrators but from the local government. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is now threatening to prosecute not the trespassers, but the McCloskeys, and she is using the powers of her office to target them," Hawley wrote to Attorney General William Barr. "Her office has seized their firearms, and police have applied for warrants in the case, with an indictment believed to be imminent."
A Republican who received a 93% approval rating from the National Rifle Association in 2018, Hawley called Gardner's pursuit of charges an "abuse of power."
"There is no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound. The only possible motivation for the investigation, then, is a politically motivated attempt to punish this family for exercising their Second Amendment rights," he wrote.
"The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. No family should face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that right. The Department of Justice must ensure that all Americans’ rights are protected from this kind of abuse of power."
Last week, local police seized the AR-15 seen on the viral video that Mark McCloskey waved at protesters.
McCloskey has told police and members of the media that he and his wife feared for their lives and were defending their personal property.
"That they were going to kill us," Patricia McCloskey told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "They were going to come in there. They were going to burn down the house. They were going to be living in our house after I was dead. They pointed to different rooms and said, 'That’s going to be my bedroom, and that’s going to be the living room, and I’m going to be taking a shower in that room.' ... There were so many threats. Then, the dog barked, and they said, 'I’m going to be killing her, too,' or 'It, too.'"
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said she was "alarmed" by the June 28 incident, during which Mark and Patricia McCloskey brandished guns in the direction of demonstrators passing through their gated community.
Hawley, who represents Missouri in the U.S. Senate, said Gardner was unnecessarily targeting the McCloskeys for political reasons.
"Unfortunately, this family is facing new threats, not from demonstrators but from the local government. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is now threatening to prosecute not the trespassers, but the McCloskeys, and she is using the powers of her office to target them," Hawley wrote to Attorney General William Barr. "Her office has seized their firearms, and police have applied for warrants in the case, with an indictment believed to be imminent."
A Republican who received a 93% approval rating from the National Rifle Association in 2018, Hawley called Gardner's pursuit of charges an "abuse of power."
"There is no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound. The only possible motivation for the investigation, then, is a politically motivated attempt to punish this family for exercising their Second Amendment rights," he wrote.
"The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. No family should face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that right. The Department of Justice must ensure that all Americans’ rights are protected from this kind of abuse of power."
Last week, local police seized the AR-15 seen on the viral video that Mark McCloskey waved at protesters.
McCloskey has told police and members of the media that he and his wife feared for their lives and were defending their personal property.
"That they were going to kill us," Patricia McCloskey told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "They were going to come in there. They were going to burn down the house. They were going to be living in our house after I was dead. They pointed to different rooms and said, 'That’s going to be my bedroom, and that’s going to be the living room, and I’m going to be taking a shower in that room.' ... There were so many threats. Then, the dog barked, and they said, 'I’m going to be killing her, too,' or 'It, too.'"
Should have shot a couple of them.
ReplyDeleteI still have not heard the legal basis on which the cops seized the weapon. It was legally purchased, owned and possessed.
ReplyDelete