A number of people became famous during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, not all of them for good reasons. Two of them were Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a pair of lawyers from St. Louis who waved guns at protesters who had entered their gated community. The two wound up getting off scot-free, even becoming right-wing heroes and speakers at the 2020 RNC. Mark is even running for Senate. But their actions may come back to haunt them after all.
According to NPR, the two may wind up losing their law licenses. A petition from Missouri’s chief disciplinary counsel, Alan D. Pratzel, argues that their actions showed “indifference to public safety” and showed “moral turpitude.” The couple both pleaded guilty to misdemeanors: he to fourth-degree assault misdemeanor, she to harassment. They were later pardoned by Missouri Governor Mike Parson.
But Pratzel argued that even if their slates were formally wiped clean, “the person’s guilt remains.” He cited their guilty pleas in his petition, while citing a number of other Missouri cases in which lawyers were disciplined for crimes they committed. Pratzel is asking the Supreme Court to indefinitely suspend their law licenses.
Mark McCloskey was unrepentant about his actions, which drew widespread outrage. “The prosecutor dropped every charge except for alleging that I purposely placed other people in imminent risk of physical injury; right, and I sure as heck did,” McCloskey said at one point. “That’s what the guns were there for and I’d do it again any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to place them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family.”
Pratzel included that quote in his petition to rob the McCloskeys of their law licenses.
(Via NPR)