Unpardonable!

Phew, that was close. I mean, they almost faced consequences there. Who? Why the gun-loving knee-jerks who waved firearms at protestors who marched past their house last year. 

"Nyaaah see, get off our lawn or we'll pump you full of lead, see! Nyaaaah."

-The McCloskey's (actual quote)

"Um, please stop murdering people?"

-The St. Louis protestors'

not unreasonable demand 

Remember them? Yeah. So the protestors were protesting Mayor Lyda Krewson's reckless public reading of the names and addresses of people who had written in calling for the defunding of the St. Louis Police Department. A police department with the highest per capita use of deadly force in the country. Anyway, in their protest, they passed the McCloskey's home in a private community, so the pair grabbed their guns and waved them at the unarmed and peaceful crowd. They would later claim that they felt threatened and were therefore justified in making other people feel threatened. I guess. 

Oh, and someone--nobody even knows who--broke their gate. An historic gate according to Mark McCloskey. Have they never heard the phrase "proportional response?"

"Antiquarians are still reeling from the loss of such an
important piece of gated community history."

-No one. Literally

know one said this

Above: Basically.

I mean, the crowd wasn't coming at them, they were passing. So how they posed a threat, much less one that warranted a goddamn automatic weapon, is anyone's guess. Well, that's not right. It was actually a Grand Jury's guess. Anyway, the couple was charged, pled guilty to misdemeanors, and were given fines totaling $2,750 which, to a couple of lawyers who live in a gated community is like, no big deal. It's couch cushion money.

"Are you...are you just now getting that?"

-Republicans

At best, the outcome was symbolic; a way to say ok, what these people did was wrong and dangerous, but no one was hurt so let's move on. Except now the Governor of Missouri just pardoned them. So instead the message is that rich white Republicans can do whatever they want and the Republican Governor will just give them a pass. Oh, and did I mention that Mark is running for Senate? Because he is. And he's running on a pretty standard right-wing nutter platform of voting rights restrictions, more conservative judges and fighting cancel culture. 

You know, like the cancel culture that is, thanks to the Governor's pardon, the only consequence the McCloskey's faced. Oh, and guns. Did I mention guns? Because he's also running on guns and how much he loves guns. In fact, the landing page for McCloskey for U.S. Senate is that picture of him and Patricia threatening to murder people for walking past their house. Is it me or is the Republican Party platform entirely threat-based now?

So they're facing no consequences, they're not sorry, and they're
using the incident to ask for money for the Senate campaign. Super.