Pardoned

Would the pardon have been forthcoming if the roles had been reversed?

A US couple who gained nationwide notoriety after they pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters last year have been pardoned.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were filmed holding weapons outside their home in St Louis, Missouri. They were fined after pleading guilty to misdemeanour charges this year.

But Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson has now pardoned them, something he had promised after US conservatives began to support the couple.

They weren’t filmed just “holding their weapons,” they were filmed (as the first paragraph says) pointing them at protesters who were marching past. Pointing them. That’s threatening. I’d be petrified if someone pointed a gun at me.

“When the angry mob came to destroy my house and kill my family, I took a stand against them,” he reportedly said in a recent campaign video. “I will never back down.”

Except that’s not what the angry mob came to do.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, Who Aimed Guns at Protesters, Are Pardoned -  The New York Times

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