A rabbi called them bullies. Now St. Louis ‘gun couple’ faces indictment.
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By David Ian Klein October 8, 2020
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who pointed loaded guns, fingers on the trigger, at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched through their neighborhood, have been indicted by a grand jury for exhibiting firearms and tampering with evidence, The Associated Press reported.
The McCloskeys have in the past also come into conflict with a neighboring synagogue. In 2013, the couple destroyed beehives that the St. Louis’ Jewish Central Reform Congregation had placed on a shared wall with their property to create honey for Rosh Hashanah.
After the altercation with the protesters, the McCloskeys shot to prominence in conservative circles and were invited to virtually address the Republican National Convention.
“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” Patricia McCloskey said to the convention. “It seems the Democrats view the job of the government as protecting criminals from honest citizens,”
When it became known that the McCloskeys would be speaking at the RNC, the synagogues rabbi, Rabbi Susan Talve spoke out to the Forward in an interview read over a million times.
“They’re bullies,” Rabbi Talve said. ““It’s upsetting we make heroes out of people who hate.”
Nine protesters were also given summons for trespassing on the McCloskey’s property, but the city councilor dropped the charges.
Joel Schwartz, the McCloskeys lawyer, told NPR that he is baffled with the charges and believes they are protected under the second amendment.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
