Free Republic

“We called 911 for almost everything except snitching” reads the first line of an Atlantic article, “How I Became a Police Abolitionist,” by social justice activist and lawyer Derecka Purnell. Her deeply personal essay, first published July 6 in the Ideas section, tells of her childhood in a polluted neighborhood surrounded by violence and beset by fear, using one particularly disturbing memory of a police officer shooting their cousin, just a “boy,” in the arm for skipping the basketball sign-in sheet in front of Purnell and her sister, who had been playing basketball but were forced to hide “in...

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Monday moved to dismiss charges brought by St. Louis’ top prosecutor against a couple who pointed guns at a crowd marching to the mayor’s home last month, Fox News has learned.

St. Louis’ top prosecutor told The Associated Press on Monday that she is charging a white husband and wife with felony unlawful use of a weapon for displaying guns during a racial injustice protest outside their mansion. Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced the charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both personal injury attorneys in their 60s. They also face a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says he is prepared to exercise his pardon powers if prosecutors bring criminal charges in the case of a St. Louis couple who brandished firearms at a group of protesters outside their home. Parson, a Republican, told a St. Louis radio station Friday that he thinks a pardon is “exactly what would happen” if Mark and Patricia McCloskey are hit with charges in the June 28 incident captured on video and seen by millions. He later added that based on what he knows about the case, “I don't think they're going to spend any time in...

Cleo the canine must have been a homing pigeon in another life. The pooch trekked 60 miles from her new home in Olathe, Kansas, to her old home in Lawson, Missouri, where she hasn’t lived for nearly two years. She had to cross a river — either the Kansas, the Missouri or maybe both — to make her way back. Cleo, a 4-year-old Labrador, settled in on the house’s front porch, startling the family who lives there now. Britney Colton spotted the dog first, said Michael Colton, her husband, according to KMBC News, a TV station in Kansas City, Missouri,...

The sweeping hack of verified Twitter accounts Wednesday night was one of the largest security lapses in the platform’s history and led to thousands of users being partially locked out for hours. But the social media giant, and its users, may have gotten off easy. Now lawmakers and top officials are mulling how to ensure Twitter is not hacked by groups with more malicious intentions and how to protect other potential cyber targets from the same fate. The conversation has taken on a particular urgency as geopolitical tensions increase during the COVID-19 pandemic with only months left until a presidential...

CNA Staff, Jul 14, 2020 / 05:36 pm MT (CNA).- A man in St. Louis has been charged with four counts of fourth-degree assault after police say he threw punches at people praying and defending a statue of St. Louis during a recent protest. Terrence Page, 34, admitted to News 4 that he threw the punches, saying, “Real change doesn’t happen unless you take those risks.” He said he thought there were KKK members defending the statue, and argued that “their presence alone is terrorism, because they instill fear.” The incident took place June 27 near the Apotheosis of St....

St. Louis, MO has been the scene of violent protests over the past few weeks. In the most notorious case of violence related to the unrest, rioters murdered retired police captain David Dorn and ransacked his pawnshop. Dorn was black. His killers shot him multiple times. As “defund the police” gained traction in St. Louis and other cities, and cities all over the country lost hard-won ground to violent crime, Americans purchased firearms in record numbers. They are preparing to have to defend themselves. It was in this context, and the rising violence and abdication of public safety in St....

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday claimed the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office is improperly “targeting” the couple who wielded guns at protesters in their gated community last month, and requested the Justice Department open an investigation into the case. In a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr, Hawley called for a federal civil rights probe into St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s investigation into the McCloskey family for using firearms to defend themselves and their property against protesters. “This is an unacceptable abuse of power and threat to the Second Amendment and I urge you to consider a...

Will Donald Trump intervene in what appears to be a nascent prosecution of a Missouri couple who attempted to defend their home against a mob? In an exclusive interview with Townhall’s Katie Pavlich, Trump called any potential prosecution an “outrage.” Trump said the video made it look like the couple were at risk of a beating “if they were lucky,” and their house in danger of being torched.Trump stopped short of pledging any particular action, but Missouri’s governor later said both of them would begin considering their options: “When you look at St. Louis, the two people that came...

The governor of Missouri says President Trump has promised to "do everything he could within his powers" to shield a St. Louis couple who wielded guns at protesters in their gated community from prosecution, even as an attorney for the client says charges are imminent. Gov. Mike Parson said he spoke to Trump Tuesday and was reassured that the president-- who previously has retweeted a photo of the couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey holding up guns in front of their house in the June 28 incident--"understands the situation in Missouri." "He understands the situation in St. Louis and how out...

GOP lawmakers wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr Friday, urging the protection of the firearm rights of the St. Louis couple that saw their guns confiscated after they went viral for defending their home against demonstrators, according to reports. Mark and Patricia McCloskey were seen in a video brandishing a M16A2-style rifle and small handgun outside of their home as demonstrators broke through a private gate and encroached on their property line in June. Police executed a search warrant Friday and confiscated the couple’s rifle, and later their pistol, despite not yet filing any known charges against the...

Arlo Kinsey was working behind the carryout counter at RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack in Mission last week when a middle-aged man dressed in a red Make America Great Again hat — and no mask — walked through the door. “I asked him if he could wear a mask, since it’s what Gov. Kelly told us to do,” said Kinsey, 18, who was working shifts at the barbecue joint this summer before heading off to college. He had dealt with a handful of customers who refused to wear masks inside the restaurant despite the statewide mandate — but none like this, he...

Missouri attorney Mark McCloskey, who along with his wife Patricia brandished legally-owned firearms when confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters at their St. Louis home last month, told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday that "the rumor is that we are going to be indicted shortly" over the incident. Last week, authorities executed a search warrant at the McCloskeys' home in connection with the June 28 incident. Mark McCloskey told host Tucker Carlson that the officers were "almost apologetic" when they served the warrant. "They didn't want to have to be there. They were doing their job. Patty wanted to take a...

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reportedly been suspended without pay by ESPN for saying “f--- you” to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley in an email. Hawley had sent a letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, complaining about the social justice messages NBA players are allowed to wear on the back of their jerseys, and Woj was responding to a press release Hawley’s office had sent to him. Woj apologized publicly and to his ESPN colleagues, but it doesn’t appear that’s had an effect on his suspension (which ESPN has yet to confirm or comment on). So NBA players have taken up the...

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in an interview on Monday called ESPN’s suspension of reporter Adrian Wojnarowski a distraction from the NBA's relationship with China and said he would support a Senate subpoena of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Hawley said Wojnarowski, who was suspended by ESPN after he responded to an email from Hawley’s press office with an expletive, should be reinstated. The real concern, Hawley said, was that the NBA, which is allowing preapproved messages for players to wear on the back of their jerseys in response to player involvement in...

ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski sent an email reading "F—k you" to the office of Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Friday in response to the senator's criticism of Chinese influence in the NBA. The note came in response to Hawley's open letter to the National Basketball Association condemning its new policy on players’ jerseys, and Wojnarowski apologized later on Friday after Hawley publicized the email. The new policy allows players to wear messages in response to recent police brutality cases that prompted protests across the nation, but does not allow players to select messages criticizing human rights violations in China....

You can chant “Black Lives Matter” in Florissant, but you’d better not paint it in the middle of North Lindbergh Boulevard. Following multiple warnings, police arrested two people after a few protesters started to paint “Black Lives Matter” in the street for the third time. “We are trying to send a message that Black lives matter, so instead of sending police in riot gear over here why don’t they try a dialogue and listen to what we are asking?” said Tina Richards, 57, of Cahokia, who was among the 50 to 70 protesters outside police headquarters on Sunday. BLM protester...

On Friday night St. Louis Police served homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey with a search warrant and confiscated their rifle. The McCloskeys made national headlines when they defended their home from hundreds of BLM protesters who trespassed into their neighborhood to protest at the home of the St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. Following the visit to their home by St. Louis City Police local gun store Alien Armory Tactical announced they will donate a free AR15 to the McCloskeys after Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sent police to their house to confiscate their rifle.

The Missouri Democratic Party's new leader called for the release of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and, as a state legislator in 2017, vocally opposed a law that heightened penalties for those who harm police officers. Former state representative Clem Smith became acting party chair in early July after county prosecutor Jean Peters Baker stepped down from the role. While working as a United Auto Workers secretary in 2008, Smith signed a Partisan Defense Committee letter calling for the "immediate freedom" of Abu-Jamal, who is serving life imprisonment without parole after murdering Philadelphia officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. As a...