St. Louis couple Mark and Patricia McCloskey drew national attention on June 28 after they brandished guns atBlack Lives Matter protesters walking down their street.- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that the McCloskeys — who are both personal-injury lawyers — have "nearly constantly sued other people and ordered people off their property," threatened neighbors at gunpoint, and more.
- One incident in 2013 involved Mark McCloskey, the neighboring Jewish Central Reform Congregation, and beehives that he smashed, the Post-Dispatch said. The paper said he threatened to sue the synagogue, obtain a restraining order, and seek legal fees if the mess wasn't cleaned up.
- The beehives were part of the Hebrew school's curriculum, and the congregation was planning on harvesting honey to partake in a Rosh Hashanah tradition, the paper reported, and the children cried over it, the temple's rabbi said.
The McCloskeys have been receiving more and more attention since they first went viral at the end of June after brandishing their guns at Black Lives Matter protesters marching down their street — even President Donald Trump retweeted a video of the couple.
They said they supported Black Lives Matter and blamed the actions of a few agitators for their fear.
"The Black Lives Matters movement is here to stay, it is the right message, and it is about time," Albert Watkins, the couple's attorney, said in a statement.
"The McCloskeys want to make sure no one thinks less of BLM, its message and the means it is employing to get its message out because of the actions of a few white individuals who tarnished a peaceful protest."
A prosecutor is now investigating whether the McCloskeys broke a state law.
As Insider previously reported, Missouri law says a person "commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons" if "he or she knowingly exhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner."
An investigation by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the McCloskeys had a long history of legal action and conflicts with their neighbors, and even threatened to obtain a restraining order against the Jewish synagogue next door.
The paper reported that in 2013 the Jewish Central Reform Congregation constructed beehives just outside the McCloskeys' northern wall. Their plan was to harvest the honey with the congregation's children to partake in the traditional Rosh Hashanah tradition of eating apples and honey to ensure a "sweet new year."
But, the Post-Dispatch said, those plans were ruined when Mark McCloskey destroyed the beehives and left a note saying, among other things, that the "structure constitutes a trespass" and threatened that if the beehives were not cleaned up a restraining order would be obtained and they'd seek damages and attorneys' fees.
"The children were crying in school," Rabbi Susan Talve told the local paper. "It was part of our curriculum."
The McCloskeys have also had various confrontations with other neighbors. The paper said that Patricia McCloskey was impeached from the neighborhood's trustee association in 1992 when the other trustees accused her of being homophobic.
According to the paper, she was fighting to enforce a rule that prohibited unmarried couples from moving into Portland Place, though her husband claimed it wasn't about gay couples, just any unmarried couple.
"They've always been part of the problem, never part of the solution," said a neighbor, Robert Dolgin, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Read the full article at the Post-Dispatch >>
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