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Opening Up The Above The Law Mailbox... Of Hate Mail!

People really don't like our coverage of the St. Louis AR-15 people.

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It’s time to open up the old Above the Law mailbag! While we get tons of useful tips from our readers, the last couple of days have seen the inbox overflowing with hate mail. Apparently there are people out there who really have issues with our coverage of the St. Louis AR-15 couple and they decided to tell us about it! Are these concerned citizens attorneys? Insightful? Literate? No on all counts!

These people were not just walking to the Governor’s house and walked by this house.

Indeed they were not! The 130-mile trek from St. Louis to Jefferson City would have certainly taken a toll on these marchers. They were, however, walking to the mayor’s house and the McCloskeys’ street offered a convenient path.

How in the hell can you possibly call the lawyers who are exercising their 2nd amendment right to protect their property crooks?!?!

Who called them crooks? While most of the Monday commentary on the couple mused that they could be guilty of assault, I explicitly threw water on that idea and noted that they stayed on their property.

Reading… it’s tough for people.

But just because someone has the right to do something doesn’t make it a good idea and definitely doesn’t make it something lawyers should be doing. The McCloskeys themselves say they don’t want to become “a rallying cry for people who oppose the Black Lives Matter message” and if that’s true, then it’s exactly why they shouldn’t have done any of this.

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But then McCloskey got himself booked on Tucker Carlson so… I guess he’s going to lean into being a rallying cry for those people. So much for that plan!

They stopped being peaceful when the protesters trespassed by breaking in to the gated community where the lawyers lived.

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Let me hear the rational logic behind you trying to call them peaceful protesters whole also citing that they BROKE THROUGH A GATE AND TRESPASSED.

There were a lot of emails focusing on the broken gate. You know, I’m the one who mentioned the broken gate in the original piece. Honestly, just read the thing! That said, the rational logic of calling them “peaceful protesters” is that they were not committing any acts of violence. We have video… they just kind of marched and chanted. We don’t inflate the FBI stats by calling trespassing a violent crime.

Breaking down a gate is certainly an act of destruction but the majority of the protesters following the group wouldn’t have even known about that because to them it would have already been an open gate. There’s even reason to question if the protesters ever broke down the gate in the first place.

Tell me what you would do if an armed lynch mob kicked down your gate and threatened your home and family.

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Great question! While we’re making up hypotheticals that didn’t happen, what would you do if an extra-terrestrial moved into your home but refused to pay his share of the cable bill? There is, to be clear, zero evidence that the protesters were armed. Nothing to suggest they had plans to lynch anyone. McCloskey says the marchers threatened him… while he was pointing his gun at them. There’s not much to suggest the protesters even cared about the house until the McCloskeys pulled guns on them.

Considering the “mostly peaceful protesters”, as they have been called, are commonly known to be infiltrated with rioters, arsonists and looters, one needs to be ready.

By “commonly known,” he means “according to OANN.” The NYPD attempted to prove that protesters were infiltrated by rioters and managed to take a picture of a bike tire flat kit.

This guy took it one further:

Given the status of BLM being in league with black bloq and both being terrorist organizations, and both groups recent violent activities they did the exact right thing. If they had come out unarmed the mob would take that as a sign of weakness and capitalize on that. Additionally the mob was armed as well.

Seriously, where are people getting this idea that the protesters were armed? You’d think one of these folks might actually use these hypothetical weapons sometime.

In his appearance on Tucker Carlson last night, McCloskey said of protesters 30 feet away from his house walking on a sidewalk on the other side of the wall, “I was literally afraid that within seconds they would surmount the wall, come into the house, kill us, burn the house down.” SECONDS! That’s some grade A paranoia there and, unfortunately, the sort of nonsense that gets people off as a “reasonable fear” in stand your ground murders.

If those >animals were at your front door, you would think differently.

And that gets to the heart of the matter. Black people asking to not be murdered are “animals” to these vile people. Some of them won’t say it outright and concoct stories about the protesters being armed, tied into a global terror network, or otherwise dangerous. But it all comes back to a deeply seeded commitment to dehumanizing Black people. As it happens, I have had a Black Lives Matter march pass me. Guess what? They just marched on. Probably because I didn’t wave semi-automatic weapon at them to prove the exact thing they’re protesting.

This emailer concludes.

Your not very bright.

Checkmate, sir.

Earlier: St. Louis Lawyers Wave AR-15 At Protesters Like Totally Normal, Totally Not Bonkers People
St. Louis AR-15 Couple Hires Lawyer With Some Disturbing Marketing Material

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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