Octopus Overlords

Personal-injury attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey became instant national figures when they intercepted protesters marching past their marble-faced palazzo at One Portland Place, aimed guns at them and demanded they get out.

Americans saw the story they wanted to see. Some saw respected professionals fearing for their safety, reasonably exercising their Second Amendment rights to defend their home from violent trespassers. Others saw an overwrought, older affluent couple, recklessly pointing their weapons and asserting their white privilege.

But public records and interviews reveal a fuller picture than emerged two weeks ago. They show the McCloskeys are almost always in conflict with others, typically over control of private property, what people can do on that property, and whose job it is to make sure they do it.

They filed a lawsuit in 1988 to obtain their house, a castle built for Adolphus Busch’s daughter and her husband during St. Louis’ brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century. At the McCloskeys’ property in Franklin County, they have sued neighbors for making changes to a gravel road and twice in just over two years evicted tenants from a modular home on their property.

The incident has become a contentious issue, as President Trump and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson have both denounced the decision to charge the couple.

Mark McCloskey sued a former employer for wrongful termination and his sister, father and his father’s caretaker for defamation.

The McCloskeys have filed at least two “quiet title” suits asserting squatter’s rights on land they’ve occupied openly and hostilely — their terms — and claimed as their own. In an ongoing suit against Portland Place trustees in 2017, the McCloskeys say they are entitled to a 1,143-square-foot triangle of lawn in front of property that is set aside as common ground in the neighborhood’s indenture.

It was that patch of green protesters saw when they filed through the gate. Mark McCloskey said in an affidavit that he has defended the patch before by pointing a gun at a neighbor who had tried to cut through it.
‘At gun point’

This court record shows the McCloskeys challenged a Portland Place resident “at gun point” who they said encroached on their property.

The McCloskeys have filed many other lawsuits.

In 2013, he destroyed bee hives placed just outside of the mansion’s northern wall by the neighboring Jewish Central Reform Congregation and left a note saying he did it, and if the mess wasn’t cleaned up quickly he would seek a restraining order and attorneys fees. The congregation had planned to harvest the honey and pick apples from trees on its property for Rosh Hashanah.
‘Attention! This is private property’

“The children were crying in school,” Rabbi Susan Talve said. “It was part of our curriculum.”

They filed a lawsuit in St. Louis circuit court to try to force the trustees to enforce the neighborhood rules as written. The McCloskeys dismissed the claim, but the judge would not let them refile an amended version because it “failed to allege a justiciable controversy.”

The McCloskeys appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court to try to make the judge allow them to refile their case, but the effort failed.

One of the rules prohibited unmarried people from living together. Several neighbors said it was because the McCloskeys didn’t want gay couples living on the block. The trustees voted to impeach Patricia McCloskey as a trustee in 1992 when she fought an effort to change the trust indenture, accusing her of being anti-gay.

Infighting has broken out between two leading members of the Proud Boys group, with one announcing he will be taking control of the far-right organization to address "White Genocide" and the "failures of multiculturalism."

White nationalist Kyle Chapman—who set up the "tactical defense arm" of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK)—has criticized the group's chairman Enrique Tarrio while announcing a so-called rebranding of the organization.

Writing on encrypted messaging app Telegram, Chapman used racial slurs against Tarrio and other neo-Nazi rhetoric while announcing that the "grifting leaders" had been deposed and the group would be renamed the Proud Goys. The term "goy"—a Hebrew word for a non-Jewish person—is sometimes used by white supremacists to signal their anti-Semitic beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
...
Chapman, who goes by the nickname "Based Stickman" after he was photographed beating a protester with a stick at a Trump rally in Berkeley, California, in March 2017, went on to say the Proud Goys would fight for white people to "have their own countries where White interests are written into law."

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:56 pm Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights?! What a horrifically mock-worthy name.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:56 pm Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights?! What a horrifically mock-worthy name.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has drafted “anti-mob” legislation that would expand Florida’s Stand Your Ground law — a move that critics say will allow armed citizens to shoot suspected looters or anyone engaged in “criminal mischief” that disrupts a business.

Lawyers say it’s just one of the many troubling aspects of the draft bill being pushed by the Republican governor in response to police-brutality protests that erupted across Florida and the United States this summer.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 11:17 am A tweet by Mitt Romney this morning led to the discovery that Nick Searcy (Art Mullen on Justified) is apparently a huge Trumper.

That’s disappointing.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 1:10 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 11:17 am A tweet by Mitt Romney this morning led to the discovery that Nick Searcy (Art Mullen on Justified) is apparently a huge Trumper.

That’s disappointing.

It's always the memory that's the first to go.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 12:55 pm I found out yesterday that Nick Searcy (Art Mullen from Justified) is a rabid Trumper and anti-masker. Like...really rabid (his Twitter feed is absurd).

Always disappointing when you find out actors you like are dickbags in real life.

Kraken wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 2:59 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 12:55 pm I found out yesterday that Nick Searcy (Art Mullen from Justified) is a rabid Trumper and anti-masker. Like...really rabid (his Twitter feed is absurd).

Always disappointing when you find out actors you like are dickbags in real life.

Yeah, I was saddened to learn that Chris Pratt is one of them.

I’m reading that @KamalaHarris made history as first woman, first black woman, first Asian woman, etc = a boatload of intersectionality points. But Kamala, are you descended from slaves or slave owners?

Skinypupy wrote:I found out yesterday that Nick Searcy (Art Mullen from Justified) is a rabid Trumper and anti-masker. Like...really rabid (his Twitter feed is absurd).

Always disappointing when you find out actors you like are dickbags in real life.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 3:17 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 2:59 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 12:55 pm I found out yesterday that Nick Searcy (Art Mullen from Justified) is a rabid Trumper and anti-masker. Like...really rabid (his Twitter feed is absurd).

Always disappointing when you find out actors you like are dickbags in real life.

Yeah, I was saddened to learn that Chris Pratt is one of them.

You sent me to google. I'm not seeing it.

Verdict: Unknown

We cannot verify if Pratt is a Trump supporter because he hasn't confirmed it either way himself. The Hollywood actor has not shown any support publicly for the president or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:56 pm There's a good case that he's likely conservative, but that doesn't make him a Trumpster. He keeps his views private. There's not enough reason to 'cancel' the guy.

When actor Chris Pratt found himself trending on Twitter on Oct. 17, it wasn’t because of his new film or the birth of his first child.

Instead, Twitter users were clamoring for Pratt to be canceled because of his support of President Donald Trump.

There was one problem: Pratt had never said such a thing.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:07 pm I get that it’s just Steve King being the usual Steve King garbage person, but...good lord.

I’m reading that @KamalaHarris made history as first woman, first black woman, first Asian woman, etc = a boatload of intersectionality points. But Kamala, are you descended from slaves or slave owners?

Drazzil wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:39 pm https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...

If Im not misreading this, a protest organizer was murdered last night/this morning in Louisville. The left needs to organize for self defense, or this sort of sh*t is going to keep happening.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:47 pm

Drazzil wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:39 pm https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...

If Im not misreading this, a protest organizer was murdered last night/this morning in Louisville. The left needs to organize for self defense, or this sort of sh*t is going to keep happening.

Link is to the crime front page. Not sure what story you're talking about.



Self defense isn't a left/right thing. It's a responsibility thing.

Drazzil wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:39 pm https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...

If Im not misreading this, a protest organizer was murdered last night/this morning in Louisville. The left needs to organize for self defense, or this sort of sh*t is going to keep happening.

Drazzil wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 6:41 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:47 pm

Drazzil wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:39 pm https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...

If Im not misreading this, a protest organizer was murdered last night/this morning in Louisville. The left needs to organize for self defense, or this sort of sh*t is going to keep happening.

Link is to the crime front page. Not sure what story you're talking about.



Self defense isn't a left/right thing. It's a responsibility thing.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 391468002/

Try that one.

(CNN)A 22-year-old woman has been arrested in California more than a week after falsely accusing the teenage son of a Black jazz musician of taking her iPhone in a heated confrontation caught on video.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:17 pm I'm not sure whether race is a factor, but she definitely has a lesson to learn.

Ventura County Sheriff Capt. Eric Buschow said Ponsetto was borderline violent with his officers when they attempted to apprehend her. Police initiated a traffic stop when they saw Ponsetto driving near her home in the city of Piru, but she refused to stop for two blocks. Then when she finally did stop, she refused to get out of her car. Finally, the police had to resort to using some force on her.

“She tried to slam the door on one of the deputies and that’s when they just reached in and forcibly removed her,” Buschow told the Associated Press. There was no immediate indication of the charges Pnsetto was facing, but Buschow said there was the possibility of adding on charges of resisting arrest, too.
...
This is Ponsetto’s most recent brush with the law. She has a criminal past of public intoxication, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a suspended license and unlawful use of a driver’s license. And that was just in the 2020 calendar year alone.

Ponsetto has a court date on Jan. 14 stemming from the DUI, for which she is serving three years of probation. That means her assault on Harrold Jr. likely violated the terms of her probation.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:11 pm Idiot attorney allows her to do this interview:

Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:22 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:17 pm I'm not sure whether race is a factor, but she definitely has a lesson to learn.

Definitely not. She just tackled the next person leaving the hotel and was astounded to discover he was a black man.

Edit: In case it was not mentioned, her phone was found in the hotel.