Had a good turnout considering short notice. Plenty of police presence. My wife and I stayed till noon and then left for lunch then back home.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft spoke first with a very pro-Constitutional message...I sure like the guy for the few times I have met and listened to him.
Before the rally started my wife went to use the rest room. She couldn't find it then some 'guy in a suit' who saw she was obviously looking for something asked if she needed any help. She said she couldn't find the ladies rest room so the 'guy in the suit said, I'll show you, and escorted her to the rest room. Little did she know that 'guy in the suit' was Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. I had to laugh when she told me, 'there's the guy that showed me where the ladies rest room was.'
The Top Sheriff spoke and said they had no problems with the SAPA bill except that the wording in one spot complicates them being able to charge criminals at the federal level. They said if a criminal commits a felony and is found guilty and gets a 10 year sentence in Missouri then he/she will likely do 10 months and be released. If they are charged at the federal level then that same 10 year sentence means they will actually serve the full 10 year sentence. Representative Jered Taylor who crafted the SAPA bill said he had a talk with the Top Sheriff and they are adding an amendment to the SAPA bill that will work for us all. He too was an excellent speaker.
For my wife and me the most enthralling talk was by Mark and Patricia McCloskey. Mark told their side of the story from leading up to the mob action at their home to the attacks and threats weeks after they were charged by our most unhonorable state attorney, Kim Gardner. I didn't know this but the mob was led by U.S. Missouri Representative Cori Bush. She was using a megaphone to incite the mob. If anyone should go to jail for insurrection it should be her.
They talked about how the police didn't show up for many of the 911 calls during the riots until many hours later. The area where they work was hit by the mob and a pharmacy around the corner from their building was broken into by the mob. The alarm went off, the police were called and the intruders decimated that shop for FIVE hours. The police showed up TEN hours later.
Mark and Patricia also knew they were going to be attacked at their home a second time and asked for private protection from police officers who do that on the side...they all turned them down. Then they went to a well known security contracting agency but were turned down by them also because the agency was already dealing with 'Bad PR Problem' at the time and didn't need any more issues. Finally they reached out to someone in the Trump administration. Then things started happening.
They eventually had six ex-navy seals show up to help, the police chief, a few off-duty police officers (I wonder how they got the motivation all of a sudden), an FBI surveillance plane flying over along with one FBI sniper (that they knew of anyway). That team of 'volunteers' kept the mob at bay. They certainly had an extremely harrowing time of it and by the face to face verbal threats of murder, rape and arson from the armed thugs that they received; they will forever be scarred. Quite a sad story when you hear the truth of their tragic encounter with these Anti-fa/BLM thugs. Mark couldn't stress enough how important it is to be prepared because it will be too late by the time the police arrive...IF they arrive...during these mob actions.
Sad but true....enough for now.