On Friday, the St. Louis Police Department executed a search warrant of Mark and Patricia McCloskey’s house and seized Mr. McCloskey’s semiautomatic rifle. The McCloskeys made headlines last month for standing in front of their home brandishing firearms as a leftist mob of Black Lives Matter and other Marxist radicals trespassed upon their property and threatened them.

Much of the mainstream media painted a highly critical picture of the couple, suggesting that their actions to defend themselves and their property were the real problem while ignoring the violent provocation from the BLM mob. Once again, the MSM sought to defend or excuse the blatantly lawless actions of the “mostly peaceful protesters.” The message here is clear: Don’t dare stand up against the “woke” mob.

This is also clearly the message that St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner is sending. She called the McCloskeys’ actions a “violent assault” for which she intendeds to “use the full power of Missouri law to hold people accountable.”

The “law” Gardner appears to be alluding to must be that of mob rule, for it certainly isn’t Missouri statutes. As the McCloskeys’ attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, cogently observes, “Missouri is a Castle Doctrine state, permitted among the broadest latitudes of any state in using even deadly force to protect yourself or your property. This couple used NO force, despite the imminent threat from a trespassing mob. The seizure of weapons is government overreach.”

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt agreed with Dhillon, stating, “Under Missouri law, under the Castle Doctrine, an individual has really expansive authority to protect their own lives, their home, and their property.” He then pointedly surmised: “I think the story here to watch here is the local prosecutor, Kim Gardner. Kim Gardner has an abysmal record in prosecuting violent crime, has recently released and been complicit in the release of dozens and dozens of inmates who have been charged with violent crimes, and has a record of making politically motivated decisions not based on the law.”

Schmitt’s criticism of Gardner is accurate. His office learned “that every single one of the St. Louis looters and rioters arrested were released back onto the streets by the local prosector Kim Gardner.” This is what happens when narrative and ideology trump truth and justice.

In related news, the Left’s call to “defund the police,” a cause opportunistically touted by many leading Democrat politicians, is reaping the predictable outcome. The Wall Street Journal reports, “In Milwaukee, homicides are up 37% so far this year, on pace to break the record of 167 in 1991, which included 16 murders by convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Homicides so far this year in Chicago are ahead of the pace of 2016, which marked the city’s highest tally since 1996. In New York and Los Angeles, which have seen falling numbers of homicides for years, killings this year are up 23% and 11.6%, respectively. Kansas City, Mo., has recorded 99 killings since January, far outpacing any record for the first six months of the year.”

What are Americans supposed to do? Who are they going to call when the mob comes? As cops are increasingly being attacked across the nation and in response are pulling back, more Americans are realizing that they must take seriously their own self-defense. And yet when Americans dare to defend themselves and their property, they are slandered by the MSM and punished by leftist politicians.

In this era of “woke justice,” anyone who dares to defend themselves and their property against the evil intentions of radical leftist mobs will be smeared, attacked, and canceled. “Bow or die” is essentially the Left’s motto, and politicos and their propagandists in the media are fully on board propagating it in support of this anti-American revolution.