1. They still didn't have the right to be there. "At least...." doesn't matter. Anything you wrote after those two words is b.s. I don't like gated communities (in south Florida they all look alike and are centered around a golf course. I prefer my "old Florida" end of town) but I understand why people live in them.
2. Again, the Mayor's house doesn't exist on a public street. These people had no right to be in the neighborhood. If his house was outside of the private community in a normal neighborhood like my own, I wouldn't contest their right to be there.
A gated community is not a fully private community. If the police are good enough to be let in, you can’t keep out non-residents as “riff raff.” They use public utilities - though not roads. You don’t get to point guns at people because you don’t want them in your neighborhood. That kind of thinking literally killed a man in Georgia a few months ago.
Let me say this again:
A HOA banning people from entering their neighborhood is not legally binding. In my experience, saying “These are public roads, protected by the fire/police department, funded by the public.” will get you in most gated communities.
So.....in other words, they were threatened. "By all accounts" - who's accounts? Theirs? MSNBCs?
If a bunch of masked strangers came up my street, you'd best be sure I would be thinking what my defense options would be. I'm not a gun owner, and never wanted to be one. That is likely to change in the next month. I keep a hatchet in my car these days.
"They weren't there to harass McCloskeys! They were there to intimidate the mayor. It's all good guys!"
You're not capable enough of independent thinking to see anyway for the McCloskey's to be right in any scenario.
The alternative fact that the McCloskey’s only came out after the protesters surrounded their house or whatever is untrue. If you’re with a big group of people, what happened according to you? They started yelling death threats at a possibly empty house? No. The McCloskey’s came out to defend the key position in their front lawn from having too many people walk on it. I have yet to see any video of the protesters getting in their lawn before they came out, but if they did, there is no right to threaten people off their lawns.
Yes, they were wearing face masks. Somewhere I heard something of a pandemic.
I’m not surprised when liberal Yankees know nothing about guns and gun safety. But you’re Basically A Dixie Boy! Legally they probably didn’t commit a crime. But defending someone who feels it’s OK to point a gun anywhere near her husband’s head? Not a good look.