As the carnage of the Capitol riot was unfolding in Washington D.C., many Black Americans were dumbfounded by the disparity of treatment by law enforcement between a predominantly white mob versus Black citizens.
Valarie Carey spoke with CNN about the difference of treatment from the Capitol Police.
Carey, a retired New York City police sergeant, had a younger sister, Miriam Carey, who was killed by Capitol police in 2013. Miriam Carey, 34, was pursued in a car chase by the police and U.S. Secret Service after she had fled law enforcement following being stopped at a White House checkpoint in her car. She had struck an officer while turning to drive away after Secret Service agents approached her vehicle at the checkpoint.
READ MORE: Capitol Police chief resigning after mob attack
Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist, was struck five times by bullets from Capitol police and secret service agents during the chase and died from her wounds. Her one-year-old daughter was in the vehicle during the pursuit, but she was not hurt.
Her sister, Valarie Carey, stated that the officers and agents should not have had cause to shoot at Miriam in that incident. As a result, she feels the leniency that was given to the rioters on January 6 was unfair in comparison.
“My sister didn’t breach security, she made a U-turn and she was ultimately gunned down,” Carey told CNN. “There shouldn’t have been a chase to begin with.”
READ MORE: Family of Miriam Carey: ‘Shooting was not justified’
After seeing the carnage of the Capitol riots and thousands of white people allowed to leave without arrest, despite there being damage and death, Carey insists that race played a part in the lack of policing.
“They were treated with entitlement and it’s ridiculous,” Carey said. “We all know had it been a Black person or Brown person that situation would have been different.”
An argument about racial implications regarding the siege on the Capitol has some merit. As previously reported by TheGrio, on 61 arrests had been made from the Capitol rioters, compared to 316 arrests being made during a June 1 Black Lives Matter protest in Washington D.C.
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