WASHINGTON – It's a tale of two deaths with completely opposite consequences.
In one case, apathy. In the other, riots.
There is also a bizarre irony. It was an apparently justified police shooting that caused riots. But in the case of a woman unjustly killed by cops, nothing but crickets.
Miriam Carey was unarmed, shot in the back, committed no crime and had no criminal record when she was killed by federal police on Oct. 3, 2013.
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Sylville Smith was armed with a semi-automatic handgun carrying 23 rounds, had a lengthy criminal record, and was shot in the front by a Milwaukee police officer after he refused to drop his weapon on Aug. 13.
Thirty-four-year-old Carey was never charged with a crime or arrested. She was a model single mother, a dental hygienist, and was adored by family, friends and co-workers.
There was no public outrage following her death.
Twenty-three-year-old Smith's prodigious rap sheet shows he was arrested or cited a least nine times since 2011, including charges for a shooting, a robbery, carrying a concealed weapon, theft, possession of heroin, felony first-degree recklessly endangering safety and felony witness intimidation.
The shooting of Smith was followed by three nights of riots in Milwaukee.
On the first night, rioters set fire to several cars, including police squad cars. A BP gas station was looted and set ablaze. Also set on fire were an auto parts shop, a beauty supply store and a bank. Rioters fired guns and attacked two reporters and a photographer. An officer was hit with a brick and hospitalized. A liquor store and a supermarket were destroyed. Four officers were injured.
On the second night, rioters tried to pull white people out of their cars. One person was shot by a rioter, and police had to use an armored vehicle to save the victim. An officer was injured when a rock smashed his windshield.
On the third night, rioters fired 30 gunshots, four more officers were wounded, three police cars were damaged, another car and a dumpster were set on fire and a store was vandalized.
One of the most puzzling aspects of the Carey case is that there was no public outrage and little media coverage after the sensational initial reports of her killing in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Those sensational reports all turned out to be wrong, but no media outlet other than WND followed up the story in any significant and sustained way. The details of a nearly three-year investigation into the Carey case, and the stunning facts it revealed, will be chronicled in WND Books' "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey," to be released on Sept. 27.
On that fateful autumn morning almost three years ago, Carey drove the 265 miles to Washington from her home in Stamford, Connecticut, with her 13-month-old daughter strapped into the back seat.
At 2:13 p.m., she drove up to a White House entrance guard post at 15th and E streets NW, apparently by mistake, because she immediately made a U-turn to try to leave.
The post was apparently poorly manned, because no one on duty stopped her from entering.
However, an off-duty Secret Service agent did, for some unexplained reason, try to prevent her from leaving by dragging a gate in front of her car, which she drove around.
Trying to enter the White House grounds without permission is illegal. Trying to leave is not. Yet, for reasons never explained by officials, Secret Service and Capitol police officers chased Carey, shot her five times from the back, and killed her.
The media reported she rammed a security gate, ran over a police officer and fled at high speed. None of that turned out to be true.
The official justification is that federal officers shot the woman in the back and killed her – in self-defense.
There was no public outrage when Carey was killed. And there was no public outrage when, nine months later, the Justice Department declined to file criminal charges against the officers who killed Carey.
Al Sharpton said nothing.
Jesse Jackson said nothing.
Black Lives Matter said nothing.
WND contacted Sharpton's media representative late last year, and she showed significant interest in the Carey case when informed of the basic facts.
After the details of the case were sent to her, WND never heard back from the Sharpton camp, even after repeated attempts.
WND contacted Jackson's executive assistant late last year, and she showed significant interest in the Carey case when informed of the basic facts. She remarked, it was something of definite interest and that she would try to arrange an interview with Jackson.
After the details of the case were sent to her, WND never heard back from the Jackson camp, even after repeated attempts.
The reactions of Sharpton and Jackson to the police shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Flordia, were strikingly different.
The only difference between the Brown and Carey case, other than she was completely innocent, is that he was shot by a local police officer, whereas she was shot by federal officers who work for, and answer to, the Obama administration.
In his eulogy for Brown, Sharpton declared, "This is about justice! This is about fairness!"
After the grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot Brown, Sharpton warned, "You won the first round, Mr. Prosecutor, but don’t cut your gloves off, because the fight is not over. Justice will come to Ferguson!"
Jackson called the shooting of Brown "kind of a state execution."
He also said, "It seemed to me that the police act as judge, jury and executioner."
The Justice Department conducted its own investigation and cleared the officer who shot Brown of any civil rights violations. Additionally, the inquiry confirmed the officer's version of events, that he killed Brown in self-defense.
After the Martin shooting, Sharpton said, "Trayvon could have been any one of our sons," and, "Trayvon could have been any one of us."
Martin's death caused Rev. Jesse Jackson to claim, "Blacks are under attack" because Obama's election had "triggered tremendous backlash."
"Targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business," insisted Jackson.
However, the Justice Department investigation found there was not enough evidence for a federal hate-crime prosecution.
Martin attacked a neighborhood watch volunteer. Brown attacked a police officer.
Carey made a wrong turn.
While there has been no public outcry over her killing, WND has sued the Justice Department to try to obtain key evidence which will show why federal prosecutors declined to press charges against the officer who shot her.
And the Carey family, Miriam's mother, sisters and daughter, may get justice, yet.
The book "Capitol Crime: Washington's Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey" details how:
- Carey was shot in the back
- Officers claimed they shot her in self-defense
- Carey didn’t break any laws
- Carey didn’t try to enter the White House grounds
- Carey did not ram a White House gate
- Officers did not try to prevent Carey from entering a White House guard post
- Officers tried to prevent Carey from leaving a White House guard post
- Officers gave no reason for stopping Carey
- Officers gave no reason for pursuing Carey
- Carey did not flee or speed away
- Carey did not run over an officer
- Police knew Carey was not a terrorist before they shot her
- Her child in the backseat was covered in glass and blood
- Secret Service officers violated their use-of-force policy
- Police statements are missing
- Witness statements are missing
- Evidence is missing
- Police refuse to release findings justifying the shooting
Even long before WND uncovered many of those details, once he heard the basic facts of the case in December of 2013, famed civil libertarian Nat Hentoff said from all of the evidence he had seen in WND’s reports, which he called very thorough and easily corroborated, "[T]his is a classic case of police out of control and, therefore, guilty of plain murder."