Valerie Carey has had a strained relationship with Capitol Police for years now. Her sister, Miriam, was unarmed when she was shot and killed by Capitol Police officers in the nation's capital back in 2013. Carey's one-year-old niece sat in the backseat as the violent encounter unfolded. After sitting with the shooting of her sister for nearly eight years, she watched hundreds of people storm the United States Capitol and escape unharmed. Given the tragedy and sorrow she's endured, these horrific riots did not sit right with her.
"To see the disparity in the treatment of individuals who have no respect for our nation's Capitol, vandalizing and actually committing assaults and they get to walk away unharmed and not even arrested," Carey said.
"It's hurtful."
Carey's sentiments are only compacted by the events that occurred in Washington, D.C. over the summer. For weeks, demonstrators documented incidents of harassment at the hands of local police as they protested police brutality.
"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."
Carey is not the only one to point out the double standards with which Capital police officers have treated Black people in comparison to white people. Recently, President-Elect Joe Biden spoke to the discrimination Black people face when protesting in comparison to white rioters.
"We witnessed two systems of justice when we saw one that let extremists storm the United States Capitol and another that released tear gas on peaceful protesters last summer," Biden said.
"The American people have expressed, rightly, outrage. We know this is unacceptable."
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