Why Was Miriam Carey Seen as a Threat? Trigger-Happy Police States and Racism Obscured Through Mental Health Stigma

Karen Orrick is Project HOME's Project Coordinator of the Hub of Hope and of Strategic Initiatives. She wrote this article in the wake of last week's shooting incident at the U.S. Capitol.

The news reports are clear that there was mass confusion, a high-speed car chase, police open-fire, and a woman killed on the Capitol— They are also clear that the woman killed was unarmed, accompanied by her one year old daughter, well-educated, non-political, and described as “friendly and dedicated … always very professional … very focused … a sweet and nurturing person” [1]. What did Miriam Carey actually do and why was she seen as a threat? In a story published October 3rd, the following was written in the Washington Post:

It began with something not that unusual — a driver with out-of-state plates turning into a blocked entry near the White House. It quickly became something else. “Whoa! Whoa!,” Secret Service officers were shouting at the car, according to a witness, Shawn Joseph, 29. “It looked liked [the driver was] scared or lost. I thought they might have been a tourist.” But then, witnesses said, officers tried to place a barrier in front of the car. The driver swerved. The officers moved the barrier. She hit it, and a Secret Service officer was thrown up on the hood and then off the car. The officer was not badly hurt. The driver sped east and was stopped by police at a small traffic circle at the foot of Capitol Hill. There, video shot by the U.S.-funded Arabic TV station Alhurra shows officers with guns pointed at the car. The driver took off.[2] The scene begins routine. An out of state driver turns the wrong way.  It’s unclear what was happening in this moment. It’s unclear why the driver is trying to go this way or why she would swerve around a barrier placed in front of her car.  She might have been confused and lost like the eye witness said. It is clear that in swerving she hit a Secret Service officer who was thrown up “on the hood and then off the car.” UH OH.

At this point, it’s important to think about what it would be like to be in this situation. If I hit a secret service officer with my car and he fell over the top of my hood I would be terrified, ashamed, and intimidated as hell. But I would also believe deep down that I’d be given the benefit of the doubt.  I would stop my car, get out, start crying and apologizing, see if the person was okay, worry I would get in a lot of trouble, and call my dad who is a prominent lawyer. I’d probably get a ticket for reckless driving. I am a young white, wealthy, Protestant, well-educated born-and-raised American citizen with blue eyes and blond hair. I grew up my whole life believing that I am an American and America is meant for people like me. I grew up reading story books about friendly police officers who solved crimes, helped old ladies cross the street and get cats out of trees. My interaction with actual police was minimal. Cops didn’t patrol my wealthy suburban neighborhood or kick down my neighbors doors. I’ve never been stopped and frisked or pulled over and thrown on the hood of my car. No one has ever questioned why I was standing on a street corner or detained me or my friends for being out late. If I was a black woman who hit a secret service officer I might be terrified that my life was over. I might fear jail time or being shot on the spot. Growing up I would have learned again and again that the police were not there to protect me, but to hunt me down, profile me, imprison my loved ones, and terrorize my neighborhood. I would have had personal experiences of myself or loved ones being falsely accused[3], falsely detained, or even falsely shot at and killed[4]. 

 In an age where a black woman is sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing two warnings shots and George Zimmerman is let off free for murdering Trayvon Martin, as a black woman I wouldn’t believe that the law was on my side. So, I might panic. I might try to make a run for it with my one-year old in the backseat.  I might try to speed away, terrified, my mind blank. After the initial run-in with a secret service officer, none of the reports show any evidence that Miriam Carey posed any threat to anyone else. She just seemed like a trapped, terrified, person, trying to get away.  She fired no shots. She was unarmed. That she sped toward the Capitol is a moot point. She was in Washington, D.C.! Anywhere you go you’ll be headed toward a political building. Video of her car careening wildly all over the place must be read in the context of police squads encircling her and gunshots being fired at her.  My car would careen wildly too. The scene ends with Carey trying to get out of the car and being murdered by gunfire in front of her one-year-old daughter. But it doesn’t stop there. The press, desperate to obscure police too-quick-to-pull-the-trigger and sure as anything not to (directly) mention the role of race, fling wildly around for reasons why Carey would be suspicious and dangerous. Everyone they talk to speaks of her as an upstanding citizen and she wasn’t wearing a hoodie, so the press pulls out the old-standby: mental health stigma.

As soon as it came out that a year-ago Carey suffered from post-partum depression, the press jumped on this as if any mental health diagnose could lead someone to…to… to what? To be terrified and scared and speed away when there is a full police force gunfire attack on your car? That Carey suffered from mental illness just means that like all of us, she went through some rough times. She was extremely upset, needed help, and may have gotten some. With any mental illness, as the robust recovery community can attest to, you can heal. Having a history of mental health issues does not make you “crazed”[5] or automatically “delusional”[6]. It just means you have intense feelings and need resources to cope. The stigma which connects mental health to violent behavior is just that, a stigma.  Plenty of people with serious mental illnesses are not violent and plenty of people who are violent are not diagnosed with mental illnesses. Miriam Carey displayed reckless terrified driving, but all accounts show guns were drawn on her pretty immediately. It’s too bad that Miriam Carey can never give her side of the story. After all the gunfire, robots, bomb squad, and general terror-infliction we find Carey’s life lost and reputation trashed, Carey’s relatives without a loved one and flabbergasted, Carey’s daughter without her mother, and the American public terrified of mental illness and missing what actually happened.