They shoot mothers, don't they?

Miriam Carey, the unarmed, mentally ill mother who drove her black Infiniti down Pennsylvania Avenue after she rammed a White House barricade, was shot dead in a fusillade of gunfire by a gang of well-armed police who surrounded her car at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The police didn't notify the U.S. Secret Service of its encounter with Carey, and no evidence has emerged that Carey ever made any kind of threat against the president, Orr reports. Her name was not in the Secret Service's system before Thursday's chase that ended when police shot and killed her, according to CBS news.

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Thus far there has been an astonishing silence surrounding the death of Miriam Carey. None of the usual complainants against police violence have been heard from — not the Rev. Jesse Jackson nor the Rev. Al Sharpton. Not even the NAACP or the ACLU. Nor for that matter have the hordes of defenders of Trayvon Martin been heard from.

The only voices of protest have come from the Washington Times editorial board and from two writers at The American Spectator — now there are three. This strikes me as exceedingly strange. Legal sleuths tell me that the police could be subject to charges of negligent homicide or manslaughter.

Are we going to forego a scrupulous investigation because of the possibility of these charges? How long will the conspiracy of silence last? Is the entire country going to participate in it?

by Bob Tyrrell