Leaders in local government, the non-profit sector, and faith-based organizations joined members of the D.C. community at an emergency meeting organized by WKYS’ The Fam In The Morning on Wednesday, to confront what they call an "epidemic" of local youth going missing in the city. The meeting came in response to reports earlier this week that confirmed a wave of teens having disappeared in recent days. As of Thursday, March 23, the whereabouts of one dozen D.C. minors between the ages 14 and 18 remained unknown.
Comedian D.L. Hughley made headlines and drew attention to the issue when following the recovery of Tom Brady's stolen Super Bowl jersey in Mexico, he tweeted, "If only all those black and brown teenage girls reported missing in DC had jerseys on!" Prior to Hughley's tweet, a number of publications had already begun to cover the crisis, but that number has exponentially boomed since, with news of the missing teens traveling far and wide on social media. While NBC has put out a location map to help the public remain on its toes about the vulnerable situation, those at the WKYS forum expressed displeasure that the government and law enforcement have done so little to address the disappearances, in comparison to the media. Many cited the lack of "Amber Alerts" for cases from the downtrodden community.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials have drawn criticism for their handling and response to the problem, with the local police department inferring that social media is generating hysteria, by citing statistics that show there has been no significant rise in missing cases relative to past years. Numerous Black members of Congress have begun to step forward to demand that the Justice Department take extra precaution in making sure they are covering all of the bases, with a letter sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey by representatives asking that they “devote the resources necessary to determine whether these developments are an anomaly or whether they are indicative of an underlying trend that must be addressed.”
It is reported that over 500 minors have been reported missing in the city thus far in 2017. While professionals cite that many missing cases in the community are typically comprised of runaways and not youth being abducted or trafficked, their missing status leaves them vulnerable to being exploited in such a matter. Acting police chief Peter Newsham highlighted this fact when he stated that “The difficult thing is some of these kids do go missing multiple times ... When they go missing, guess what? You have a child out there and there are people in our community that will prey on those children.”
Source: newsone.com
