Based on the information out there are 10 Black and Latina teens who have vanished in the Washington, D.C. area. If you haven't heard about the these girls it's because they are the missing youth not getting much airtime from the news media and what seems like the local authorities also significantly downplaying the matter.
The Youth and Family Services Division at the Metropolitan Police Department held a press conference attempting to calm the citizens during this growing alarm around the disappearances.
"The number of reported missing persons is not going up," Commander Chanel Dickerson, who leads the department, said.
Police Chief Peter Newsham, who also spoke at the press conference, added: "In 2016, we had almost 1,000 fewer reports of missing persons than we had in 2012.”
According to officials, 95 percent of the children who have gone missing in 2017 have been located. In fact, some of the 10 teenagers who vanished this month have also been found in the last few days – but that hasn’t relaxed communities of color in the D.C.-Maryland-Northern Virginia (DMV) Area, and for good reason.
Black and brown residents are concerned and confused that while their children account for the majority of missing youth cases they remain underrepresented in media reporting around the issue, a phenomenon termed by the late Afro-Latina PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill as "missing white woman syndrome."
Taking matters into their own hands, local pastors, activists, parents and young people got together in the Covenant Baptists United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C. to voice concern about the missing girls and the issue of sex trafficking in the District.
"Sometimes when girls of color are missing they are deemed 'runaways' and sometimes that prevents an amber alert from being sent out, they only send out amber alerts for those who are considered snatched or kidnapped," Dr.Vanetta Rather, founder of the support group My Sister My Seed, said. "It appears that when its girls of color there's not this urgency."
Eight of the ten girls are still missing.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of the teenagers, contact the D.C. Police Department at (202) 727-9099.
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