Something strange is happening at the nation’s capital. There’s been a perceived influx of Black and Latina girls that have gone missing in Washington, D.C.
While D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser has maintained that there hasn’t been a surge in missing children, she acknowledges that it has been an issue for the district and neighboring cities for a long time. The police department has just been using social media more to get the word out with hopes of bringing the missing children home faster, Fox 5 DC reports.
Nevertheless, people are campaigning to bring light to the more than 10 girls that have gone missing within the past week, utilizing the hashtag #MissingDCGirls. Black and Latina girls who are reported as missing are normally quick to be filed as runaways, so they do not get an Amber Alert and rarely any media coverage. There are currently 38 open cases, according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
Hundreds packed Excel Academy Public Charter School in Southeast D.C. for a town hall-style meeting on Wednesday (March 22) begging for answers.
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Many are theorizing that the missing girls could be possibly connected to a human trafficking ring or an even equally sinister problem that has silently plagued the Black American community: organ harvesting.
Mayor Bowser and Acting Chief of Police Peter Newsham assure that these cases have nothing to do with human trafficking.
However, comedian D.L. Hughley poised an even more poignant question for authorities this week: You can find Tom Brady’s missing jersey but not these missing girls from the nation’s capital?
“If only all those black and brown teenage girls reported missing in DC had jerseys on!” he tweeted.
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Black lawmakers have called on the FBI to help police investigate. In a letter sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey, they’ve asked them to “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,” the AP reports.
The Metropolitan Police Department asks if anyone has information about the missing girls to please contact them at (202) 727-9099 or text the Department’s TEXT TIP LINE at 50411.
In an act of unification, many in the Hip Hop community have diligently used their platforms to shed light on this horrific crisis including DMV native Wale as well as Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J, Trey Songz, Metro Boomin, Busta Rhymes and A$AP Ferg among others.
