Black Community Unites to Protect D.C. After Girls Go Missing: Media is Dismissive

A few days ago, info about 14 girls going missing in 24 hours in Washington, D.C. went viral. Though the number may not actually be 14, it struck a nerve because people are going missing.

It gave inspiration to people seeking to protect the community and exercise their right to self defense. Black Men United organized an effort to patrol D.C., and activists are doing everything they can to pay attention.

This is the official number of girls who are missing. According to the Associated Press:

“The District of Columbia logged 501 cases of missing juveniles, many of them black or Latino, in the first three months of this year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, the city’s police force. Twenty-two were unsolved as of March 22, police said.”

The true number may be more, but this strikes a nerve with people in D.C. and all over the U.S. for a reason: people are going missing.

It’s inspiring to see people become active, trying to actually do something about this.

Although getting active in the community and taking initiative toward self defense is one of the most positive things people can do about this problem, the mainstream media is being dismissive. The media seems dismissive about anything involving human trafficking.

Snopes weighed in and did their usual condescending thing. A mainstream article from Teen Vogue bears the headline “False Tweet About Missing Girls in D.C. Goes Viral.”

If you’d rather correct the error “14 girls in 24 hours” than be happy that the truth is going viral, you’re not understanding the gravity of the situation. People are being kidnapped, and human trafficking, pedophile rings, these things are real.

A viral article from USA Today adds:

“Black lawmakers are calling on the FBI to investigate whether there is an increase in cases of missing black children and teens in the nation’s capital. 

In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey 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.”

On social media, people are using the hashtag #MissingDcGirls to voice frustration over lack of media coverage in what  many believe is an uptick in cases of missing black and Latina girls.” 

But these lawmakers are not on the people’s side. They want the FBI to investigate this?

The FBI that threatened to assassinate MLK with the “suicide note” they sent him, that was only disclosed because brave activists stole the documents? The FBI that refuses to investigate high level pedophilia and human trafficking? They want to beg Jeff Sessions and James Comey?

Only the people can protect themselves, and unite to protect the vulnerable in their community.

An article from the BBC speaks in a dismissive tone, crediting the D.C. police’s Twitter activity with the rise of awareness about missing children.

It’s titled “Are Washington girls really going missing?.” Reading from it:

“Metro Police Department (MPD) has always shared some missing persons on social media, but early this year the new police commander decided to use Twitter for every critical case. Since then, the faces behind the nearly 200 people – many of them children, many of them female – who go missing each month have loomed large on social media.”

Isn’t it inconsequential if there has been an “increase” of missing children? Either way it’s happening.

It’s unrealistic to think that police tweets are the reason why people are becoming aware of this. They may have contributed, but people are aware because they are paying attention to the tragedies around them. It seems in 2017, human trafficking in general is exploding in the public consciousness. It’s about time.

The police may have tweeted about missing people, but they are also being dismissive about their significance. They claim most of the girls probably ran away from home.

A headline from CNN reads “Missing black girls in DC prompt calls for federal help.” But the media does this thing where they take reality, and warp it to obfuscate what actually triggered it, or how people are responding.

As the BBC article spun the story to claim police tweets were the fuel behind people uniting against kidnappers, the CNN article also tries to steer focus away from the community’s empowerment. They cut straight to begging the government for assistance.

They say calls for “federal help” are being prompted, but I highly doubt you’ll find people in that community who want the government to get involved. Politicians are calling for “federal help.”

I could only find a few articles that weren’t dismissive. A Daily Mail headline reads “Two Washington, DC police officers were previously arrested for child sex offenses – one for pimping out a missing girl – in city shaken by disappearances of young black girls.” Reading from it:

“As celebrities and lawmakers demand investigations into why young black women are disappearing from Washington, DC’s streets, historic cases of city cops involved in child sexual abuses have re-emerged. 

On Thursday a tweet claiming that 14 black DC girls had vanished in 24 hours went viral. The figures were inflated, but celebs such as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and LL Cool J tweeted their concerns.”

The mainstream steers the narrative away from community strength and protection, and toward the idea of government protecting a community because the powers that influence media are scared of united people.

Police enforce the government’s system of slavery, and only people can protect themselves. The system cannot function when we are independent and united in our communities, when we can defend ourselves, and when we live outside of their control. Our independence is hegemony’s worst nightmare, and it’s the greatest path people can take toward freedom.

Please share this with as many people as possible. Applauding the efforts of people in the community is a civic duty, the only thing that will save us: exiting the system completely.

Image credit: E&M, the shade room