Black lawmakers are asking the FBI and Justice Department to help locate missing children in Washington, D.C.
The letter, dated Tuesday, was sent by Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond, D-La., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District in Congress.
According to the letter, obtained by the Associated Press, D.C., logged 501 cases of missing juveniles — many black or Latino — in the first three months of 2017. As of March 22, the Metropolitan Police Department says 22 remain open.
Richmond and Norton urge 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.”
According to MPD spokeswoman Rachel Reid, there has been no increase of missing juveniles in D.C., only more social media awareness. The number of missing children actually dropped from 2,433 in 2015 to 2,242 in 2016 in D.C., police data says.
Because there has been a bump in social media postings about the missing girls — numerous celebrities, for example, have been posting on their Twitter and Instagram accounts about the girls — there has been an outrage that coverage of their disappearances not been suffice.
Most of those missing are minorities, and the U.S. capital area is roughly 48 percent black.
“Ten children of color went missing in our nation’s capital in a period of two weeks and at first garnered very little media attention. That’s deeply disturbing,” Richmond’s letter says.
On Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Peter Newsham had a town hall at a local D.C., school to hear community member’s thoughts.
“The disturbing fact that we all need to be aware of is that we do have that many kids in our city that go missing and it has been that way for a long time,” Newsham told the crowd.
Attendees gave tearful testimonies, some saying their loved ones have yet to be found – and there has been little done.
Young person, in tears, while expressing concerns about missing person cases in D.C. pic.twitter.com/sKFs804tme
— Anna-Lysa Gayle (@ABC7Annalysa) March 22, 2017
According to the National Crime Information Center, there were nearly 171,000 missing black persons under the age of 18 nationwide in 2016 — the highest number among any race. The number grew from the year prior as well.
“Whether these recent disappearances are an anomaly or signals of underlying trends, it is essential that the Department of Justice and the FBI use all of the tools at their disposal to help local officials investigate these events, and return these children to their parents as soon as possible,” Richmond wrote.
