Outrage Mounting Over DC's Missing Black & Latinx Teens
Some of the teens that have gone missing in DC.
A collection of some of the teens that have gone missing in DC.
More than a dozen Washington, D.C., teenagers have been reported missing in 2017.
In a report from NBC Washington the missing teens, predominantly black and Latinx and aged between 14 and 18, had reached over a dozen by Thursday, with D.C. police using social media in hopes of finding them.
An interactive map has also been created, that details the name, age and where the teenager was last seen. Some of them have been missing since late February, while others such as Shaniah Boyd (14) and Anjel Burl (16) went missing some time between March 17 and 22.
D.C. police did not previously publicize each missing person case to the degree they do now. But the flurry of social media posts on the missing teens have led people to accuse the police of being inactive in finding these kids.
The disappearances have resulted in concern and outrage from the D.C. community, with resident and community leaders pressing police and Mayor Muriel Bowser for answers at a recent community meeting.
"You can tell by the packed room that this is something a lot of people care about," Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember Trayvon Whitesaid in a report from News One. "Over the past couple of years, I've been seeing a lot of the postings, hearing from a lot of family members, going to a lot of prayer vigils. There's been an epidemic of missing persons in the Washington D.C. area."
However, police have said that missing people numbers have not increased from previous years, with most of the missing teens returning home after leaving voluntarily.
Speaking to NBC Washington, Acting Police Chief Peter Newsham said "the year-over-year number of missing persons, including juveniles, has held steady, and that there is no known link in D.C. now between missing people and human trafficking."
Most missing people in D.C. end up getting found, according to police. During the community meeting Newsham stated that 95 percent of missing people have been found so far this year.
