Wednesday, March 31, 2004
The Shade Darker Than Amber Alert
Two days ago I was watching the eleven o clock news and the story of a missing child appeared. He had been missing for two days. Why did it take two days to hear anything about this? the child is black and Asian. The mother tried to tell the police that she knew her child hadn't run away. That her son hated missing school. Maybe, it struck me harder than normal because the child looked like a little John. Who knows?
As long as the Amber alert system has been in place I have never seen or heard an amber alert for a child of color. Not a single one. You don't see it on the news. I wonder how police handle these cases. Do they look for reasons the child might have run away, rather than looking for clues when the parent says their child has been taken?
This morning on the news I saw a report for a 20 year old white woman that was missing. I really hope nothing is wrong with her. However, I remember a few weeks ago when a white woman of similar age went missing from Poughkeepsie and turned up on Long Island at a friends house, after weeks of media coverage on her dissapearance. And the media just let it go, not demanding an explanation nor an apology.
Here is a possible solution. We need to start a shade darker than amber alert (please someone come up with a better name). Just a place where families of color, that are being ignored by the media, can send a pic of there kid and a notice online. Maybe such a thing already exist. I hope so.
Two days ago I was watching the eleven o clock news and the story of a missing child appeared. He had been missing for two days. Why did it take two days to hear anything about this? the child is black and Asian. The mother tried to tell the police that she knew her child hadn't run away. That her son hated missing school. Maybe, it struck me harder than normal because the child looked like a little John. Who knows?
As long as the Amber alert system has been in place I have never seen or heard an amber alert for a child of color. Not a single one. You don't see it on the news. I wonder how police handle these cases. Do they look for reasons the child might have run away, rather than looking for clues when the parent says their child has been taken?
This morning on the news I saw a report for a 20 year old white woman that was missing. I really hope nothing is wrong with her. However, I remember a few weeks ago when a white woman of similar age went missing from Poughkeepsie and turned up on Long Island at a friends house, after weeks of media coverage on her dissapearance. And the media just let it go, not demanding an explanation nor an apology.
Here is a possible solution. We need to start a shade darker than amber alert (please someone come up with a better name). Just a place where families of color, that are being ignored by the media, can send a pic of there kid and a notice online. Maybe such a thing already exist. I hope so.
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