Just catching up on posts and wanted to chime in here in regards to the subtle hints at racism. I'm probably going to upset someone with what I have to say, but it needs to be said. I apologize in advance to anyone who takes offense or anyone whose feelings are hurt as that's not my intention.
In October 2011 CNN reporter TJ Holmes brought up the issue of the double standard in our society when it comes to missing children. This was around the time that Jehessye (sp?) Shockley went missing out of Arizona. (Ironically, TJ "departed" CNN at the end of that year and I've always wondered if it had to do with this topic). There is indeed a racial divide when it comes to missing white children and missing black children and how the cases are handled. Anyone who says there is not is either not paying attention or doesn't want to admit it. It has been proven time and time again every single time a child goes missing. Amber Alerts are often handled differently, media coverage is different, shares on social media are different, even comments in regards to the missing child/family, whether left in the comments section of MSM articles or on SM, are different. Every single time.
This poor little girl was not only missing for nearly a month before anyone thought to alert the authorities, but even after the authorities were alerted it seems that nobody was overly concerned UNTIL Tatum's wife was found murdered. Then all of sudden a light bulb seemed to go on and someone thought something might be very wrong. Yes, the mother made a very poor decision, an absolutely reckless and unintelligent decision to be more accurate. And I'm sure her "giving" Relisha to Tatum, as well as her inconsistencies, have not helped in this situation. But this is a child who is only 8 years old and she's POOF, vanished. Someone should have been a little more concerned that this girl was no longer around. No excuses!
Caitlyn Virt's alert, also in MD, went out to several states, was all over the media, and people were actually complaining about the alerts going to their phones repeatedly! Madeleine Mccann vanished in 2007 but is still very much talked about worldwide in the media. Yet in Relisha's case the Amber Alert was issued late (there is a link upthread). Yes, a lot of local media coverage, but not much national and what is there is sparse, and will probably die out later this week before it even peaks. Lanier stated in the press conference, yesterday I believe it was, that the Alert was sent as far north as PA and south to FL. Not true! I have family in PA that did not get an alert, nor is there an active alert for Relisha in that state at all.
The Amber Alert that did go out is STILL showing incorrect information when you go to
www.amberalert.gov and click on active alerts. Here is Relisha's
http://www.missingkids.com/poster/AMBER/11491/7751 Not only is there no picture of Mr. Tatum, it still shows the white GMC truck, which was found 5 days ago! A lot of people go to this site to check if there are any Amber Alerts. That information being outdated is totally inexcusable! Yes, I realize the information IS updated on the NCMEC site under missing kids. But again, a lot of people look at the .gov site, they don't go to the NCMEC site to check for Amber Alerts.
The other site that a lot of people use to find Amber Alerts is
www.amberalert.com and they DID have a page for Relisha. But it's no longer there! Why not?? It was my understanding that this site in particular keeps the Alert even if it is cancelled and at that time it goes under "Cancelled Alerts". She is not under either "Active" or "Cancelled" on that site. She does show on the front page, but when you click on her image, name, or "Read Full Alert" button you get a blank page that says "The page you are trying to reach does not exist."
Look at little Myra's thread and what kind of media coverage that case has received, and how even the local media coverage has really died down. Yet she's been gone 25 1/2 days now and she's only 2 years old. Outside of this forum and the posts that have circulated on social media, not many people outside of Mississippi even know who she is. And she, like Relisha, could be anywhere right now! The alert for Relisha should be national and should have gone national once they found the last vehicle that they knew with certainty of Tatum to be in.
So yeah, there is definitely an inconsistency in how missing children cases are handled in regards to race. This is a serious problem in our country. And it has to stop!! Before that can happen though we have to first admit that it IS happening. And then we have to figure out how to change it. Because a child is a child, regardless of race, or any other demographic. Just my :twocents:
Sorry so long and thank you to all who took the time to read this. FWIW, not that it should matter one way or the other, but I myself am a married white female living in a very predominately white community in rural Ohio. Pretty far removed from minorities, the poor and underprivileged, and the homeless. But I've followed a lot of missing kids cases over the last dozen or so years and I can't deny that I see the differences in how they are handled.
