Celebs Share Outrage Over #MissingDCGirls Mystery -- But What's Really Going On???

If you’re all over social media like we are, you may have seen people sharing the story about the #MissingDCgirls this week.
Several black and Latina teens are missing in the Washington, D.C. area, and it isn’t even making national news.
A few celebrities have even gotten swept up in the case, which has some sharing theories about human trafficking and the media turning a blind eye. Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond wrote a letter to the DOJ and FBI demanding action.
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So what’s really going on?
According to Metropolitan Police data, 501 cases of missing juveniles have been logged in the D.S. area so far this year. That’s over six a day!
But as of Friday morning, only 22 cases remain open.
While there are too many teens missing in D.C. — far too many — this is not an unusually high number, nor do the cases appear to be connected (human trafficking has been completely ruled out). In fact, the number of missing persons is actually down.
Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Rachel Reid explained what may have caused the initial alarm earlier in the week:

“We’ve just been posting them on social media more often.”

It seems the strategy of getting the word out definitely works — unfortunately people have a tendency to add their own facts and get things wrong on social media.
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But there is a real problem here.
The National Crime Information Center reports there are 170,899 missing black minors in the U.S. That’s a truly shocking number, and one law enforcement at all levels should be working to decrease.
(BTW, Hispanic missing children don’t get their own statistic; it’s combined with the Caucasian number.)
Here are some of the messages celebrities have shared since hearing about all this:

Find the #missingdcgirls retweet !!!!
— LLCOOLJ. (@llcoolj) March 24, 2017

@POTUS @realDonaldTrump This has to be solved. Show the American people you care. #missingDCgirls
— LLCOOLJ. (@llcoolj) March 24, 2017

These girls matter, too #FindOurGirls #DCAmberAlertA post shared by Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) on Mar 24, 2017 at 5:57am PDT

And I haven’t seen nothing but trump on major news stations… I thought this was fake because i only seen it on social media!!!! Americas media is getting out of hand with the disrespect to the lack of coverage of our people and it’s becoming too blatant!! “WASNT YALL JUST SEARCHING FOR TOM BRADYS JERSEY” ???????A post shared by Meek Mill (@meekmill) on Mar 23, 2017 at 1:56pm PDT

Tom Brady’s jersey was found in Mexico. These brown girls from D.C. are still missing in the US. This bothers me and it should bother you too! #missingdcgirlsA post shared by Common (@common) on Mar 24, 2017 at 8:15am PDT

🗣🗣🗣🗣#Repost @fabulouslyfaithful_ ・・・ #missing #amberalert #missingblackgirls #dc #reportourownnewsA post shared by taraji p henson (@tarajiphenson) on Mar 24, 2017 at 6:26am PDT

Repost!!!!A post shared by TIP (@troubleman31) on Mar 23, 2017 at 1:36pm PDT

Reposting cuz the picture I posted yesterday was incorrect photos of the young women missing from D.C. When relaying information about this, we have to be careful we relay the correct info because these are all peoples little girls. 64,000 young black women missing since 2014 in America and heavily recently in the D.C. / Chicago area. I encourage you to use your voice, platform, privilege, phone, eyes, ears, heart in any and every way regarding this situation. If you see something suspicious, speak up. When the media doesn’t do their job it’s up to us to educate eachother, this should be a priority on everyone’s list. Be safe, not sorry. #BringThemHomeA post shared by Kehlani (@kehlani) on Mar 24, 2017 at 6:49am PDT

One thing is for sure. This is ALL more important than Tom Brady‘s jersey.
[Image via DC Metropolitan Police Department/Twitter.]