Author: Danii Gold

So there has been A LOT of buzz about the Washington D.C young girls going missing. If you’ve been out of the loop about it, here’s what’s being reported:

The Washington, D.C police have posted on their social media pages about young girls currently missing and they are coincidentally Black and Latino girls. They are saying that there was some inaccuracy in the reports that have gone viral on social media. They’re saying 14 girls did NOT go missing in a span of 24 hours and they confirmed that and what not BUT according to the Washington DC NBC news; they reported on March 25 that as of March 19, they have shared 22 missing people reports on their Twitter page. 11 of which were juveniles and since then, five of the juveniles have been found.  The concern is that they are Black and Latinos girls/women. Lawmakers of the Black Caucus say that “When children of color go missing, authorities often assume they are runaways rather than victims of abduction.”

So on that note, whether or not these young women are runaways or even being abducted, we, as women need to watch our back because they are snatching us up and possibly forcing us into human trafficking. Here are a few tips on how we can TRY to be safe out here:

• If you are entering  your car at night or even in broad daylight, lock the doors as soon as you get in and check you back seat. It sounds creepy and even something you just seen in movies, but this shit is real. (If someone is coincidentally in your car, have a weapon in your. I have a bat that has metal on it. You can never be too safe.)
• If you are leaving a friend’s house, via car or walking, have them watch you walk to your car or to at least to the next corner where you can’t see them.
• If you are going somewhere and don’t want anyone to know, tell at least ONE person, your bestie, cousin, whoever you know, just in case something happens to you, they’ll know where you last told them you were going.
• IMPORTANTLY, if you have any little sisters, cousins, play cousins, God sisters, etc. who runaway from home or who are thinking about it—talk to them about the safety risk of the situation. They could runaway from home, with the intentions of returning home and they end up getting kidnapped! If you think they are having home issue, TALK TO THEM, because someone always need someone to talk to and you could save their life.
• If you stay in an area where you have to walk to where you are going and it’s at night or in a not so great neighborhood, you should Facetime, Skype, JusTalk, Tango, WHATEVER, someone while you are going to your destination, even talk to someone on the phone until you get to where you’re going. One thing I saw in Taken 2 is scream out the description of someone who is either kidnapping you, looking suspicious near you or say the license plate number to the person you are on the phone with. I can’t say that that is 100% effective since it was in a movie BUT it can help.
• Keep a weapon on you; mace, pepper spray, a razor blade, pocket knife, a Taser, etc. If you know or think that you are going to be in a different environment, keep something to protect yourself on you, because you never know if you are going to be outnumbered

As a woman of the black race,  that is currently trending to be the top missing group of people, I am going to protect my self and I hope you, as women, even of different races do the same.

Here is a link of  photos provided by the D.C Metropolitan Police Department  of current individuals missing in the Washington, D.C area as of this year and there are some that have been missing from previous years. All aren’t women, some are black men as well.

Photos of Minorities currently missing in D.C area

featured Image: BET.com