re: California has special amber alerts for missing black people called Ebony Alerts

It doesn’t just give missing blacks extra attention by doubling up on alerts for blacks, but it also pushes missing alerts for blacks that will not get pushed for similar missing whites, Asians, and hispanics due to the requirements to push out an Amber alert.

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But more insidiously, all those factors mentioned in the Ebony Alert laws like disability status, age and so on are optional, too (‘The law enforcement agency may consider the following factors’ not “shall”). The only criteria that must be present is 1) that the law enforcement agency determines that would be an effective tool the in the investigation and 2) that the person be a black youth, including a young woman or girl—whatever that means.

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In fact, the criteria used for Ebony and Feather Alerts are different from ordinary Amber Alerts …and many of the differences between an Amber Alert and an Ebony or Feather Alert mean that a black or Native American youth will get an alert when children of other races won’t.

For instance, in California, Amber Alerts require proof of abduction, that the child be 17 years old or younger, or have a ‘proven’ disability.

By comparison, we just saw that Ebony Alerts can be issued for children 12-25 years old (and also theoretically older or younger), or if the black youth has a disability (no mention of it being a ‘proven’ one like with Amber Alerts). Abduction doesn’t have to be determined, the person only has to go missing under ‘suspicious’ or ‘unexplained circumstances,’ if law enforcement believes they are endangered or may be subject to trafficking. Feather alerts have similarly relaxed criteria.

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