rWhile doing some research on a somewhat related topic, I happened across this noxious post a couple months ago at the Rittenhouse Review blog. It just amazes me how frequently people will go on about something when a few minutes search Google would solve the mystery. Instead James Capozolla decides to make an idiotic statement about the disappareance of a young Georgia girl (whose body was found a few weeks later),
Oh, did I forget to mention that Ashleigh Moore is a black, African-American girl?
I hate to sound cynical, but I wonder if Ashleigh, despite her very Anglo-Saxon-sounding name, is just a little too dark to earn herself an Amber Alert, let alone spark a new wave of national hysteria.
Why was there never an Amber Alert for Moore? Because her case didn’t fit the criteria that Georgia and other states have for issuing Amber Alerts. In fact, Georgia has a web page outlining the criteria a case has to meet to result in an Amber Alert.
The main criteria across the board is that there has to be confirmation that the case is indeed a kidnapping and there has to be enough information about the kidnapping to make it likely that an Amber Alert will do some good.
All of the Amber Alerts I’ve heard of, for example, usually involve a case where police have detailed information about both the kidnapped kid and the kidnapper, and usually the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping as well. It was meant to fit situations like Amber Hagerman where there was a witness to the abduction and widespread dissemination of the description of the kidnapper and victim might have resulted in someone spotting either of them.
In Moore’s case, she simply disappeared. No witnesses, no firm evidence she was kidnapped or that she was in immediate danger. The problem is that if the system issues warnings for every kid who comes up missing, the Amber Alerts will simply be ignored. (In fact, police won’t even issue Amber Alerts where they believe a kidnapping hs occured but where they don’t believe the child is in any immediate danger — such as when noncustodial parents kidnap their children).
But why bother to spend a few seconds on a little research? Verifying things is just too hard.
Update: Henry Hanks points to this post at JustOneMinute pointing out others who fell for this nonsense about Amber Alerts.