Minnesota Launches First Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women
Should more states do the same?
What's the story?
- This year, Minnesota enacted a law creating the nation's first Office of Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls to address the disparity in resources and police focus on cases involving minority women.
What will the office do?
- Taking inspiration from offices and task forces that focus on finding and getting justice for Indigenous women and girls, Minnesota's office will investigate cold cases. The office will also reopen suspicious instances in which Black women and girls were declared to have died via suicide or drug overdose.
- The office will also assist police agencies and community groups in active cases.
- The office will serve as a new, dedicated point of contact for those reluctant to speak with police due to fears of being dismissed or marginalized.
- Advocates point to the frequency with which law enforcement ignores calls for assistance when Black women go missing and decry the fact that families often have to organize and fund their own search efforts.
The statistics
- A Minnesota task force reported last year that African American women and girls represent 40% of domestic violence victims, despite only making up 7% of the state population. They are almost three times more likely than their white peers to be murdered in the state.
- Across the country, Black women make up 13% of the female population, but studies have shown that they make up 35% percent of missing women in the U.S.
- Cases that involve missing Black women and girls stay open and unsolved four times as long as cases involving white women.
- Brittany Lewis, co-founder of Research in Action, said:
"[N]ational statistics tell us that over 60,000 Black women are missing, and Black women are twice as likely than they appear to be victims of homicide."
- Democratic state Rep. Ruth Richardson is the author of House Bill HF55, which created the new office. Richardson said:
"One of the reasons this is so important is because when we see this data that our cases are not getting solved, or cases are not getting resources, it actually puts a target on the back of Black women and girls."
- Suwana Kirkland, vice chair for the National Association of Black Police Officers, said:
"I've been in law enforcement for 19 years as an officer. And as a leader, I have seen an increase in incidents of violence within our communities of for Black women and girls, and a decrease in resources and services and dedicated efforts and support to help solve these crimes."
"If a white girl with blond hair and blue eyes goes missing, every light comes on. [But] when a Black girl or Black woman goes missing you never hear about it."
- Activist Erika Marie Rivers launched the website "Our Black Girls" in 2018 to tell the stories of unsolved cases involving Black women and girls and highlight the epidemic on a nationwide scale.
Should more states do the same?
—Emma Kansiz
(Photo Credit: Black and Missing)
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Need to expand the mission to include other underserved minorities (Asian, Hispanic, Indian, Trans, etc).
https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh336/files/media/document/namus-stats-overall-april-2022.pdf
Skin color, ethnic background, or religious preferences should not affect the dutoies of law enforcement and not allowed. Anyone working in law enforcement or even the judicial departments should be thoroughly screened before hiring or being allowed to "run" for a position. Those individuals showing signs of prejudice should never be hired for any position in law enforcement or the judicial branch. Human trafficing of any type should be prevented at all costs, as should rape and murder. God only knows what happens to these people. They have families and people who care about them just as everyone of us do and closure is of vital importance to all. How would you feel if it was someone you cared about that went missing? It can happen to the best of us.
Why not for all women, regardless of race or color including Hispanics, Latino, Native Americans, whites, or minorities of all races or nationalities? SP
Hard to believe this is even questioned. Sad starement on this 'god fearing' country
All missing person cases should be treated the same.
Real black women or black dudes pretending to be black women?
good idea
Montana needs the same thing for Native American women! We do not put the importance of missing Natie Americans nearly as much as white women!!!!!
Minnesota needs to add American Indian women to their list. Generally their bodies are found in shallow graves near any towns that are installing oil pipelines.
Racist to the core, focusing on certain people only because of gender and race.
The stats I have seen on missing African American is disproportionate to White American females. Stealing females with dark skin seems to be an acceptable norm to several White Americans, and it has been this way as long as I can remember and I am 58 years old. Since African Americans are now legal citizens protected by the U.S. Constitution I feel that State and Federal agencies need a government office to find out how to thwart such evil to our Black American Females. My prayer is that the same legislation will be made in all states and be also made for Indigenous American females.
I am glad that Minnesota has put more resources in locating women of color that have gone missing!
I hope we can educate all women to recognize and be able to get help when they need it!
While we are at it, what about a similar commission to deal with kidnapped, missing, or murdered native american women?
I live in New Mexico. The same here with disappearances of Native American and Hispanic females. In the land of the free the majority of the population which is female has had a very tough road. Exploited, used and abused and for the most part of our history had been relegated to second class citizens.
Politicians talk about school shootings but how many talk about sexual assaults and harassments in schools or in society and even in the military.
I have two daughters that have been sexually assaulted while in school and I have made reports to the school and police which fell on deaf ears. My daughters made reports to officials while in school and were ignored. The culture is broken and the laws are weak.
Women go missing and barely a peep is heard. The fact that women are abused in this society and aren't protected with failure from the court systems and the police but where is the reform?
Amber alerts are for children up to the age of 17, silver alerts for the elderly of 50 years or older with deminished mental faculties but nothing for women between the age of 18 to 50.
More needs to be done to protect women of all color and those that would harm or exploit them need to be held accountable to the highest order.
it's a shame cops don't just do their jobs and investigate missing and murdered women of color like they do others.
It's not just black but all women and nationalities!
Since it's come up a few times, an impetus for this:
"Taking inspiration from offices and task forces that focus on finding and getting justice for Indigenous women and girls."
In Minnesota, the MMIW was implemented as MMIR:
https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ojp/Pages/missing-murdered-indigenous-relatives-office.aspx
Women are still treated like second class citizens at best in the USA. We need to pass the Equal Right Amendment, and we need more female lawmakers in Congress.
This is among the things our governments should already be doing. We spend far too much of waste and fraud especially in the Military Industrial Complex. We need to claw-back the $2-3 Trillion given-away to the wealthiest people in the USA by Trump tax cuts. We need to completely change our justice and penal systems. Prison should be a rare occurrence. The punishment should "Fit the Crime". But instead, our prison system is the largest in the world! More than countries with more than 1 Billion in population--India and China!
WHAT A FUCKING WASTE!
Indigenous and black women underserved...
Seems that Minn is the most caring state in the Union as not only this but many other compassionate bills are passing -- because the Democrats have plurality in the legislature and executive branches.