UPDATE: 05/22/2014 8:32 pm Eastern Standard Time

According to 10 News Tampa Bay local authorities filed new charges against 35-year-old Granville Ritchie, including four counts of having sex with a minor, however non of the charges are related to the murder of 9-year-old Felecia Williams.

File these circumstance under the continued destruction of the African-American community.  While the investigation in to the murder of Felecia Williams is still underway we see an often used technique by authorities to sway public perception and opinion.  Under the continued guise of “Ongoing/Active Investigation” the very authority figures who are charged with protecting the community often victimize the community instead.

The authorities have not charged Granville Ritchie with the murder of another individual but the media reports have convicted him and tainted any opportunity to learn the truth. If Mr. Ritchie is guilty punishment is immenent and well deserving however if their is any other outcome less than what he has been convicted of in the court of public opinion this is another tragedy we all suffer.

There was yet another outcry on Saturday from the African American community after a girls body was found but not yet identified, as to why an AMBER ALERT (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) had

not been issued in this case, possibly
preventing the murder of this child. Sometime later the person who reported the last known contact with Felecia was arrested for giving false statements to the police.

Florida police officers recently found the body of 9 year old Felecia Williams floating in the bay near the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Clearwater, FL; some 17 miles away from her home. Reports are, her lifeless body was found by two boaters on Saturday and autopsy has been performed however authorities are not releasing more details due to the active status of the investigation.

News reports began with the arrest of 23 year old Eboni Wiley, a reported friend of the family who stated Felicia went missing while she was in her care. Based on Eboni’s initial statements the police began searching the area the witness reported that child missing and while her statements have not been released, the authorities treated Felecia as a runaway and not a missing persons based on the statements from Eboni, therefore an AMBER ALERT was not issued.

The arrest of Eboni Wiley and subsequent police statements squelched the outcry for answers from the community. Why didn’t the authorities issue an AMBER ALERT for the missing 9 year old? Based on her age even though Felecia was considered a runaway, she was in danger of serious injury or death.

According to FDLE, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the decision to declare an AMBER ALERT is made by each police organization. FDLE like many other states follow the U.S. Department of Justice; also know as the DOJ, “guidance” on issuing an AMBER ALERT:

1. Law enforcement must confirm that abduction has taken place.
2. The child must be at risk of serious injury or death.
3. There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor’s vehicle to issue an alert.
4. The child must be under 18 years of age

Many parents have called for reform of the DOJ’s AMBER ALERT criteria and West Virginia went so far as to issue a new law in 2013 eliminating #1 as a criterion for triggering an AMBER ALERT.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 688 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the AMBER ALERT program which began in 1996. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children also report the murder of an abducted child is rare and estimated 100 cases in which an abducted child is murdered occur in the U.S. each year, coupled with such data as the 200,000 children who have been reportedly abducted where taken by family members one could conclude that the danger of serious injury or death is dramatically decreased in these circumstances.

In contrast the National Runaway Safeline an organization whose data is derived from peer-review journals and federal studies reports that between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away in a year. They go on to report that 80% of those children have reported been sexually or physically abused after running away.

What is even more interesting is neither organization is reporting on racial demographics choosing to report largely on gender and sexual orientation and how they correlate to certain risk factors. As a parent it is my intention to draw attention to inequalities and subjective decision making in law enforcement that result in serious injury or death in minority communities at a larger rate when we have the tax payer tool to prevent such occurrences. It is never too late to begin protecting all of our children.