"LAPD Alerts Are Full of Racism, Confusion...and Feathers" by Daniel Guss
The law enforcement agency desperately needs a Venn diagram... and a timeout.
Politicians and governments, particularly on the left, continually wrap themselves in a cloak of grievance demographics, only to trip over it trying to out-woke one another.
Case in point: the LAPD’s Special Order #22: “GUIDELINES FOR INITIATION OF A PUBLIC ALERT,” which was recently revised by retiring Chief Michel Moore on December 27th.
The revision details the LAPD’s updated procedure for when an emergency notice is broadcast across the region, like earlier this month when 4-year old Justin Chan was kidnapped in Long Beach when his parents’ car was stolen with him in it. The Amber Alert that the crime triggered created enormous and immediate attention. Two good Samaritans went out to find him, helping law enforcement safely recover the boy and arrest the perp.
According to the LAPD, an Amber Alert is issued when there is, “a verified child abduction or kidnapping,” and “the victim is 17 years of age or younger, or suffers from a confirmed mental or physical disability” and certain other factors such as being in imminent danger.
It is unclear, and the LAPD was unable to explain, how an Amber Alert differs from a Child Abduction Regional Emergency (C.A.R.E.) Alert.
The system works exceedingly well. But leave it to politicians and governments to fiddle with, fumble and muck-up a system that doesn’t need improvement.
Ebony Alerts
Yesterday, a number of people asked me about the LAPD issuing an Ebony Alert when a Black 19-year old woman went missing in South LA. I reached out to the LAPD’s Media Relations Division to find how how it differed from an Amber Alert and whether there are other such alerts.
Careful what you wish for!
According to Moore’s revised Special Order, “An Ebony Alert shall be requested as soon as a Black youth, including young women and girls, is reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, at risk, developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired; or has been abducted.”
I’m trying to do the math on that.
Must the person be developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired and does that designation only apply to young missing Black people?
The age range for an Ebony Alert is 12-25, which overlaps the under-17 range for Amber Alerts.
Since the description expressly includes women and girls, does it exclude boys under some circumstances? Because it’s unclear what type of Alert the LAPD should issue if a Black 16-year old boy goes missing and it’s unknown whether he is developmentally disabled.
If you think the confusion insanity ends there, it doesn’t.
Yellow Alerts
Logic dictates that if an Ebony Alert is issued by the LAPD to call attention to an at-risk Black person who has gone missing, the LAPD wants to use skin tone to immediately spike public awareness of the person in peril.
So is the LAPD’s Yellow Alert for a missing Asian person, then?
Apparently not.
According to Moore’s revised Special Order, “The purpose of a Yellow Alert is to issue and coordinate alerts following a hit-and-run incident wherein a person has been killed…”
As best as I can tell, the LAPD has no such alert for a missing Asian person, unless perhaps they can be wedged into one of the other categories. I asked.
Silver Alerts
So if an Amber Alert is for children, an Ebony Alert is for Black people, is the LAPD’s Silver Alert for the elderly?
Again, apparently not.
According to the LAPD, a Silver Alert is when all of the following conditions apply:
The missing person is developmentally disabled, or cognitively impaired, regardless of his or her age; and,
Missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances; and,
All available local resources have been utilized, such as the distribution of flyers, cell phone tracking, neighborhood canvassing, checking area hospitals, contacting family members and friends, obtaining photos, and issuing a “Be on the lookout” advisory; and,
The missing person is in danger due to age, health, mental or physical disability, environment or weather conditions, or the person is in the company of a potentially dangerous person, or other factors indicating the person may be in peril (i.e., Alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes); and,
There is information available that, if disseminated to the public, could assist in the safe recovery of the missing person.
This makes no sense, because it is unclear when and how a Silver Alert is chosen by the LAPD over any of the other Alerts.
Because the LAPD has even more of them…
Blue Alerts
Fortunately, a Blue Alert makes more sense than the others.
According to the Special Order, a Blue Alert, “is intended to solicit help from the public in the safe and swift apprehension of violent suspects that (sic) have killed or seriously injured law enforcement officers and who continue to pose a threat to public safety.”
But the logic ends there.
The thing that oozes irrationality, racism and a lack of historical knowledge is…
Wait for it…
Feather Alerts
According to the LAPD, “a Feather Alert shall be requested as soon as an indigenous person is verified as missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances. An indigenous person is of or relating to the earliest known inhabitants of a place and especially of a place that was colonized by a now-dominant group.”
Say what, LAPD???
Does a Feather Alert apply when an indigenous person goes missing and, if so, must they be adorned with feathers???
And how are you defining indigenous???
That word could apply to Jews and Muslims expelled from Spain; Mayans in Guatemala; the Inuit and Aleutians; the Saami; Aborigines; Torres Strait Islanders and the Maori.
According to Amnesty International, there are 476 million indigenous people belonging to more than 5,000 different groups speaking more than 4,000 different languages.
Leave it to the LAPD to boil indigenous down to feathers.
With Major League Baseball recently changing its Indians franchise to Guardians, and the National Football League changing Redskins to Commanders, the LAPD should immediately convene a meeting (I’d be glad to help, as always), to show that it is at least as enlightened as pro sports leagues, which is a pretty low bar.
It is just a matter of time before the LAPD issues a Feather Alert and the public is reminded of its long legacy of racism and how it decided to stick with a stunningly ignorant and undoubtedly ineffective label like this.
I asked LAPD Media Relations, with Chief Moore cc’d, whether they are aware of how these labels might be perceived by a public that is already hyper-sensitive to race, but got no response.
Yes, while the LAPD’s revised Special Order 22 says that this is pursuant to Senate Bill 673 and Assembly Bill 1314, the labels are screwy, inconsistent, unhelpful and even harmful.
Rethink these labels and contradictions, LAPD. Or just stick with what works best: Emergency Alert: Please Help Us Find This Person!
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a multi-award-winning journalist. In June ‘23, he won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards. He has been City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)