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Archmage_of_Detroit t1_j21c8d6 wrote

Reply to comment by comic360guy in Colorado will launch its new Missing Indigenous Person Alert program on Friday by AudibleNod

If you read the article, it says...

>"The Senate Bill, signed into law by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on July 1, 2022, acknowledged the unique challenges that stem from these cases, which includes poor and inconsistent reporting, lack of interagency cooperation, and misclassification of racial identity. Part of the bill required the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to operate a missing Indigenous person alert program."

Oh, and the related headlines below the article demonstrate why this is extremely necessary...

  • Family of murdered Indigenous woman believes her death could have been prevented

  • National response for Petito was appropriate, but should apply to Indigenous people too, Colorado advocates say

  • 'We’re going to follow everything': Alamosa County mother remains vigilant in search for her daughter missing since 2019

  • Indigenous communities investing in keeping their languages alive

  • Report: More than 700 Indigenous people reported missing in Wyoming over past decade

  • Indigenous, Native American tribes are pushing for voting rights

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dyxlesic_fa t1_j224w2s wrote

The fact that they are failing to put forth every effort to find each missing person, regardless of demographic should be the story, here.

Instead we're supposed to feel good because they're correcting the issue, but only for indigenous people.

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thatoddtetrapod t1_j23p0jq wrote

I don’t think you realize just how bad the situation is for indigenous women. Because of the complex bureaucracy surrounding reservations described in Public Law 280, authorities can’t even investigate indigenous women’s disappearances unless they know whether the perpetrator was indigenous or not (as this determines which agency has jurisdiction over the crime). This means that while there’s at least an investigation into other disappearing women, indigenous women often don’t get any at all. It’s a real issue and you should educate yourself before assuming the focus on indigenous women comes from nowhere at all. Seriously, read up on PL 280. this video is a good start

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Archmage_of_Detroit t1_j229x5k wrote

We ARE correcting the issue. For years, Native women have gone missing and nobody gave a shit.

That was one of the main criticisms I heard online about the Gabbi Petito case - like yeah, we should be solving missing person cases, but where was this level of attention and outrage over the thousands of black and indigenous women who have gone missing in the US and Canada over the past few decades?

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dyxlesic_fa t1_j22ckjh wrote

Correcting the issue one race at a time, then.

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thatoddtetrapod t1_j23pcp5 wrote

The issue is PL-280. Authorities can’t even investigate indigenous women’s disappearances at all unless they know the race of the perpetrator who killed her. This is because indigenous on indigenous crimes must be investigated by tribal police whereas non-tribal member on indigenous crimes are investigated by either the FBI or state police. Problem is, with disappearing women, you often won’t know who the perpetrator is without an investigation. It’s a horrible situation where indigenous women simply don’t get looked for by investigators. It’s fundamentally not the same as for any other race. You should really do a lick of research before forming opinions like these in the future. this video is a good start. I’ve timestamped to the part that explains PL-280.

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chuiy t1_j26cgfs wrote

Do you have the attention for that? Are you yourself going to care about a new case every day and advicate for it? No? Exactly.

People shouldn't be made to feel less than for trying to find Gabbi Petitio. Sometimes, some things just catch on and people do what they can (even if just to fit in).

That said, it feels unfair, in spite of past shortcomings, to divert resources and attention away from other cases and on to one subgroup. It's nothing more than a bad apology. Because the police aren't expanding resources... so it's a trade, not "extra" anything. Some lives instead of some other lives, written in ink.

They didn't hire more police. People don't suddenly have a larger attention span.

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Grouchy_Occasion2292 t1_j26ngup wrote

I don't think you a fundamentally understand the problem literally at all. These cases are often not investigated at all. It has nothing to do with lack of resources or the attention span of your average American.

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chuiy t1_j26ob7o wrote

I don't discount the problems that have been brought to light regarding the lack of attention, resources, or follow through for minority, sex workers, and indigenous people especially.

That said, the alert system should remain objective and apolitical. It should place survivability, risk of harm, etc. above all else, not skin color. I'm not saying this to sound contrarian, I firmly believe two wrongs don't make a right.

I understand the intention, but resources are shared. They're tangible objects and finite, ever passing, windows of time. Maybe it won't be an issue. Maybe this is feel good legislation. Maybe it doesn't divert resources and it's been given consideration--who knows. That's just my opinion.

If we treated all cases and alerts equally, minority women should still be given the appropriate attention if we reform the rest correctly. Hold people accountable for negligence regarding cases, hold jurisdictions with disproportionate rates accountable (somehow), etc. That would be my solution.

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Grouchy_Occasion2292 t1_j26n06a wrote

Indigenous people actually have the worst rate. It's not just favoring them. It's an appropriate response to an issue that's literally affecting their community the most.

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comic360guy t1_j2200jh wrote

You're being fed a line that is making people pit against each other. It's being sold as a comforting inclusive thing, but the important thing is people. People. The more we separate helping people in a way different than others....even for these comforting reasons, the end result is an us against them mentality perpetuation. We are being bluffed into thinking this is all for good reasons. We now live in a world where it's offensive to just help people regardless of who they are just because they need help no matter what they happen to be. Soon we'll have 50 different kind of alerts. Don't you see that splitting people into categories is a bad thing. Helping should be helping no matter what you happen to be. Sad that people will see this comment as offensive.

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Grouchy_Occasion2292 t1_j26nnp9 wrote

No. You just are completely ignorant of the actual problem and why we need to do this.

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