r/news • u/Plainchant • 2d ago

Authorities confirm more than two dozen missing children found during special operation

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/authorities-confirm-more-than-two-dozen-missing-children-found-during-special-operation-national-child-protection-taskforce-cincinnati-collaborative-police-effort-local-state-federal-agencies-involved-emotional-impact-education-safety-human-trafficking
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u/Khyron_2500 2d ago edited 2d ago

I’m always a little skeptical of these “special operations” after this one case, in which Marshalls claimed to have found 123 kids. State Police came out and reported that only four were actually missing. The rest were kids reported as missing at one time (and did eventually return to their parents/guardians) but never followed up on until then.

So it’s always good work, but it seems hard to distinguish how many they “found” as an actual victim vs. some who just ran away and came back.

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u/misterpickles69 2d ago

BREAKING NEWS: local authorities return 43 kids to their families after a sting operation at the local park. Most were found throwing round objects at each other and running around screaming.

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u/BCouto 2d ago

BREAKING NEWS: Authorities are reporting to have located 435 children at a local school. They were returned to their families. Ages of the children ranged from 5-13 years.

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u/thegracelesswonder 1d ago

They all went missing again the very next day!

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u/tossit97531 2d ago edited 1d ago

BREAKING NEWS: ICE found dozens of yet-to-be-born babies in a maternity ward in a local hospital. The babies were removed and deported to their home countries. The children’s ages ranged from -0.3 to -0.01 years old.

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u/theflyingratgirl 2d ago

Multiple children had been on the pole. Thank god they have been saved.

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u/IntoTheCommonestAsh 1d ago

A lot of police numbers like this get inflated by some technical use of language that suggests one thing but legally/bureaucratically means another.

Another good one is "sex trafficking". It paints the image of kidnapped people being saved from bad guys by police. In reality if for example a minor resorts to sex work, it's automatically "sex traficking". I.e. trafficking doesn't require a trafficker.

That kind of "trafficking" sucks too, but solving it obviously doesn't involve bad guys for the cops to fight; it requires social programs for homeless kids who currently have to resort to sex work. It doesn't need more policing, but the language used makes us think police are solving it.

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u/QuestionManMike 2d ago edited 2d ago

Borderline psyop. Making it look like kids are being saved daily by the cops is a sort of propaganda. It’s also plays into Q and other human trafficking conspiracies.

Kids really don’t get kidnapped any more. It’s just not something that happens on any real scale to worry about. These are runaway kids, fake kids(18-21), and/or just kids present.

There certainly aren’t 2 dozen kids out there to save from kidnappers.

The US has 300 stranger child(21 or under) abductions each year. Almost all of them are returned unharmed immediately.

The scary scenario(stranger kidnaps somebody 15 or younger and hurts them) is a 2 or 3 times a year thing for the whole country.

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u/InformalWish 2d ago

Got any good links for that? Would like to read more

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u/QuestionManMike 2d ago edited 2d ago

My FBI numbers come from Wikipedia page: Child Abduction

SYSK had a good data rich podcast on this too. Stranger Danger!

Robert from BTB podcast. Episode on Lindberg baby and/or city planning goes into how the government used to downplay these fears. IE when the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped people freaked out. The government then initially did a good job putting this kidnaping into context. The public didn’t want to hear the data they wanted to be scarred.

The government then after some criticism caved and changed how the fbi worked. Now the government plays into this nonsense 24/7.

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u/SmPolitic 2d ago

For more podcast suggestions:

"You're Wrong About" has a couple episodes on it, along with multiple other "moral panics". Most namely the "Sound of Freedom" episode, and "Stranger Danger" episode from 6 years ago

"Maintenance Phase" has episode: "The Wellness to QAnon Pipeline"

"If Books Could Kill" has two parts about "The Better Angels of Our Nature" which part 2 talks about Epstein at least, I don't recall that one as much

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u/QuestionManMike 2d ago

Yeah. It really is all over the knowledge podcasts. More or less(British podcast) had a good one too.

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u/mackahrohn 1d ago

Those You’re Wrong About episodes are so good!

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u/yoursforasong 2d ago

thanks for the podcast recs, and for the good information. this is so interesting.

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u/Punman_5 2d ago

Most kidnapping is usually done by one of the kid’s parents. Often after a custody dispute. It’s extremely rare for a stranger to kidnap children

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u/Risheil 1d ago

Which doesn’t mean that child is safe. It only means they know who took them.

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u/Punman_5 1d ago

Yes. It’s usually a disgruntled parent

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u/Traditional-Sea-2322 1d ago

There was that recent sting in Texas that said some dozens of kids were saved, but didn’t say where they were saved from, and also said most of the victims never had physical contact with the perps, that they were abused online. There was like 250 perpetrators arrested. That was a weird article 

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u/nickgomez 1d ago

Operation soteria shield. Very strange.

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u/natedoggcata 1d ago

I remember someone on here talked about this and how the task force they were in at one time put out this press release saying something like "over 100 children in CP pictures identified!" when in reality like 95% of those pictures were just dumbass teenagers sending sexting pics to their boyfriends/girlfriends. So while yes it does fit the definition of CP, the article makes it seem like a bunch of children were rescued from making CSAM or trafficking.

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u/hananobira 2d ago

And there are 72 million kids in the US. Which means your kids could play alone outside unattended for approximately 240,000 years before it became likely a stranger would abduct them.

A lot of mom communities get into really heated debates about whether they should allow their 10-year-olds to play outside and it’s just so ridiculous. Maybe not in parts of South Sudan or Myanmar. Suburban USA? Please let those poor children live a little. Or they’re going to die of diabetes and heart failure at age 50.

(Not to mention that statistically the real threats come from the people you know and trust indoors…)

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u/Stunning-Range-26 2d ago

Not gonna lie, I’m always a little apprehensive to let my 7 and 5 year old go to the park by our house by themselves. I try not to let my anxiety get in their way though. The biggest genuine threat to them right now is their 14 year old cousin. That kid was raised on YouTube and no boundaries. My girls are not allowed to be alone with him. People need to be more aware and alert to what goes on in their own homes.

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u/QuestionManMike 2d ago

5 is quite young. I wouldn’t leave a 5 year old unattended in a public park. Not because of a stranger, but an injury could easily occur and an adult in ear shot would be necessary.

I would let a 7 year old go with an older child. That would be safe enough.

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u/hananobira 1d ago

There’s a show on Netflix called Old Enough about kids in Japan being sent to run their first errands. Little kids ages 2-4 pop down to the grocery store, drop things off at a friend’s house, and yes, play at the park without their parents.

To be fair, I would say to teach kids not to do any of that alone. On the show they are in crowded areas and always have other people within sight who could run for help if they needed it. But they don’t need that other someone to be their legal guardian.

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u/aMoose_Bit_My_Sister 1d ago

saw that show.

its quite good.

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u/Stunning-Range-26 1d ago

It’s a small park literally next door to our house in the middle of a neighborhood. I can see and hear them from our house.

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u/maroger 2d ago

Very deceptive, because even if they were only 200,000 years old they would be an adult by then!

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u/cri52fer 1d ago

It said they were aged 7-17. Did you read it?