DOJ Breaks Own Rules In Shutting Down AMBER Alert Website (UPDATE: It's Back)

Yesterday, I wrote about how the government had apparently declared the safe recovery of missing children as “non-essential” with the shuttering of the AMBER Alert website.

Now it turns out that they are breaking their own rules in regards to what is essential and vital during a government shutdown. According to the U.S. Department of Justice FY 2014 Contingency Plan, one of the categories of activities that will continue is:

5. Those related to ‘emergencies involving the safety of human life of the protection of property,’ i.e., where there is a reasonable likelihood that the safety of human life or the protection of property would be compromised, in some significant degree, by delay in the performance of the function in question.

A total of 656 children have been rescued as a result of the AMBER Alert program, including children who have been kidnapped by non-custodial parents and by complete strangers. Clearly, shuttering amberalert.gov is an action that could potentially compromise the safety of human life.

Obviously, it is clear that not just the Park Service rangers have been advised to "Make life as difficult for people as [they] can."

h/t to RampartMedia.

UPDATE: Bad news, potential kidnappers! Amberalert.gov is back up and running.

I believe this tweet sums things up nicely: