How can you tell when an issue has gotten traction? When it spawns its own urban legend.
Last year, King County’s Committee to End Homelessness issued a fact sheet that included this alarming stat: “In a recent study by Seattle Police Department, 76 percent of unaccompanied minors were approached by either a known gang member or pimp in less than 45 minutes.” This “45-minute rule” is still a meme on the move: the director of one of the area’s leading service providers for at-risk youth repeated it and told me she’d heard it from a member of SPD’s downtown precinct.
