US MARSHAL’S ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT FORMED
For immediate release July 11, 2023. 9am PDT
Today, a US Marshal’s Accountability Project was formed by social justice activists in the Pacific Northwest to start a national effort to hold the US Marshal’s Office accountable for the history of excessive force used by its many “Violent Fugitive Task Forces” around the country. The formation of this Project was prompted in part by the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of the family of Michael Reinoehl, the victim of the fatal police shooting by federal, state and local police operating under the pretense of a United States Marshall’s Service (“USMS”) task force. Read this coverage from the New York Times.
This lawsuit is just the latest in a series of lawsuits and exposes by independent journalists of the role of these Marshal’s Task Forces and their use of deadly force to effectuate what amount to “extra-judicial punishment.” The Project wishes to shine a light on this history and how these Task Forces have escaped any accountability for their actions. The US Marshal’s Services’ Task Forces have been widely criticized for repeated use of excessive force and its lack of accountability in executing fugitive warrants, as described in this USA Today article. This study, performed in conjunction with USA Today and the Arizona Republic newspaper, concluded that the US Marshal’s Task Forces kill an average of 22 suspects and bystanders each year far more than any local police department.
The newly created US Marshal’s Accountability Project (MAP), including local activists Cindy Domingo, Nikkita Oliver and Mike Withey, has published a “Petition of Accountability” to support the lawsuit and efforts to hold the US Marshal’s Service Task Force accountable.
The Petition is published on the Project’s website. http://usmaproject.com The Petition asks US Attorney General Merrick Garland to require the Assistant US Marshal Ryan Kimmel to be questioned under oath in the Reinoehl lawsuit. Kimmel headed up the “Northwest Violent Offenders Task Force” (including the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Lacey Police Department and the Washington State Department of Corrections) The Petition also asks the Inspector General of the DOJ to conduct an audit into the use of deadly force by the US Marshal’s Task Forces.
On October 15, 2020 Congresspeople Ted Lieu (D CA 33rd) and Kathleen Rice (D NY 4th)wrote a letter to the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz requesting it open an investigation into whether this was an “extrajudicial killing” (read the Lieu-Rice letter here) The letter questioned the role of former President Trump who made this comment on the killing: “We sent in the US Marshalls, took 15 minutes and it was over. 15 minutes it was over. We got him. They knew who he was, they didn’t want to arrest him and 15 minutes that ended.” (OPB, Oct 15, 2020)
For other press coverage see this article from Vox.
MAP Co-Chairs:
• Cindy Domingo (she/her) is a long time social justice advocate in the Pacific Northwest. She was the legislative assistant for King County Councilman Larry Gossett and the co-chair for the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes who held former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos accountable for the murder of her brother Silme Domingo and friend Gene Viernes (1981-1989)
• Nikkita Oliver (they/them), is a local Organizer, Artist, Activist, Executive Director, Attorney working and organizing in the Coastal Salish Territories.
• Mike Withey (he/him) is a human rights and personal injury attorney from Seattle, who brought the federal lawsuit against Marcos, and author of Summary Execution: The Seattle Assassinations of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes (WildBlue Press 2018) and see www.michaelwithey.com.