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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 15, 2024

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I have watched the local police and officials pointedly ignore the problem, while pursuit of the murderer was left to Federal authorities, who themselves had been castigated for attempting to enforce the law in the area.

I am not sure this is entirely accurate. The local police did put out a warrant for his arrest and he was charged (by the state) (https://www.mcda.us/index.php/documents/state-of-oregon-vs-michael-forest-reinoehl-affidavits-warrant-da-info.pdf) with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon 5 days after the shooting (the same day he himself was killed). They seem to have carried out a reasonably thorough investigation (as seen in the affidavit).

It was a Federal task force which confronted him, but given he had fled to an entirely different state (crime was in Portland, Oregon, he was found in Olympia, Washington State) jurisdictional issues mean we wouldn't necessarily expect that Portland police would have been the ones going to arrest him. Indeed the whole point of the task forces is:

"Task force officers are state and local police officers who receive special deputations with the Marshals. While on a task force, these officers can exercise U.S. Marshals authorities, such as crossing jurisdictional lines."

and in fact, it was Portland police who found his location and passed it to the task force:

"The team, which included a mix of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, already knew that Mr. Reinoehl was staying in a brick complex of apartments in Lacey, Wash. The task force had information from an informant, passed on by the Portland police, about Mr. Reinoehl’s location and possession of firearms, said Lt. Ray Brady of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, who leads the team investigating Mr. Reinoehl’s death."

Local Portland police appeared to carry out an investigation as to who the shooter was, got information where he had fled to, and passed this to the Fugitive Task Force (who could cross jurisdictions) so that he could be apprehended. I don't think that can be reasonably described as "pursuit of the murderer was left to Federal authorities", as much as arrest of the murderer was delegated to Federal authorities.

I appreciate the correction, and think it is a fair one.