Sep 19, 2024 Story by: Editor
The Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi following the brutal attack on two Black men by officers in a racist assault, officials revealed on Thursday.
The investigation seeks to determine whether the sheriff’s department engaged in a pattern of excessive force, unlawful stops, searches, arrests, or racially discriminatory policing practices, as stated by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
The probe follows the conviction of five Rankin County deputies and one Richland Police Department officer in 2023 for an hours-long assault on Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. The officers had unlawfully entered a home and subjected the men to beatings, multiple stun gun attacks, and sexual assault. One victim was even shot in the mouth.
Several officers involved in the incident were members of a group known as the “Goon Squad,” notorious for their excessive use of force. In March, they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 40 years.
The case came to light after an Associated Press investigation in March 2023 connected some of these officers to at least four other violent incidents since 2019, two of which resulted in the deaths of Black men.
Clarke emphasized that the issues in Rankin County extend beyond the “Goon Squad.” She noted that the Justice Department has been informed of other serious allegations, such as deputies using stun guns excessively, unlawfully entering homes, using racial slurs, and employing cruel tactics to assault people in custody.
The January 2023 attack on Jenkins and Parker reportedly started when a white person called Deputy Brett McAlpin, complaining about two Black men staying with a white woman. Officers then handcuffed the victims, poured milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup on them, hurled racial slurs, and forced them to strip and shower together to cover up the evidence.
Local residents have drawn parallels between this attack and Mississippi’s dark history of racial violence. However, attorneys for the victims pointed out that in this instance, the perpetrators were held accountable.
Along with McAlpin, the other convicted officers include former deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke, and ex-Richland officer Joshua Hartfield. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee labeled their actions as “egregious and despicable,” handing down sentences near the maximum under federal guidelines for most of them.
“The depravity of the crimes committed by these defendants cannot be overstated,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said after the sentencing.
The attorneys for Jenkins and Parker, Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker, praised the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation, condemning the sheriff’s department’s long history of violence under Sheriff Bryan Bailey.
“This is a first, critical step in cleaning up the Sheriff’s Department and holding Rankin County legally accountable for the years of constitutional violations against its citizenry,” Shabazz and Walker stated. They noted that despite numerous warnings, Rankin County and Sheriff Bailey refused to properly supervise the department.
Rankin County is the 11th U.S. law enforcement agency to be investigated by the Justice Department since 2021, according to Clarke.
U.S. Attorney Todd Gee revealed that text messages between members of the “Goon Squad,” including those not present at the January assault, showed that deputies regularly discussed extreme and unnecessary uses of force, along with other dehumanizing tactics. One video, shared among the deputies, showed an officer defecating in a resident’s home.
Gee expressed the need to confront past abuses to achieve meaningful civil rights changes, stating, “In Mississippi and throughout the nation, we have learned over and over that real change in civil rights sometimes requires us to dig up the past, tell painful facts and offer new ways of doing things. We intend for this investigation to do that same work in Rankin County.” Source: AP News
