The Justice Division on Thursday introduced it’s opening a civil rights investigation into Rankin County, Mississippi, and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Division. A gaggle of the company’s former officers — who referred to as themselves the “Goon Squad” — pleaded responsible final 12 months to a collection of fees for torturing two Black males.
“The general public is now effectively conscious of the heinous assault inflicted on two Black males by Rankin County deputies who referred to as themselves the ‘Goon Squad,'” mentioned Legal professional Common Merrick B. Garland in an announcement. “These officers have since been convicted and sentenced, however we’re launching this civil sample or observe investigation to look at critical allegations that the Rankin County Sheriff’s Division systematically violates individuals’s constitutional rights by way of extreme use of power; illegal stops, searches, and arrests; and discriminatory policing.”
Garland mentioned the allegations in opposition to the sheriff’s division embrace overusing tasers, utilizing racial slurs, getting into properties illegally and accusations deputies have “deployed harmful, merciless techniques to assault individuals of their custody.”
The Justice Division mentioned Rankin County officers have mentioned they are going to cooperate with the investigation.
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Division made nationwide headlines when 5 former deputies, together with one former Richland, Mississippi, police officer, have been accused of torturing two Black males — Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker — in January of 2023.
Rogelio V. Solis / AP
All six former officers pleaded responsible to a collection of state and federal fees, admitting to breaking into a house with out a warrant and torturing Jenkins and Parker for hours, going as far as to shoot one among them within the mouth. The lads have been additionally crushed, tased repeatedly and assaulted with a intercourse toy, prosecutors mentioned.
The group of former officers had arrived on the Braxton, Mississippi, home after a White individual referred to as Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy Brett McAlpin to complain about two Black males staying with a White girl. McAlpin informed Christian Dedmon, one other deputy, who then texted a bunch of White deputies internally recognized for utilizing extreme power who referred to as themselves the “Goon Squad,” in response to prosecutors.
McAlpin, Dedmon and fellow former deputies Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke — together with former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield — have been all sentenced to many years in jail on each state and federal fees earlier this 12 months.
