Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Police-Abuse Scandal Reignites Racial Tensions
This article reminds me of stories about gangs of white boys from all-white neighborhoods carrying baseball bats and going hunting to find black kids to beat the crap out of. That didn’t happen in my town, which was racially diverse from kindergarten on up. The cops in this story were just older and poorly educated versions, who’d replaced their bats with billy clubs & were still looking for black heads to smash! They planted their seeds. Now they get their harvest!
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Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Police-Abuse Scandal Reignites Racial Tensions
Acts inflicted by law-enforcement officers spur proposed legislation on training, accountability
By Cameron McWhirter and Mariah Timms
Six white former law-enforcement officers received heavy prison sentences in Mississippi federal court this week for two incidents of abuse against civilians, including the torture of two Black men—a scandal that has shocked a state with a history of racial violence.
The officers, who referred to themselves as the “goon squad,” subjected the men to physical abuse and degrading acts. The incidents prompted proposed state legislation to strengthen law-enforcement training and accountability, as well as state and federal charges against the former deputies. The sheriff is under pressure to step down.
The two Black male victims have since filed a $400 million lawsuit against Rankin County. Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker are suing the county for damages related to emotional and physical injury due to the abuse, which involved a shooting. Their lawyer didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Marquell Bridges, a civil-rights activist in Mississippi who helped draw attention to the Rankin County cases when he first heard about them, told The Wall Street Journal that he was glad to see sentences being handed down.
“This is a historic moment,” he said. “Hopefully, this will change police culture.”
Michael Jenkins, right, with his mother Mary Jenkins, outside a courthouse in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday. PHOTO: ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Those who confessed to the beating, shooting and sexual assault of two Black men in January 2023 were former Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputies Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke, Brett McAlpin and Jeffrey Middleton and former Richland Police Department Officer Joshua Hartfield. Last summer, all of them pleaded guilty to federal civil-rights violation charges, and then to state charges including home invasion, aggravated assault and obstruction of justice.
A lawyer for Opdyke said Opdyke “has admitted he was wrong and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims.” Lawyers for the other five defendants didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Over the course of three days, a federal judge in Jackson handed down sentences that ranged from just more than 10 years to 40 years in federal prison with fines and years of probation to follow.
The abuse came to light amid heightened racial tensions over crime and other issues in and around Jackson, the state’s predominantly Black capital and largest city, which borders the predominantly white, suburban Rankin County.
State officials have for years argued that Mississippi has put its legacy of racial violence behind it. But political tensions over treatment of Black people in the state persist. About 38% of the 2.9 million people who live in Mississippi are Black, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
The proposed state legislation, which is backed by both Democrats and Republicans, would expand powers of a state board to review public complaints about alleged misconduct by law-enforcement officers, including sheriff’s deputies. The bill would give the board the power to revoke an officer’s certification if warranted, said Democratic state Rep. Jeffrey Hulum III, a co-sponsor.
Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, who supports the legislation, said he hopes the bill—currently making its way through the state house—signals to the country that Mississippians can police their police and make sure citizens are treated justly.
“It’s important that they face charges and punishment from the state as well so that we’re not just relying, again, on the federal government to handle our dirty laundry,” he said. “We’re going to clean up our own mess.”
Cory Custer, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, said the governor condemned “the disgusting actions that these six individuals admitted to in their plea agreement.” Custer said of the proposed legislation, “Gov. Reeves will carefully consider it once it is in its final form and on his desk.”
Mississippi has a bad reputation regarding law enforcement and its relationship with the Black community, and passage of the bill “is a way that helps us clean it up somewhat,” Hulum said in an interview.
This week, the victims sat in the front of the gallery with their friends, families and supporters in a federal courthouse in Jackson for days of hearings as the former officers faced sentencing.
Federal prosecutors said the assaults were likely not the first time the “goon squad” group used excessive force. Court documents detailed how members used codewords in texts and threatened each other to keep quiet.
The prosecutions, pleas and sentences stem from two incidents, one on Dec. 4, 2022, and one on Jan. 24, 2023.
Michael Jenkins shows the scar left from having a gun fired off in his mouth. PHOTO: ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the second incident, the defendants arrived at the house, kicked down doors, used a stun gun on Jenkins and Parker and then tortured the handcuffed men for hours, in response to a report of suspicious activity made by a friend of one of the deputies, according to court documents.
The deputies poured milk, raw eggs and chocolate syrup into the men’s mouths. They discovered a dildo in the house, attached it to the end of a BB gun and assaulted both men with the device. They repeatedly used racial slurs and stole items from the home.
The deputies also fired guns near the men’s heads, demanding the pair confess to crimes, and staged a mock execution, during which Elward shot Jenkins through the mouth.
Then the deputies attempted to cover up their crimes, including by ordering the men to shower to remove evidence of the abuse.
Prosecutors revealed details about the December 2022 altercation in a court document released Thursday. Elward, Opdyke and Dedmon attempted to coerce a confession from the victim in that incident by beating, kicking and stunning him after a traffic stop. Prosecutors also alleged that Dedmon rubbed his penis on the victim’s face.
The Rankin County deputies sentenced this week were all fired by Sheriff Bryan Bailey. The embattled sheriff, facing calls for his resignation, has said that as soon as he learned what happened, he not only fired the officers but also hired an internal affairs investigator and imposed required training for all county deputies and jailers.
In a press release last fall, Bailey described the actions of the deputies as “abnormal and extreme.” His lawyer said the sheriff planned to release a new statement after all the former deputies were sentenced in federal court this week.
For some civil-rights activists and Mississippi residents, the deputies’ actions were another sign of systemic problems with policing in America.
“After this, it’s on to another city,” civil-rights activist John C. Barnett said in an interview. Barnett traveled from North Carolina to stand through Elward’s sentencing hearing.
Paloma Wu, deputy director of impact litigation at the Mississippi Center for Justice, a legal civil-rights organization, said: “It’s not a relic, and it’s not uniquely Mississippian.”
Write to Cameron McWhirter at Cameron.McWhirter@wsj.com and Mariah Timms at mariah.timms@wsj.com
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Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Police-Abuse Scandal Reignites Racial Tensions
Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Police-Abuse Scandal Reignites Racial Tensions
U.S. Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Connecticut between 1988 and 2006, including the revelation of leaders who discouraged disclosure. Those cases do not include at least 42 more that have been identified as not having been properly investigated. That is not to mention new Pentagon published statistics showing student-reported assaults at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
So after all the accusations and denials, the truth is finally revealed about Bill Cosby’s lifetime of raping young women, who were unfortunate enough to cross his path. The answer as to how he got away with it for so long, lies in his skill of slipping a Methaquolone pill, otherwise known as a Quaalude, into a drink he would give them. It would render them helpless to escape his subsequent sexual assault. Of course, he had also built a persona of America’s Grandpa, that was the ultimate deception.I first heard about quaaludes (‘ludes) in college in the 60’s. Apparently, he did as well! The word was that if you could slip one into a girl’s drink, she would be more compliant than otherwise. The records show that Cosby had multiple prescriptions filled at least throughout the 70’s, then apparently, subsequently found other sources. It became his “MO” and many women his victim. But that game is over now, most likely for the duration of his life! As with most abusers, Cosby felt he had a way to evade the light from shining on what he was up to. He thought he was safe and would never get caught, but If accused, he could claim it was consensual. It is what all abusers think, regardless of the form that abuse takes, and sometimes it can work for a long while. But when the light finally does shine and reveals the truth, the rule is that the longer the perpetrator got away with their nasty deceptions, the deeper the hole they will have dug for themselves. Epstein escaped via suicide. I think they’ll be keeping a close eye on Bill!