The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi announced reform measures that have been adopted by the department after five of the department employees pleaded guilty to torturing two Black men earlier this year. Will new training keep the Goon Squad from being revived?
Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins said they were brutally beaten, sexually assaulted and tortured for 90 minutes by five Rankin County deputies and one local officer who conducted a botched raid in their home in January.
In their lawsuit, the two said the cops forced their way into the home unannounced and proceeded to abuse them while calling them racial slurs. The incident left the two with serious injuries and for Jenkins, a broken jaw and lacerated tongue after being shot in the mouth.
The group, who call themselves the Goon Squad, according to prosecutors, pleaded guilty to federal and state charges in connection to the incident. As they await sentencing, Sheriff Bryan Bailey tried to clean up the shop with a reformed patrol policy.
Read more about it from CNN:
In a news release, Sheriff Bailey said deputies and jailers with the department have completed a training session taught by the FBI’s Civil Rights Unit, an internal affairs investigator had been recruited to “help foster impartiality and fairness in our reviews,” and the department also updated its “compliments/complaints process.”
Sheriff Bailey said in Tuesday’s news release his department took “immediate action” to remove the officers “once the true facts were discovered.”
Bailey told CNN he will continue to work to repair the damage of the so-called Goon Squad.
“I had a group of thugs wearing badges that got out and went and committed a home invasion against two innocent men,” Bailey said. “It was completely criminal.”
The updated officer manual says deputies should use objectively reasonable force to stop a perceived threat and determine whether force should be used based off a list of criteria including the severity of the crime. The manual also advises officers to attempt to resolve incidents without immediately resorting to a use of force which obviously wasn’t a consideration in the case of Jenkins and Parker.
Angela English, Rankin County NAACP President, said the department changes are cute and all but what would look even better is Bailey’s resignation.
“The only change that I can see that would really help Rankin County is for him to step down at this point,” English said to WJTV. “To be perfectly honest, the fact that a man of his age and during this time would have not come in and made those changes initially, that’s very disappointing and shows poor leadership.”