How a 'Goon Squad' of Deputies Got Away With Years of Brutality [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

How a ‘Goon Squad’ of Deputies Got Away With Years of Brutality

They barged into homes in the middle of the night, then held people down while they beat and choked them, witnesses said. For years, signs of the violence went ignored.

By Brian Howey and Nate RosenfieldPhotographs by Rory Doyle for The New York Times
Nov. 30, 2023

For nearly two decades, a loose band of sheriff’s deputies roamed impoverished neighborhoods across a central Mississippi county, meting out their own version of justice.

Narcotics detectives and patrol officers, some who called themselves the Goon Squad, barged into homes in the middle of the night, accusing people inside of dealing drugs. Then they handcuffed or held them at gunpoint and tortured them into confessing or providing information, according to dozens of people who say they endured or witnessed the assaults.

They described violence that sometimes went on for hours and seemed intended to strike terror into the deputies’ targets.

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The string of violence might have continued unchecked if not for one near-fatal raid in January.

According to a Justice Department investigation, deputies broke into the home of two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, shocked them with Tasers and threatened to rape them. ...

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Read more: https://archive.is/SePEz

Original NYT link (paywall): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/us/rankin-county-mississippi-sheriff.html

Alternate link: https://news.yahoo.com/goon-squad-deputies-got-away-133812697.html