Attorneys for two Black men who were tortured by Mississippi law enforcement officers announced their intention to file more lawsuits on behalf of other victims who were brutalized by officers from the same sheriff’s department. The Justice Department recently opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department following the sentencing of former deputies and a police officer on federal criminal charges related to a racist attack on the two victims. The lawsuit filed by attorneys Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker seeks $400 million in damages and alleges longstanding misconduct within the sheriff’s department.
During a news conference, Shabazz and Walker reiterated their belief that the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department has been poorly run for over a decade and called for Sheriff Bryan Bailey to resign. They argued that the brutality within the department predates Bailey’s tenure as sheriff and criticized the county’s insufficient insurance coverage for victims of police brutality. The attorneys also called for the county supervisors to censure Bailey and take responsibility for the negative impact the department’s actions had on the citizens of Rankin County.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke announced that the Justice Department’s investigation will focus on determining whether the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department has engaged in a pattern of excessive force, wrongful stops, searches, and arrests, as well as racially discriminatory policing practices. The sheriff’s department has pledged to cooperate fully with the federal investigation and has taken steps to increase transparency by posting its policies and procedures online. The sentencing of the former deputies and police officer followed an Associated Press investigation that linked some of the officers to multiple violent encounters dating back to 2019.
The attacks on Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker by law enforcement officers began with a racist call for violence and escalated to a traumatic, hours-long assault involving multiple officers. The victims were subjected to degrading treatment, including being forced to strip naked, while enduring racial slurs and physical abuse. The perpetrators, including former deputy Brett McAlpin, were part of a group known as the Goon Squad, who were willing to use excessive force and engaging in egregious misconduct. The case has drawn comparisons to Mississippi’s history of racist atrocities, with the key difference being that the officers involved faced consequences for their actions.
The attorneys for Jenkins and Parker have vowed to continue fighting for justice for their clients and other victims of police brutality in Rankin County. They expressed their commitment to seeking accountability for the actions of the officers involved in the attack and ensuring that the sheriff’s department implements necessary reforms to prevent future incidents of misconduct. The community response to the case has been supportive, with some local residents joining calls for Sheriff Bailey to step down and for the county to take responsibility for its role in enabling the officers’ abusive behavior. The ongoing legal and federal investigations into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department signal a potential reckoning for the department and a chance for the victims to seek justice and closure.
