Justice Department opens civil rights investigation into Mississippi sheriff department

The Justice Department (DOJ) on Thursday launched a civil rights investigation into whether a Mississippi sheriff's department has a pattern of violating the rights of black people.

The investigation focuses on the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, where a group of white officers were convicted of torturing two black men in a racist attack that included physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including the use of a gun to shoot one of the men in the tongue. 

The DOJ's Civil Rights department is now looking at whether the officers, or other officers, have a history of violating the Constitution through excessive force and unlawful stops, searches, and arrests. It is also investigating whether the sheriff's department has used racially discriminatory policing practices, according to The Hill.

“The public is now well aware of the heinous attack inflicted on two Black men by Rankin County deputies who called themselves the ‘Goon Squad,'” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “Those officers have since been convicted and sentenced, but we are launching this civil pattern or practice investigation to examine serious allegations that the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department systematically violates people’s constitutional rights."

The men were all sentenced in March to between 10 and 40 years in prison for their roles in the January 2023 attacks on Michael Corey Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker.

The Civil Rights department said it has already received reports of other instances of racially discriminatory attacks on black people in the community, including allegations that officers overused tasers, illegally entered homes, used racial slurs, and assaulted people in their custody.

“The violent, unlawful and racially charged actions of the so-called Goon Squad left lasting and damaging effects on the community,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “The concerns about the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department did not end with the demise of the Goon Squad."

Lawyers for Jenkins and Parker praised the investigation in a statement to the Associated Press.

“This is a first, critical step in cleaning up the Sheriff’s Department and holding Rankin County legally accountable for the years of constitutional violations against its citizenry," lawyers Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker said. “All of this took place because, despite innumerable warnings, Rankin County and Sheriff Bailey belligerently refused to properly monitor and supervise this rogue department.”

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.