RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – The NAACP is calling for the removal of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey and for the Goon Squad to get the maximum time once they are sentenced.
The six former law enforcement officers are set to be sentenced after pleading guilty to torturing two Black men in Rankin County in January 2023.
Rankin County NAACP President Angela English wants the judge to hand down the maximum sentences. She also started a petition to remove Bailey as sheriff.
“Mr. Bryan Bailey. He says he’s just so ashamed and just didn’t know any of this, but corruption breeds corruption,” said English.
The petition needs 30,000 signatures from registered Rankin County voters.
Court documents show that on Jan. 24, the former officers burst into the home without a warrant, then handcuffed and used a stun gun on the two men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker.
The officers assaulted them with a sex object, beat them and used their stun guns repeatedly over a roughly 90-minute period. The episode culminated with one deputy placing a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing, which cut his tongue, broke his jaw and exited out his neck, the court documents said.
The officers did not give him medical attention, instead discussing a “false cover story to cover up their misconduct,” as well as planting and tampering with evidence, the documents said.
deputies pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges for the racist torture of two Black men has asked a federal court to dismiss a civil lawsuit against him, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (AP
Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
The officers went to the home in Braxton because a white neighbor had complained that Black people were staying with the white woman who owned the house, court documents said. Officers used racist slurs against the two men during the raid, the court documents show.
The victims are identified only by their initials in the documents, but Jenkins and Parker have publicly discussed the episode. They filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June seeking $400 million in damages.
Court documents said the officers gave themselves the Goon Squad nickname “because of their willingness to use excessive force and and not to report it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.