“The officers did not have a warrant, and some called themselves ‘The Goon Squad’ because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it.”
GOON: A violent, aggressive person who is hired to intimidate or harm people; a thug.
[My note: Over the years, we have heard about “bad apples” in policing; the idea being that “bad apples” do, in fact, spoil “the barrel;” that is, the police organization. But these guys were more than “barrel-spoilers,” they undermined the entire concept of policing a free and diverse society. So how does this continue to happen in the 21st century? Hasn’t policing evolved enough since the Wickersham Commission in 1931 called for a halt for police to abstain from using to illegal force and torture to extract confessions; that is, using the “third degree?” They reported that “the inflicting of pain, physical or mental, to extract confessions or statements… is widespread throughout the country.” A noted police chief, August Vollmer, was the primary author of the commission’s final report. The glaring situation here (for those of us who know the subculture of policing) is that this was not a secretive society. I would be difficult to believe that the current leadership and employees of the Rankin County (MS) Sheriff’s Department did not know what was going on. The failure here is more than six officers going to jail. It is the organizational and moral failure to “blow the whistle” on criminal conduct by fellow employees. Did they not hear the cries from the Black community in Rankin County? Those who had suffered under the violence of the Goon Squad? Sad. Sad. Sad.]
Tasers, taunts, torment: How 6 White officers subjected 2 Black men to hours of grueling violence, and then tried to cover it up
“CNN — Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleaded guilty Monday to all state charges against them stemming from the torture and abuse this year of two Black men, one of whom was shot in the mouth.
“Their pleas Monday came after the former officers – five of them deputies for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, the sixth an officer for the Richland Police Department – pleaded guilty this month to federal charges in connection to the same January incident, which the victims have claimed was motivated by their race…
“The former officers pleaded guilty August 3 to federal charges in the case, in which US prosecutors said the former officers kicked down the door of a home in Braxton, Mississippi, where the Black men were living and assaulted them for two hours.
“The officers did not have a warrant, and some ‘called themselves “The Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it,’ according to a federal charging document…
“Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced in June deputies had been fired, though he did not say how many or their names. The Richland Police Department announced in July that Hartfield – who was off-duty at the time of the alleged assault – had resigned.
“[Sheriff] Bailey, who does not face any charges, has said he will not resign. In a statement Monday, he said he hoped the ‘guilty pleas bring some sense of justice’ to [victims] Parker and Jenkins.
“’The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office continues to evaluate and modify its policies, procedures, and training for all sheriff’s office employees,’ Bailey said. ‘We have asked for assistance from outside agencies and contracted with outside firms to evaluate us, make recommendations, and conduct training. These actions are taken to prevent anything like January’s tragedy from ever happening again.’
“[Sheriff] Bailey is running unopposed for reelection in November.”
Read the full CNN news report HERE.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 