What is the 'Goon Squad'? Two men tortured by 6 White officers in Mississippi share ordeal of abuse and assault
BRAXTON, MISSISSIPPI: Two Black men who endured severe abuse and assault at the hands of six White officers have opened up about the January ordeal. The 32-year-old Michael Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, 35, have reportedly claimed not to be their normal self after the torture they went through.
Each of the six former Mississippi police officers has now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice after being involved in the January 24 crime, which saw the tasering, torture, and abuse of Jenkins and Parker, PEOPLE reported.
What is the ‘Goon Squad’?
Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, and Daniel Opdyke are the ex-officers from Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, who were involved in the abuse and assault of Jenkins and Parker. The sixth member of the group is ex-Richland Police Department officer Joshua Hartfield.
As per The Independent, three of the cops involved were members of the "Goon Squad” — infamous for “using excessive force and not reporting it.”
Who are Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker?
Jenkins and Parker are two Black men who were victimized by the six White cops, after getting a text message from another deputy, which read, “Are y’all available for a mission?”
At the time of the horrific incident, the victims were living in Parker’s childhood friend’s house and were handcuffed and tortured without probable cause to believe they were suspects in any criminal activity.
What did Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker reveal?
Now, the pair have spoken with PEOPLE, with Jenkins recalling how one of the officers pulled the trigger inside his mouth. He shared, “I thought I was dead. I was asking Eddie when they shot me. I said, ‘Bro, I’m dying.’ Yeah, I thought I was dead. They killed me, but I didn’t die, brother. They killed me, I just did not die.”
Parker went on to call the assault a “catastrophe” and “brutal” and mentioned, “We were complying with everything they wanted. It wasn’t nothing that we could do to stop it. I mean, it was bound to happen. At the end, I did say we were about to die.”
The two men have also sued the former officers by filing a $400-million-dollar federal civil rights lawsuit, which states that one of the cops “forced the dildo into the mount of [Parker], and attempted to force the dildo into the mouth of [Jenkins]”. They were even compelled to bathe together “to wash away evidence of abuse.”
Mugshots of Mississippi officers
Who were the officers involved?
Five of the officers had served Rankin County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO). Dedmon reportedly worked as Narcotics Investigator, Middleton was a Lieutenant, Elward and Opdyke served as Deputy, and McAlpin was Chief Investigator.
Hartfield served as Narcotics Investigator at the Richland Police Department. All of them “called them [Jenkins and Parker] racial slurs, and warned them to stay out of Rankin County”.
What did authorities say?
Attorney General Merrick Garland reportedly said, “The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers.”
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also noted, “No human being should ever be subjected to the kind of torturous, traumatizing and horrific acts of violence that were carried out by these law enforcement officers.”
And, Malik Shabazz, the lawyer for the Black men, added, “Today’s guilty pleas are historic, in the fight for justice against rogue police torture and police brutality in Rankin County, the state of Mississippi, and all over America.”
What punishment can the Goon Squad expect?
All the White men will be sentenced in mid-November, with Dedmon and Elward each expected to get “a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75 million in fines,” AP reported.
Hartfield could get 80 years behind bars as well as a $1.5 million fine. McAlpin is expected to get 90 years along with $1.75 million. “Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5 million, and Opdyke could be sentenced to 100 years with a $2 million fine,” the news agency added.