DOJ Will Investigate Sheriff's Office In Torture Of 2 Black Men

The Department of Justice announced Thursday it is opening a civil rights investigation into potentially racist policing practices within the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi.

In April,five deputies from Rankin County were sentenced to prison for violating the civil rights of two Black men. Self-styled as the Goon Squad, the five white deputies beat and tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker during a no-warrant home raid in January 2023.

“The five Rankin County Goon Squad deputies who assaulted Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker are in prison. But our prosecution of the goon squad deputies does not mean that the inadequate practices that may have fostered it have ended,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said at a news conference in Washington. “Our investigation will answer that question.”

Clarke said the department will investigate whether deputies in the sheriff’s office practice excessive force, unlawful traffic stops, searches and arrests along with racially discriminatory policing practices.

The Justice Department has initiated several investigations into law enforcement departments across the country over the last four years, including in Louisville, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; and Phoenix. Earlier this year, the department launched an investigation into the police department in Lexington, Mississippi, a town in Holmes County that’s about an hour from Rankin County.

“These investigations involve a variety of allegations and circumstances, but they have one important thing in common. They can be the most effective means the Justice Department has at its disposal to prevent the tremendous harm that extends from unlawful policing,” said Clarke, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights