White Supremacy Under Color of Law
This is one of the vilest instances of racist police brutality I've seen in modern times.
I keep my eye out for stories like this because I think it’s important that we know how racism shows up even in the present day. If you think this is important, too, become a paid subscriber today.
They didn’t have a warrant, but they busted into the home anyway.
To the four white police officers in Rankin County, Mississippi, it was just as well that they didn’t have official authorization because what they were about to do could never be justified.
They called themselves the “Goon Squad” because even though they were part of law enforcement, they operated outside the law. Their actions dwelled in the realm of hate, cruelty, and torture.
The two victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, both of whom are Black, endured a night of torture that will forever alter their lives.
{{TRIGGER WARNING}}
According to the Associated Press:
The officers, who are all white, entered a house without a warrant on Jan. 24, assaulting the men with a sex toy and using stun guns and other objects to abuse them over a roughly 90-minute period, court documents show. After one victim was shot and wounded in a “mock execution” that went awry, documents say the officers conspired to plant and tamper with evidence instead of providing medical aid.
The details of the ordeal make the horror of it all even clearer.
Officers used racist slurs against the two men during the raid and “warned them to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River — areas with higher concentrations of Black residents,” the documents say.
Elward shoved a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and fired, court documents say. The bullet lacerated Jenkins’ tongue and broke his jaw before exiting his neck…
The deputies threw eggs on the handcuffed victims and forced them to lie on their backs while pouring milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup down their mouths. They forced the men to strip naked and shower to remove the evidence.
The officers also repeatedly electrocuted the victims with stun guns to compare whether the sheriff’s department or police department weapons were more powerful. One deputy, Middleton, offered to plant an unregistered firearm at the scene.
And in case there was any doubt that the abuse Jenkins and Parker endured was racist in nature, consider why the officers were called there in the first place.
“The roughly 90-minute period of terror preceding the shooting began late on Jan. 24 after a white neighbor called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman inside a Braxton home.”
Another deputy, Christian Dedmon, texted a group of fellow white officers and asked, them, “Are y’all available for a mission?”
The officers also,“used racist slurs against the two men during the raid and ‘warned them to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River — areas with higher concentrations of Black residents.”
Despite the attempted cover-up by the officers, the torture became public. All of the officers were either fired or resigned . Jenkins and Parker also filed a civil suit demanding $400 million. At the arraignment, all the officers pleaded guilty.
The charges include: conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Mississippi’s attorney general also announced he would be filing additional state charges against the former officers.
It Gets Worse When You Think about the Implications
As horrific as the events of that night are, it gets worse when you think about the implications.
Consider the fact that even while this is an extreme example of police brutality, it is likely not an isolated one. What must the culture of that department have been like for this kind of cadre to form and flourish?
If these are the men who were caught after a months-long cover-up, how many more such groups might be lurking within the ranks of law enforcement that haven’t been caught yet? How much violence is being done under the cover of law that never makes the news?
And if these men are convicted and go to prison, will that change them for the better or merely harden their existing racist beliefs?
Prisons are designed for punishment and retribution, not repair or rehabilitation. These men could turn even more violent and hateful within the carceral system as it exists now.
Worst of all, consider the trauma inflicted on these Black men, their families, and their communities. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a very likely possibility. Even the sight of police officers could trigger a physiological response that brings them back to that dreadful night. Their families and the people in their neighborhood must forever harbor a sense of caution and danger around their local officers.
Police brutality also instills terror beyond the immediate victims, Black people everywhere see this violence enacted behind a badge and develop a wariness of all police.
I lived in Jackson, Mississippi and have driven through these very areas many, many times. But even now that I live in a completely different state and city, seeing police officers does not provide a source of comfort and security, instead I feel a sense of anxiety and hyper-vigilance.
White supremacy has always been connected with not only the use of but the glorification of violence. It has its own kind of internal logic—If Black people are inferior, then they need to be treated as such when they “get out of line.”
In order to maintain the racial hierarchy and keep Black people “in their place” the use of force is justified and even encouraged. What better guise under which to use violence with impunity than in a uniform and the sanction of the state?
What these officers did is nothing less than white supremacy under color of law.
When I read about this story in the NYT yesterday, Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddamn" immediately came to mind. Your question does burn: "If these are the men who were caught after a months-long cover-up, how many more such groups might be lurking within the ranks of law enforcement that haven’t been caught yet?" Their name, apparently, is legion. :-( Thanks for continuing to write about these horrifying injustices.
The NEIGHBOR who made the call to police complaining about two Black men living with a white woman should be prosecuted and sued civilly for civil rights violations and conspiracy to commit violence to their neighbors. That kind of violence inducing racism should not be left unpunished. The neighbor took personal racism and elevated it to a police compliant about perfectly appropriate behavior and set in motion a horror show.