The Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday that it’s opened an investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department where six former officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad” pleaded guilty to state and federal charges in connection with the abuse and torture of two black men in 2023.
In its investigation, the DOJ said it will determine if the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department has engaged in violations of federal law and the Constitution such as illegal searches and seizures, unlawful stops, and discriminatory arrests.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland referenced the six’s “heinous attack” on two black men in which the officers entered the home of a woman without a warrant and proceeded to abuse and torture two black men—32-year-old Michael Jenkins and 35-year-old Eddie Parker—after receiving a complaint from a neighbor reporting suspicious behavior….