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It’s been more than two years since six now-former Braxton, Mississippi, police officers entered the home of two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, without a warrant and brutalized, tortured and sexually assaulted them. Last week, Rankin County officials announced that they had settled a lawsuit filed by Jenkins and Parker, who the court awarded $2.5 million for the trauma, indignity and physical, emotional and psychological torture they endured in January 2023.
“This amount, for Mississippi, is historic,” Trent Walker, the victims’ attorney, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. “I can’t think of an excessive force settlement larger than this.”
Before we get deeper into the settlement, here’s a refresher on what the six former officers — Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke and Joshua Hartfield — did the night of Jan. 24, 2023.
From AP:
Federal court records detail how they burst into a home without a warrant, handcuffed Jenkins and Parker, assaulted them with a sex toy and beat Parker with a wooden and a metal sword. They poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces and then forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess.
Then one of them put a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and fired.
As Jenkins lay bleeding, they didn’t render medical aid. They knew the mission had gone too far and devised a hasty cover-up scheme that included a fictitious narcotics bust, a planted gun and drugs, stolen surveillance footage and threats.
Opdyke found a sex toy, which he mounted on a BB gun he also found and forced into Parker’s mouth. Dedmon tried to sexually assault Jenkins with the toy. The officers repeatedly electrocuted the victims with stun guns to compare whose weapons were more powerful.
Elward forced Jenkins to his knees for a “mock execution” by firing without a bullet, but the gun discharged. The bullet lacerated Jenkins’ tongue and broke his jaw before exiting his neck.
The officers also planted drugs and shell casings in the home to make it look like a narcotics bust. And, lest we forget, the whole episode started when Dedmon placed a call to McAlpin to inform him that two Black men were living with a white woman, prompting them to get “The Goon Squad” together and do their raging white supremacist work.
All six men pleaded guilty to an array of federal charges, including conspiracy against rights, obstruction of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and they were sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison. So, now that the Klan-ish cops have been thrown in prison and a court settlement has been reached, an attorney for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, Jason Dare, has declared that “this is the ending of the Michael Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker case from the perspective” of the department. The problem with Dare’s statement, of course, is that, while Jenkins and Parker’s case might indeed be concluded, the culture of policing that fostered the environment where what happened to them could happen is likely still an issue.
More from AP:
An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies, but the six officers are the only ones who have been charged.
During the officers’ sentencing hearings, former deputies and prosecutors said the torture of Jenkins and Parker was far from isolated. In at least nine incidents over five years, McAlpin brutalized people during arrests, prosecutors said.
So, maybe it’s a bit early for Rankin County officials to start declaring victory in the battle against corruption, violence and systemic racism in policing. Clearing a single case doesn’t bring justice to countless other victims, and it certainly doesn’t keep the streets safe for Black people.
Congratulations to Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, though, and may their healing journeys continue.
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