2 Black Men Victimized By Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Awarded $2.5 Million Settlement
Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker have been the subject of extensive BOSSIP coverage since March 2023, when news about the abuse that both men suffered at the hands of Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies began to circulate nationally. The two Black men from Mississippi were beaten, tortured, and sexually abused by a group of “police officers”, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke, Brett McAlpin, and ex-Richland cop Joshua Hartfield, who dubbed themselves “Goon Squad”. When all was said and done, all six “men” were sentenced to a total of 137 years in prison for the violence that they inflicted on two innocent brothas.
Pigs in prison certainly qualifies as justice, but in the words of the illustrious orator Kendrick Lamar, it’s not enough.
Truthfully, nothing can make these two men whole again. The terror they experienced will likely haunt them for the rest of their lives; however, it is incumbent upon society to exhaust all efforts to provide reasonable restitution to them. According to WJTV, an agreement to that end has been reached…
A Rankin County Sheriff’s Office defense attorney named Jason Dare has announced that the RCSO has settled the civil lawsuit filed against it by the two men for $2.5 million. The pair had initially filed a $400 million suit against both the county and Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey. Jenkins and Parker’s attorney’s released a joint statement in reaction to the agreement:
On behalf of the victims, we plead for the public to have them and their families have their privacy in order to heal.
In the name of justice, and on behalf of other victims of the Rankin County Goon Squad, we are hoping their cases can be resolved soon and allow Rankin County and the State of Mississippi can turn a new and better page in policing and racial relations.
A decision has not yet been made to proceed with civil judgments against the individual officers, but it is possibility.
President of the NAACP Rankin County chapter, Angela English, spoke to MPBonline about the “insulting” dollar amount of the settlement:
“But, on the other hand, the fact that they were able to get anything, including the convictions of all white officers in Rankin County, is historic. At the very least, it’s been established that the low down atrocities the Rankin County ‘good ole boys’ have been doing will no longer be tolerated by African Americans in Rankin County. We hope the state and county can turn a new, and better, page in policing and race relations.”
We hope that all “Goon Squad” victims get financial compensation and that they can all heal from the trauma they have endured.
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