"Goon Squad" of Mississippi sheriff deputies carried out campaign of terror and torture
Deputies in Rankin County carried out a reign of extrajudicial torture and brutality that went ignored for years.
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Deputies in Rankin County carried out a reign of extrajudicial torture and brutality that went ignored for years.
BRANDON, Miss. — Last month, The New York Times and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today investigated a series of allegations that for nearly two decades, Rankin County sheriff’s deputies tortured people suspected of drug use to extract information and confessions. Reporters examined hundreds of pages of court records and sheriff’s office reports and interviewed more than 50 people who say they witnessed or experienced these events. What emerged was a pattern o
Mississippians say they’ve been shocked with Tasers, beaten with batons, pistol-whipped and waterboarded by Rankin County deputies, for decades.
Mississippians say they’ve been shocked with Tasers, beaten with batons, pistol-whipped and waterboarded by Rankin County deputies, for decades.
They barged into homes in the middle of the night, then held people down while they beat and choked them, witnesses said. For years, signs of the violence went ignored.