Six former officers, who were members of a self-proclaimed „Goon Squad,“ were sentenced to decades in prison for torturing two Black men.
The Justice Department on Thursday announced it is opening a civil rights investigation into Rankin County, Mississippi, and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. A group of the agency’s former officers — who called themselves the „Goon Squad“ — last year to a series of charges for .
„The public is now well aware of the heinous attack inflicted on two Black men by Rankin County deputies who called themselves the ‚Goon Squad'“, said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. „Those officers have since been convicted and sentenced, but we are launching this civil pattern or practice investigation to examine serious allegations that the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department systematically violates people’s constitutional rights through excessive use of force; unlawful stops, searches, and arrests; and discriminatory policing.
