#Mississippi former deputies

[odinsblog]

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two former Mississippi deputies wept in court Wednesday as a federal judge sentenced them to years in prison and condemned their cruelty for breaking into a home with four other white officers and torturing two Black men.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years in prison and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years.

Lee said Dedmon carried out the most “shocking, brutal and cruel attacks imaginable” against the two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and against a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.

Dedmon did not look at Jenkins and Parker as he apologized Wednesday, saying he’d never forgive himself for the pain he caused.

Jenkins, who has trouble speaking after being shot in the mouth during the January 2023 attack, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon’s actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him.

“Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” Jenkins’ lawyer read. “Deputy Dedmon was the most aggressive, sickest and the most wicked.”

On Tuesday, Lee sentenced 31-year-old Hunter Elward, who shot Jenkins, to nearly 20 years in prison and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, to 17.5 years. The judge called their actions “egregious and despicable.” They, like Opdyke and Dedmon, worked as Rankin County sheriff’s deputies during the attack. (source)

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Too little too late. Ashamed that they got caught maybe.

[soberscientistlife]

Mack Charles Parker was a 23-year-old truck driver who had returned to his hometown of Lumberton, Mississippi, after receiving a general discharge following two years in the Army.

On the morning of February 24, 1959, Parker was awakened by Marshal Ham Slade and several deputies, who alleged that he had raped a young white woman, June Walters, the night before.

Parker and a group of friends were out drinking the previous night and saw a disabled car along the side of Highway Parker stopped his vehicle, and approached the car. After seeing Walters inside the vehicle, however, he returned to his car and drove away.

June’s husband had gone to get a tow truck. The police alleged that Parker returned to the disabled vehicle, forcing June Walters and her daughter into the car with him. He then drove to an isolated spot where he raped her.

Statements from those in the community suggested that the woman fabricated the rape claims to hide her consensual affair with a white man in a nearby town, and police officers garnered no conclusive evidence implicating Mr. Parker.

On April 13, a grand jury indicted Parker on two counts of kidnapping and one count of rape. On April 17, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the trial was set for April 27. 3 days before the trial, a white mob, wielding guns and clubs, dragged Parker from his jail cell.

The participants included J. P. Walker, a former deputy sheriff, and Jewell Alford, the jailer, who provided the keys. The men drove Parker to the Bogalusa Bridge. After shooting him, they weighted his body with chains and threw it into the river.

There is not enough time in the Universe for Mississippi to atone for all its sins.

Source: African Archives Instagram

[mariacallous]

The U.S. defense industrial base just got a $20 billion shot in the arm from the national security supplemental bills passed by Congress last week. But although officials and experts believe the funding will provide a much-needed jolt to military production and help open up new factory lines, some say it’s still not enough to respond to China, Russia, and terror threats at the same time.

“We have begun—begun—to rebuild the industrial base with the supplementals,” Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, said at an event last week. “Calling it a wartime footing, no.”

The biggest need? Money. Officials and experts say that the United States needs more of it, lots more, to make the real investments. At the peak of World War II, the United States was spending nearly 40 percent of its GDP on defense. It’s down to less than a tenth of those spending levels now. And the need to spend more has gone up with the Chinese spending more—and with Russian factories working around the clock.

“It’s still shy by quite a bit [for] what you would need to get our stockpiles in the right shape, get our industrial base in the right shape, help the Taiwanese, and get the Ukrainians in a position that they can get some leverage in negotiations,” said Jeb Nadaner, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy. “If the benchmark is against the calendar and the clock, we’re still falling behind every month. And that can’t go unnoticed by China.”

But the jolt will allow the United States to surge artillery production and solve key bottlenecks.

One is the production of solid rocket motors used for everything from Javelin anti-tank weapons that can hit a tank from a little over a mile away to intercontinental ballistic missiles that can propel warheads across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans if a U.S. war with Russia or China ever went nuclear.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, which was recently bought out by L3Harris Technologies for nearly $5 billion, was one of only a few suppliers. But the supplemental gives several billions of dollars for companies, such as Orbital ATK, to expand their solid rocket motor facilities.

And it provides money from the Defense Production Act—the same law that Washington used to force U.S. manufacturers to produce more masks, gloves, and face shields during the coronavirus pandemic—to build out a second tier of rocket motor suppliers, including X-Bow Systems in Texas; Ursa Major in Colorado; and Adranos in Mississippi, which was recently bought out by defense technology company Anduril. The idea is to fast-track work that wasn’t going to be done until at least 2026, if not 2027 or 2028, according to a congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about military contracts that hadn’t been made public.

There’s also about $100 million to help Williams, one of the only American makers of cruise missile motors, speed up production in Michigan. Those motors are used in the long-range anti-ship missile that might one day help Taiwan fend off Chinese landings; the armor-piercing joint air-to-surface standoff missile; the Tomahawk land attack missile that is the U.S. Navy’s weapon of choice; and the Harpoon missile that the Ukrainians have used in the Black Sea.

There’s also money to build factories for ball bearings, printed circuit boards, and other subcomponents for the $311 billion that the Pentagon wants to spend in the upcoming year to develop new weapons. Processor assemblies, castings, forgings, microelectronics, and seekers for munitions have been major bottlenecks. And there are recruitment and attrition problems almost across the board, from welders at shipyards to rocket engineers, a generational problem that might need vocational-training fixes at the high school level and up.

But with some Democrats pushing back on the Biden administration’s $850 billion Pentagon budget proposal as too costly, there’s also a focus on smaller attritable capabilities that don’t need a whole lot of start-up capital or defense industrial muscle to get moving.

There’s a ton of counter-drone money, about $600 million, that will go toward Coyotes, a small drone capable of intercepting other drones, and Roadrunners, an air defense munition that takes off vertically—just like the F-35 fighter jet variant flown by the U.S. Marines.

Some members, such as House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith, have advocated for ending production of ground-launched nuclear weapons. Congress is also trying to scrap old weapons, including F-15 fighter jets, the A-10 Warthog aircraft, and littoral combat ships used by the Marines. Smith is even curious about using microwaves as the next generation of air defense instead of directed energy.

The United States is also torn between near-term needs, like 155 mm artillery ammunition, and long-term needs—like a sixth-generation fighter jet that will follow the F-35. “There are going to have to be some trade-offs between preparing for a near-term fight and near-term deterrence and probably making some trade-offs on some next-generation weapons systems,” said Seth Jones, the senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still going to be a major factor in setting requirements for the U.S. military. “We’re going to be selling 155 [mm] like a drunken sailor for a few years,” said Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The Western alliance needs the U.S. to crank 155 [mm] for a decade.”

Other weapons used in the early days of Ukraine’s defense of Kyiv are likely to hit a plateau in production. Those include Javelin systems; the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS; and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which the Pentagon sent to Ukraine in large numbers early in the war and are also included in the supplemental, but which have taken on a secondary role as the fight has been bogged down in trench warfare for months and months.

Allies can help solve some of the bottleneck problems. The United States is co-developing new glide-phase interceptors with Japan as well as co-producing guided multiple-launch rockets with Australia and guidance-enhanced missiles for Patriot air defenses with the Germans. But after the political fights that took the supplemental more than six months to get through Congress, LaPlante and other officials acknowledged that the United States now has an image problem in showing itself to be a reliable torch-bearer for the global defense industrial base.

There’s another major production plateau that members of Congress are trying to stave off: attack submarines. The Biden administration’s proposed budget for the upcoming year slashed funding for one attack submarine. For years, producing two a year had been the standard, even though U.S. shipyards only produce between 1.2 and 1.4 Virginia-class submarines each year, and new variants are 24 to 36 months behind schedule.

And there are dependencies that are difficult—if not impossible—to cut. The United States still buys a significant amount of its titanium from Russia, which is used for everything from landing gears to tank armor, and is only slowly ramping up production of rare earth minerals, which are dominated by China. But the U.S. military’s weapons are ravenous for rare earths: The F-35 needs 900 pounds of rare earths to run, and the Virginia-class submarines need more than 10 times that amount. The military also needs lithium ions used in advanced battery production that China also dominates.

Where Congress and the Pentagon are having more trouble jolting the defense industrial base to life is for weapons that might be used in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Army’s precision strike missile that would be used to hit incoming Chinese ships from more than 600 miles out, for instance, is still being developed—the seeker that would find enemy vessels isn’t finished—so there’s no way to ramp up capacity, at least not yet.

But before the United States ramps up industrial capacity, some members of Congress want the Pentagon to take a good, hard look at what’s already on the books.

“Where can we look within the budget and say, wouldn’t we be better to spend more money on these things that we really do need?” Smith said. “So before I get into a discussion about, ‘Gosh, it’d be great if we had another $50 billion,’ where are we spending the money that we have? I think that’s the first question.”

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

For the third time in five weeks, a 16-year-old boy has died after sustaining on-the-job injuries at an industrial site, as lawmakers in several states advocate loosening child labor laws that protect minors from hazardous work.

The latest teen death was Friday night at the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, authorities said. It’s the third worker death at the plant since December 2020.

Duvan Tomas Perez, who NBC News reported moved to the U.S. from Guatemala six years ago, was cleaning machinery as part of a sanitation crew when he became trapped in equipment on a conveyor belt. He died at the scene, police and the poultry company said.

The company said that it appears that the child “should not have been hired” and that his age and identity were misrepresented on his hiring paperwork with an outside staffing company.

“We are devastated at the loss of life and deeply regret that an underage individual was hired without our knowledge. The company is undertaking a thorough audit with the staffing companies to ensure that this kind of error never happens again,” it said in a statement Thursday to HuffPost.

His death follows two other teens’ deaths in Wisconsin and Missouri.

Michael Schuls, 16, died on June 29 after sustaining injuries at the Florence Hardwoods logging company in Florence, Wisconsin. Michael was attempting to unjam a wood-stacking machine when he became pinned under machinery on a conveyor belt, resulting in what the coroner identified as traumatic asphyxiation, The Associated Press reported.

Will Hampton, 16, died on June 8 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, after becoming injured while working at the Lee’s Summit Resource Recovery Park landfill. The high school sophomore became pinned between a tractor-trailer rig and its trailer, resulting in his death, police said in a statement.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating all three deaths, a Labor Department spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost.

OSHA has also made a referral to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division for possible child labor violations concerning hazardous occupations in the Wisconsin case and a separate referral in the Missouri case to determine if the child was legally employed.

Federal labor laws allow children 16 and older to be employed in all occupations as long as the jobs are not declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor. The Labor Department’s website features a list of such hazardous occupations and specifies that “most jobs” in meat and poultry plants ― including equipment cleaning ― are banned.

Minors are also prohibited from being employed “inside and outside of places of businesses that use machinery to process wood products,” with a few exceptions, including if an adult relative supervises the child.

The Wisconsin teen’s father also worked at the sawmill and was at the site that day, Green Bay station WBAY reported, though the child was alone in the building when the incident happened, and he wasn’t found until 17 minutes later, The AP reported.

In the case of the Mississippi teen killed, the child wasn’t working directly for Mar-Jac Poultry as he had been hired by an outside agency. “These hiring companies often aren’t the most reliable when it comes to finding qualified, legal workers,” said Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary of labor at OSHA from 2009 to 2017.

“These temp agencies don’t have any scruples at all. They don’t have any national reputation to uphold. They’re just trying to sell workers, basically,” he told HuffPost. “And then the main company claims they had no idea, the temp agency [says it] was ‘fooled by false certifications.’ Well, obviously this kid did not look 18.”

OSHA has been going after this “to a certain extent,” he said, with the administration citing both the place of employment and the hiring company when a regulation is broken.

Barab partially blamed the nation’s ongoing shortage of labor for the hiring of children because employers are trying to avoid paying more for qualified workers.

“You have some employers who are basically going after the most vulnerable workers, the workers with the least ability to fight back or question anything. Who could be more vulnerable than (A) children and (B) immigrant children?” Barab said.

The COVID-19 pandemic, affordable child care, a rise in remote work and retiring workers are among the reasons cited for the labor shortage.

Regardless of the risks, lawmakers in several states have proposed weakening child labor protections in a bid to expand the workforce with low-paying labor.

In Wisconsin, where one of the three children died, lawmakers are advocating for lowering the age to serve alcohol in bars and restaurants to 14. It would be a nationwide first if approved, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Another bill introduced in Minnesota proposes allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work in or around construction sites.

In Iowa, the state Senate in April passed a bill that would allow children to work more days and longer hours, but in conflict with the current limits set by federal law, as Iowa State Daily reported.

The Biden administration back in April urged U.S. meat companies to ensure they are not unknowingly or knowingly hiring children illegally. This followed revelations that more than 100 children were working for a company that cleans slaughterhouses. The children’s work included handling hazardous equipment, like razor-sharp bone saws.

An estimated 160,000 children are injured annually in the U.S. while working. Of these injuries, 54,800 warrant emergency room treatment, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws has increased by 37% within the last year, according to a March report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The report identified 10 states that have introduced or passed bills within the last two years that would weaken child labor standards.

[beardedmrbean]

The six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who tortured and abused two Black men in a racist attack were sentenced on Wednesday to 15 to 45 years in prisonon state charges. 

The men — former Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies Brett Morris McAlpin, 53; Christian Dedmon, 29; Jeffrey Middleton, 46; Hunter Elward, 31; and Daniel Opdyke, 28' and a former police officer from the city of Richland, Joshua Hartfield, 32 — had pleaded guilty to state charges in August.

McAlpin, Middleton, and Opdyke were sentenced to serve 20 years; Dedmon to 25 years; Elward to 45 years; and Hartfield to 15 years in federal penitentiaries. The sentences will be served concurrently with their federal sentences, and all were ordered to pay $6,431 within two years of release, and permanently surrender their law enforcement certificates.

Prosecutors said the white officers had nicknamed themselves the “Goon Squad” due to their willingness to use excessive force and cover up their brutal attack on Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023.

In the attack, the men verbally abused Jenkins and Parker, beat them, assaulted them with stun guns and a sex toy, and one of them shot Jenkins in the mouth in a "mock execution."

The men had also pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the assault and were sentenced to federal prison terms of 10 to 40 years. 

The attack

In January 2023, McAlpin received a call from a white person who complained that Jenkins and Parker were residing with a white woman at a house in Braxton, Mississippi.

McAlpin then texted a group — the self-described “The Goon Squad” — that the Justice Department described as being known “for using excessive force and not reporting it.”

The group of men then went to that home without a warrant and assaulted Jenkins and Parker, punched and kicked them, called them racial slurs, forced them to ingest liquids, and assaulted them with a dildo, the Justice Department said.

Dedmon also fired his gun twice in an effort to intimidate the men, the department said.

In a mock execution, Elward removed a bullet from the chamber of his gun and forced the gun into Jenkins’ mouth before pulling the trigger. No bullet was fired the first time, but he pulled the trigger a second time, and it lacerated Jenkins' tongue and broke his jaw.

The officers then planned a cover-up and agreed to plant drugs on Jenkins and Parker, and those false charges stood against the men for months, The Associated Press reported.

Sentencing

In Wednesday’s sentencing, attorneys read statements for the victims. 

“After Hunter Elward shot me, they left me to die bleeding on the floor and they tried to set me up to be imprisoned,” a statement on behalf of Michael Jenkins said. “January 24th, Your Honor, was the worst day of my life. I was brutally beaten and nearly killed by the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, also known as the Goon Squad. I never would have thought a night of hanging out with friends would nearly cost me my life.”

“They beat, kicked, tased, insulted, waterboarded and humiliated me over and over again,” the statement said. 

“I can no longer do what I love to do and that’s sing. I play the drums for my church. And because I was shot in the face, it affected my vision so I can no longer play. ... I wake it up at night covered in sweat because of the nightmares of my attack. Loud noises police lights, sirens, all give me extreme fear and anxiety. I am broken inside and I don’t ever think I’ll be the person I was,” the statement continued.

A statement on behalf of Eddie Parker said the actions of that night of terror “has left a scar on me that will last forever.”

“I never knew the ones that were sworn to protect and serve would be the ones I need protection from,” the statement said. “I am in constant fear someone will break into my home and terrorize me again … the humiliation and embarrassment from the sexual assault is too great to me to talk about.”

“My life was not perfect. But it was mine. I doubt if I’ll ever experience it again ... They should be given what they gave me and Michael Jenkins — which was no mercy and I pray for the maximum sentence,” his statement concluded.

[reasoningdaily]

RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. -- Former Rankin County, Mississippi, sheriff's deputies Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton were sentenced in federal court on Tuesday after pleading guilty, along with five additional former law enforcement officers, to a total of 16 charges related to the January 2023 torture of two Black men.

Elward, who pleaded guilty to the most serious charge in the indictment -- discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence -- was sentenced to 241 months, or about 20 years, according to the Department of Justice.

"I hate myself for it," Elward said during the sentencing hearing, according to Jackson ABC affiliate WAPT. "I accept my responsibility."

Middleton was sentenced to 17.5 years or 210 months in prison for his role in the incident, according to the Department of Justice. The remaining four officers who pleaded guilty in this case will be sentenced during hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Michael Jenkins, who was shot in the mouth by Elward during the incident, spoke to WAPT on Tuesday afternoon after Elward stood up and apologized to him in court.

"I'm glad he looked at me. I'm glad he see me," Jenkins said, adding that while he "feels sorry" for Elward's family, the former officer got "what he deserved."

Eddie Parker, the second victim in the case, told Elward in court on Tuesday that he forgave him for his actions, according to WAPT, and said that he is "satisfied" with the sentence.

Asked about his decision to forgive Elward, Parker said, "For what is given and what is done, I forgive that part, but other than that, he still did what he did and he has to be punished."

"I always stand up for justice and for what's right," he added.

Asked if he also forgives Elward, Jenkins told WAPT, "I don't know. No, no, because if he wouldn't have got caught he'd still be doing the same thing."

Former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Elward, Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin and Daniel Opdyke, along with Joshua Hartfield, a former Richland police officer, pleaded guilty to 16 federal charges related to the torture and physical abuse of three Rankin County men in two unrelated incidents, according to a statement released by U.S. Department of Justice on Aug. 3, 2023.

The charges include civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. The former officers agreed to sentences ranging from five to 30 years as recommended by prosecutors, but the judge is not bound by the agreement, according to The Associated Press.

According to the charging documents, the incident on Jan. 24, 2023, took place when a white neighbor claimed in a complaint to McAlpin, the chief RCSO investigator, that she observed "suspicious activity" from Black men staying at a nearby property.

McAlpin asked Dedmon, who was an RCSO investigator at the time, to look into the incident, and Dedmon proceeded to reach out to a group of shift officers who called themselves "The Goon Squad" because of their "willingness to use excessive force and not report it," according to the documents.

During the incident, the officers beat Jenkins and Parker, sexually assaulted them with a sex toy and shocked them with Tasers for roughly 90 minutes while handcuffed, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. Jenkins was also shot in the mouth by Elward, per the DOJ.

And while Jenkins was bleeding on the floor, instead of providing medical aid, the officers "devised a false cover story to cover up their misconduct" and proceeded to "plant" and "tamper with evidence" to corroborate their story, the DOJ said.

"The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers," DOJ Sec. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on Aug. 3, 2023. "The Justice Department will hold accountable officers who abuse the public trust that is essential to public safety."

The officers admitted that on Jan. 24, 2023, they entered a home where Jenkins and Parker were staying in Braxton, Rankin County, Mississippi, where they handcuffed and arrested the two men "without probable cause to believe they had committed any crime, called them racial slurs, and warned them to stay out of Rankin County," the DOJ said in a statement on Aug. 3, 2023, announcing the guilty pleas.

According to the federal charging documents obtained by ABC News, sentencing maximums range from three years in prison for lesser offenses to life in prison for the most serious offense of discharging of a firearm during a crime of violence.

The two victims -- Jenkins and Parker -- spoke out during a press conference Monday morning about the enduring trauma of the experience as their attorneys called on the judge to give the former officers the "maximum sentence."

"I'd like to thank everybody for supporting us and believing in us," said Jenkins, who was shot in the mouth during the incident. "It's been very hard for me this past year. I'm just looking forward to justice tomorrow. I hope they do right. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

Parker, who is set to testify during the sentencing hearings this week, per his attorney, said that it's been a "hard year," and he's glad that the day of sentencing, which was delayed twice before, has finally come.

"Everything needs to be done right because everything was done wrong," Parker said. "What's done already, man, can't be erased; it can't be taken back. I relive this every day."

Malik Shabazz, the lead attorney for Jenkins and Parker, said that his clients have "been through a lot of trauma" and called on U.S. District Judge Tom Lee to give each of the former officers the "maximum sentence."

"The day of justice has finally come," he said. "That's an important day, not only in Mississippi, but this is an important day for accountability for police brutality, all throughout America. Police officers are watching this sentencing ... they're watching to see whether law enforcement in Mississippi and law enforcement in America will be held sufficiently accountable for their acts of torture and brutality," he added.

The officers have not responded to ABC News' requests for comment.

Dedmon, Elward and Opdyke also pleaded guilty to three additional federal felony offenses related to a separate incident that took place on Dec. 4, 2022, per the DOJ.

The U.S. The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the incident in Feb. 2023, along with the FBI, amid outrage from the community and as attorneys for Jenkins and Parker filed a notice of claim for a $400 million federal lawsuit. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation also investigated the case that led to state charges against the officers.

"It's in court, and we're fighting," Shabazz told ABC News on Monday when asked about the status of the lawsuit.

[steamedtangerine]

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced former Rankin County sheriff's deputy Christian Dedmon to 40 years in federal prison, and ex-deputy Daniel Opdyke to 17.5 years for their roles in the racist attack on Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker during a no-warrant house raid. The Black men were targeted after a neighbor complained about them staying in a white woman's home......... The white deputies beat, tortured, and sexually assaulted the men for hours. Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth when a mock execution went awry, and the officers also planted drugs and guns to try to coverup their actions with false charges. The white lawmen used stun guns and racial slurs, and told Jenkins and Parker to "go back to their side of the river," meaning the majority Black city of Jackson. Rankin County, to the east, is a largely white community.

[ausetkmt]

"Horrendous": Black Men Tortured By White Mississippi Police “Goon Squad

Six white former police officers in Mississippi who called themselves the "Goon Squad" have pleaded guilty to raiding a home on false drug charges and torturing two Black men while yelling racist slurs at them, and then trying to cover it up. 

We speak with Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker about how, on January 24, six deputies in Braxton, Mississippi, raided the home they were staying in and attacked them, and how they are speaking out to demand justice.

 Meanwhile, the deputies have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019, in which two of the men died. 

We also speak with civil rights attorney Malik Shabazz, who is representing Jenkins and Parker in a federal lawsuit against the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. Shabazz asserts that the majority-white Rankin County, which is 20 miles away from majority-Black Jackson, Mississippi, is "infested with white supremacists" who "have decided 'Rankin County is for whites'" and seek to enforce it through state-sanctioned violence and torture, overseen and covered up by Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey. 

"We demand that Bryan Bailey step down," says Shabazz. Parker adds, "We want justice for everyone that has gone through this with Rankin County."

[tearsinthemist]

6 white former Mississippi officers plead guilty to state charges in racist assault

15August2023

Six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleaded guilty on Monday to state charges for the racist assault and torture of two Black men during a January raid. Prosecutors say the officers — former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield — nicknamed themselves the "Goon Squad" because they used excessive force and covered it up. In January, they admittedly entered a house without a warrant and assaulted the victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, for 90 minutes with stun guns and a sex toy, then shot one of them in the face. The officers earlier pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges. [The Associated Press]

[soberscientistlife]

Talk is cheap. Real change is what is needed in the Jackson area.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Thousands evacuate from Nova Scotia wildfires (AP) Wildfires in Canada’s Atlantic coast province of Nova Scotia have caused thousands to evacuate. The Halifax Regional Municipality said late Monday that preliminary estimates indicate approximately 200 homes or structures have been damaged, based on initial visual inspections by first responders. Halifax deputy fire Chief David Meldrum said an estimated 14,000 people were told to flee their homes, most of which are about a 30-minute drive northwest of downtown Halifax.

Police agencies are desperate to hire. But they say few want the job. (Washington Post) The San Francisco Police Department is down more than 600 officers, almost 30 percent of its allotment. Phoenix needs about 500 more officers to be fully staffed. The D.C. police force is smaller than it has been in 50 years, despite troubling gun violence and carjackings, as officers leave faster than they can be replaced. Police departments across the country are struggling to fill their ranks, creating what many current and former officials say is a staffing emergency that threatens public safety. They cite an exodus of veteran officers amid new police accountability measures that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd, increased hostility from the communities they police, and criminal justice laws that seek to reduce the number of people in jail. Advocates for police reform see the moment as an opportunity to hire a new generation of officers and reimagine policing. But as agencies seek fresh recruits, they are getting fewer qualified applicants than in past years—leading some to make the risky move of lowering the bar for hiring to fill their ranks.

Gun violence rages with at least 20 mass shootings recorded over Memorial Day Weekend (USA Today) Gun violence erupted across the U.S. over Memorial Day weekend: At least 20 mass shootings left 16 people dead and over 80 injured. The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings, logged 20 incidents in which at least four people were injured or killed, not including shooters, from Friday afternoon through Monday night. The bloodshed started with a spree in Arizona, where a 20-year-old man was accused of killing four people and injuring one in five different shootings in the Phoenix area. Over the next three days, people were killed and injured in Virginia, Mississippi, New Mexico, Illinois and more. And Monday evening, as Memorial Day revelers in Hollywood Beach, Florida, celebrated the holiday, nine people were injured by gunfire along a boardwalk.

Drought-struck Barcelona quenches thirst with costly desalination (AP) Where once the population of Barcelona drank mostly from its rivers and wells, Spain’s second city now relies upon a labyrinth-like mesh of green, blue and purple pipes inside an industrial plant to keep it from going thirsty amid a prolonged drought. Water is pumped from two kilometers (1.2 miles) into the Mediterranean Sea to where the Llobregat desalination plant sits on an isolated stretch of beach. After journeying through several cleaning and filtering systems it reaches its final stop: the twisting and turning multi-colored channels that squeeze every drop of water free of its salt. Barely used after being built in 2009, Europe’s largest desalination plant for drinking water is running at full throttle to help the greater Barcelona area and some five million people adapt to the impact of climate change, which has contributed to the drying up of southern Europe’s fresh water reserves through heat waves and drought. In April 2021, before the drought, rivers provided 63% of Barcelona’s drinking water, wells provided 34% and desalination just 3%. Two years later desalination makes up 33% of Barcelona’s drinking water, while wells provide 23% and its shrinking rivers just 19%, according to Barcelona’s municipal water company.

Paranoid atmosphere (Washington Post) Parishioners have denounced Russian priests who advocated peace instead of victory in the war on Ukraine. Teachers lost their jobs after children tattled that they opposed the war. Neighbors who bore some trivial grudge for years have snitched on longtime foes. Workers rat on one another to their bosses or directly to the police or the FSB, the Federal Security Service. This is the hostile, paranoid atmosphere of Russians at war with Ukraine and with one another. As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime cracks down on critics of the war and other political dissenters, citizens are policing one another in an echo of the darkest years of Joseph Stalin’s repression, triggering investigations, criminal charges, prosecutions and dismissals from work. In March last year, Putin called on the nation to purge itself by spitting out traitors “like gnats.” Since the invasion began, at least 19,718 people have been arrested for their opposition to the war, according to legal rights group OVD-Info, with criminal cases launched against 584 people, and administrative cases mounted against 6,839. Many others faced intimidation or harassment from the authorities, lost jobs, or had relatives targeted, the organization said.

Russia says drones damage Moscow buildings in pre-dawn attack (AP) Russian air defenses stopped eight drones converging on Moscow, officials said Tuesday, in an attack that authorities blamed on Ukraine. The attack caused “insignificant damage” to several buildings, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Two people received medical attention for unspecified injuries but did not need hospitalization, he said. The attacks have raised questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defense systems. A senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, told Russian business news site RBC that “we have a very big country and there will always be a loophole where the drone can fly around the areas where air defense systems are located.”

30 international peacekeepers injured in fierce clashes with ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo (AP) The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, on Tuesday raised the number of its troops injured in fierce clashes with ethnic Serbs to 30. The Serbs had tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities in northern Kosovo where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week. A statement said that 11 Italian soldiers and 19 Hungarian ones “sustained multiple injuries, including fractures and burns from improvized explosive incendiary devices.” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spent the night with his troops on the border with Kosovo. They were placed on the highest state of alert on his orders last week. Vucic said 52 Serbs were injured in the clashes, three seriously. Kosovo and Serbia have been foes for decades, with Belgrade refusing to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 sovereignty.

Erdogan continues divisive rhetoric following victory (Washington Post) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sang and smiled, reveling in the applause of the supporters he addressed Sunday after the toughest election of his long career. In victory, though, instead of soothing the nation, he lashed out at a familiar set of villains, in remarks that may set the tone for his next term. He was dismissive of his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. “Bye, bye to Mr. Kemal,” he said. And he ruled out any release for an imprisoned Kurdish political leader, calling him a “terrorist.” As the country moved on from the election, Erdogan would not easily abandon the bitter rhetoric, analysts said, setting Turkey on a divisive and turbulent course for the foreseeable future, even as Erdogan juggled a need to stabilize the economy as well as Turkey’s often stormy relations with allies in the West. In fact, “I think he is going to harden” his rhetoric, said Berk Esen, a professor of political science at Istanbul’s Sabanci University. “We are going to see him adopt a very polarizing discourse using ethno-religious themes” to maintain his “winning coalition” of voters. The value of the Turkish lira sunk to a record low on Tuesday, just days after Erdogan entrenched his authority into a third decade.

Chinese police clash with protesters over plans to demolish mosque (Washington Post) Residents of a majority-Muslim town in southwestern China clashed with police over the weekend as they tried to stop the demolition of a domed roof from a centuries-old mosque, part of the Chinese Communist Party’s expanding effort to control religion. The incident appeared to be related to a court judgment from 2020 that ruled some of the mosque’s most recent renovations were illegal, and ordered demolition. With a history that may stretch as far back as the 13th century, the Najiaying Mosque was expanded many times over the years to add buildings, as well as four minarets and a domed roof. In 2019, part of the structure was listed as a protected cultural relic. In recent years, however, Communist Party restrictions on the pious have escalated sharply. The country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has demanded absolute political loyalty of faith communities and the “Sinicization” of religion. Surveillance of religious leaders has also intensified. A nationwide database of officially approved Islamic, Protestant and Catholic religious teachers was launched this month. The campaign has focused on Islam and Christianity because of the party’s deep-seated fear of faith being a vector for foreign influence.

North Korea says it will launch its first military spy satellite in June (AP) North Korea said Tuesday it would launch its first military spy satellite in June and described space-based reconnaissance as crucial for monitoring the United States’ “reckless” military exercises with South Korea. The statement came a day after North Korea notified Japan’s coast guard that the launch, sometime between May 31 and June 11, might affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of the Philippines’ Luzon Island. Japan’s defense minister warned its forces to shoot down the satellite or debris, if any entered Japanese territory, and its coast guard issued a safety warning for ships that would be in the affected seas during the expected launch, citing a risk of falling debris. While North Korea’s rivals have condemned the country’s planned launch as a banned test of ballistic missile technology, it’s less clear whether the satellite itself is advanced enough to support the North’s stated goals of tracking and monitoring U.S. and South Korean military activities in real time.

Celebrations in Jordan ahead of kingdom’s first major royal wedding in years (AP) Several thousand cheering and flag-waving Jordanians packed a sports stadium for a free concert in the capital of Amman as part of celebrations leading up the kingdom’s first major royal wedding in years. Crown Prince Hussein, 28, is to marry Saudi architect Rajwa Alseif, 29, on Thursday at Zahran Palace in downtown Amman, the same wedding venue previously chosen by the prince’s father, King Abdullah II, and his grandfather, the late King Hussein. The nuptials come after a rough patch for the royals, including a public rift between the king and his half-brother, and are seen as a way of shoring up public support at a time of persistent economic difficulties.

Racers chase cheese wheel down a hill in chaotic UK race (AP) The big cheese of extreme U.K. sports events is back. Hundreds of spectators gathered Monday to watch dozens of reckless racers chase a 7-pound (3 kilogram) wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down the near-vertical Cooper’s Hill, near Gloucester in southwest England. The first racer to finish behind the fast-rolling cheese gets to keep it. The cheese-rolling race has been held at Cooper’s Hill, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London, since at least 1826, and the sport of cheese-rolling is believed to be much older. Few competitors manage to stay on their feet all the way down the 200-yard (180 meter) hill, and this year several had to be helped, limping, from the course. Matt Crolla, 28, from Manchester in northwestern England, won the first of several men’s races. Asked how he had prepared, he told reporters: “I don’t think you can train for it, can you? It’s just being an idiot.” Delaney Irving managed to cross the finish line first to win the women’s competition, even after having been knocked unconscious. Irving, 19, said the race was “good … now that I remember it.”

[beardedmrbean]

Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi are set to be sentenced in federal court this week over the beating and sexual assault of two Black men, one of whom was shot in the mouth.

Five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and another officer pleaded guilty to more than a dozen federal charges in August after Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker accused them of bursting into a home without a warrant, beating them, assaulting them with a sex toy and shocking them repeatedly with stun guns last year. Jenkins said one of the deputies shoved a gun in his mouth and fired the weapon.

"I relive this everyday," Parker, who is expected to testify in court this week, said at a news conference Monday. "I relive this every time I turn on the TV, anytime I get on my phone, I'm on social media and I'm seeing everybody telling my story, everybody telling my story."

The officers are former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton, Hunter Elward, and Daniel Opdyke; and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, according to the indictment in the Southern District of Mississippi. Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey in June announced the deputies involved in the incident had been fired and in August, they pleaded guilty to state charges connected to the incident, which Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, previously described as "torture."

In court documents, prosecutors said some of the officers called themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it. Three of the officers − Dedmon, Elward, and Opdyke − also pleaded guilty to using excessive force in a separate incident.

Prosecutors recommended sentences ranging from five to 30 years, which will run concurrently with time served for separate convictions at the state level, the Associated Press reported. Attorneys, family members of the two men who were assaulted and community advocates called for the maximum sentence for each former officer.

"The day of justice has finally come for the Rankin County 'Goon Squad,'" attorney Malik Shabazz told reporters. "It's an important day not only in Mississippi, but this is an important day for accountability for police brutality all throughout America."

What happened during the incident?

According to the federal indictment, Parker was staying at the home of a longtime friend, and Jenkins was there temporarily. McAlpin received a complaint from one of his white neighbors that some Black men had been staying at the property and the neighbor had observed "suspicious" behavior.

That night, Dedmon reached out to a group of officers and asked if they were "available for a mission," according to the complaint. On Jan. 24, 2023, the officers entered the home without a warrant, handcuffed the men, shocked them with stun guns, used racial slurs and assaulted the men with a sex toy.

At one point, Dedmon "demanded to know where the drugs were" and fired a bullet into a wall, the complaint said. Dedmon also "poured milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup on their faces and into their mouths," and "poured cooking grease" on Parker's head. Elward threw eggs at the men.

Opdyke, Middleton, Dedmon and McAlpin used a wooden kitchen implement, a metal sword and pieces of wood to beat Parker, the complaint said. The incident culminated in a "mock execution," when Elward fired a bullet in Jenkins' mouth, which lacerated his tongue, broke his jaw and exited through his neck, the complaint said.

The officers ordered the men to strip naked and shower "to wash away evidence of abuse" before they were brought to jail, according to the complaint. The officers then concocted a cover story and "planted and tampered with evidence to corroborate their false cover story and cover up their misconduct," it said.

The officers submitted fraudulent drug evidence to the crime lab, filed false reports, charged Jenkins with crimes he did not commit, made false statements to investigators, pressured witnesses to stick to the cover story, planted a gun and destroyed video evidence, shell casings, and stun gun cartridges, according to the complaint.

Cops on trial: Is it easier to prosecute police now?

"The cover up and the obstruction are as dangerous as the acts themselves," Shabazz said.

Jeffrey Reynolds, who represents Opdyke, said in a statement provided to USA TODAY that he and his partner will be releasing "substantial evidence" to explain Opdyke's actions.

"Daniel has accepted responsibility for his actions, and failures to act, in relation to the two incidents that are the subject of his sentencing hearing, has admitted he was wrong, and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims," Reynolds said.

Attorneys listed for the other defendants in online court records did not immediately respond to requests for comment from USA TODAY.

Officers plead guilty to other charges

The six former officers also pleaded guilty to state charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and hinder prosecution, according to a press release from the office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch.

Dedmon and Elward pleaded guilty to additional charges of home invasion, the release said. Elward pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and McAlpin, Middleton, Opdyke and Hartfield pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and hindering prosecution.

Bailey previously acknowledged the deputies' actions eroded the public's trust and pledged to work to restore it. In November, he announced the department updated its training and complaints process after the assault.

Shabazz called for Bailey's resignation Monday and called on Clarke to launch a pattern or practice investigation into Rankin County, similar to the investigation recently opened in Lexington, Mississippi. Jenkins and Parker have also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking $400 million in damages.

"We're still in a battle for justice, for dignity, for respect, and we are planning on winning that battle," Shabazz said.

[reasoningdaily]

"Horrendous": Black Men Tortured By White Mississippi Police “Goon Squad” React to Guilty Pleas

Six white former police officers in Mississippi who called themselves the "Goon Squad" have pleaded guilty to raiding a home on false drug charges and torturing two Black men while yelling racist slurs at them, and then trying to cover it up.

We speak with Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker about how, on January 24, six deputies in Braxton, Mississippi, raided the home they were staying in and attacked them, and how they are speaking out to demand justice.

Meanwhile, the deputies have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019, in which two of the men died.

We also speak with civil rights attorney Malik Shabazz, who is representing Jenkins and Parker in a federal lawsuit against the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. Shabazz asserts that the majority-white Rankin County, which is 20 miles away from majority-Black Jackson, Mississippi, is "infested with white supremacists" who "have decided 'Rankin County is for whites'" and seek to enforce it through state-sanctioned violence and torture, overseen and covered up by Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey.

"We demand that Bryan Bailey step down," says Shabazz. Parker adds, "We want justice for everyone that has gone through this with Rankin County."