Mississippi officer charged with forcing prisoner to lick urine off floor
NBCMar 29
Mississippi 'Goon Squad' Police Officers Sentenced to Prison
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The Facts
After pleading guilty to their crimes in August, six White Mississippi police officers on Thursday were sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison for committing extrajudicial targeting and torturing of two Black men.
After receiving a call about two Black men staying in a house with a White woman in Jan. 2023, the officers broke into the home of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Parker without a warrant. They then used racial slurs, brandished stun guns, and performed degrading acts on the victims.
The Spin
Narrative A
This is the latest example of law enforcement's longstanding culture of discrimination in Mississippi and throughout the US. These officers should have been fired long ago, but their boss, allowed it to go on. While these individual officers were rightly convicted and sentenced, those at the top should be held accountable for the role they played by turning a blind eye to racism and violence.
Narrative B
Everyone agrees these officers' crimes were horrific, which is why they're going to jail for a long time. But their acts weren't necessarily racist alone. Currently, the country is dealing with a subsection of law enforcement that's over-aggressive and victimizes people of all races — giving law enforcement as a profession a bad name. This is a broadly systemic issue that must be addressed.
