Investigative reporting reveals a Mississippi 'Goon Squad,' with a 20 year history of brutality

Six Rankin County deputies, above, all pleaded guilty to
federal and state charges. (Photo by R.V. Solis, AP)

For almost 20 years, the Rankin County Sheriff's Department deputies have run amuck, doling out their own version of crime justice from sticking guns into suspects' mouths to torturing impoverished residents with tasers, reports Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield of Mississippi Today. "Narcotics detectives and patrol officers, some who called themselves the 'Goon Squad,' barged into homes in the middle of the night, accusing people inside of dealing drugs. Then they handcuffed or held them at gunpoint and tortured them into confessing or providing information, according to dozens of people who say they endured or witnessed the assaults."

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey claimed that "he was stunned to learn of the 'horrendous crimes' committed by his deputies,'" Howey and Rosenfield report. "But a deep investigation by The New York Times and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today "revealed a history of blatant and brutal incidents stretching back to at least 2004." After records and interviews were scrutinized, "What emerged was a pattern of violence that was neither confined to a small group of deputies nor hidden from department leaders."

The Times and Mississippi Today "identified 20 deputies who were present at one or more of the incidents — many assigned to narcotics or the night-shift patrol," Mississippi Today reports. "Taken together, the reporting shows how Rankin deputies were allowed to operate with impunity while racking up arrests for relatively minor drug infractions and leaving entire neighborhoods in fear of violent raids."

The area Rankin County deputies focused on was ravaged by meth in the early 2000s. "Local sheriffs, even in small departments, set up special narcotics units and joined state and federal task forces in the War on Drugs. The Rankin County Sheriff's Department responded by targeting low-income communities and policing them relentlessly," Howey and Rosenfield write. 

"It's unclear when Rankin County deputies adopted their nickname, but last year, they ordered commemorative coins emblazoned with cartoonish gangsters and the words 'Lt. Middleton's Goon Squad.' Lt. Jeffrey Middleton was the squad's supervisor," Mississippi Today reports. "He is among the five deputies who pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from a January raid. . . . A Justice Department investigation this year found that Rankin County deputies chose the name Goon Squad 'because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it.'"

This article is part of a series by The New York Times' Local Investigations Fellowship examining the power of sheriffs' offices in Mississippi.