NEW YORK. Repeatedly used tasers, beatings, humiliations and even an attempted rape with a dildo. The torture suffered by two African Americans by six white agents in the latest episode of abuse by the US police is shocking. Even more baffling as after hours of violence, the officers tried to cover it up.
The episode dates back to January 24 in Braxton, Mississippi, but has only come to light now. Officers went to a property to handle a complaint received by Rankin County Sheriff’s Office lead investigator Brett McAlpin, CNN reported. McAlpin’s white neighbor had told him that some African-American men were staying at the home of a white woman and reported seeing suspicious behavior. The details of what prosecutors say happened that night were shared in a federal charges file, and they’re dire.
The six officers (all of whom have resigned or been fired to date) entered the home without a search warrant and found two black men Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins (the former lived there and helped the homeowner, the ‘other was in the house temporarily), and they began to subject them to exhausting violence. In particular, they were tasered numerous times – apparently even in a competition to see which was the most effective -, slapped, threatened to be raped with a dildo, beaten with pieces of wood and a metal sword.
And again they poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup into their mouths, but also cooking grease on their heads, and threw eggs at the two. At one point, they took a bullet out of the gun, put it in Jerkins’ mouth and fired, tearing out his tongue and breaking his jaw. They then forced them to undress and shower together “to wash away the evidence of the abuse” before being taken to prison.
The cover story used by the officers was that they had found bags of drugs outside the house and had intervened. The horrors endured by the two men, as well as text messages nailing the officers and other details, were included in the federal court document filed July 31. In one of the text messages, the sheriff’s deputy wrote “no bad mugshots”: a phrase which, the investigators explained, gave the go-ahead to use “excessive force” on areas of the body that would not have been captured by the mugshots.
The six were charged with a total of 13 felonies in connection with “torture and physical abuse” of the two men, the Justice Department said, and pleaded guilty to all counts in federal court on Thursday. In addition, they are also charged by the state with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, trespassing and aggravated assault, and today they also pleaded guilty to these charges as part of the plea deal.