6 white "thugs" police officers in the United States plead guilty and break into homes to abuse 2 black people's homes | Police | United States
On August 3rd local time, the US Department of Justice reported that six white law enforcement officers in Mississippi pleaded guilty to breaking into homes and cruelly abusing two black men in January this year. They will face sentences ranging from 80 to 120 years and millions of dollars in fines.
According to court documents, these individuals are members of the so-called "thug squad" in the police station, often using excessive force but never reporting it. Multiple media outlets have reported that this incident once again highlights the long-standing problems of violent law enforcement and racial discrimination among US police.
"Torment"
On August 3rd local time, the former deputy sheriff of Rankin County Police Station walked into the federal court
According to court documents, on January 24th this year, five police officers from Rankine County Police Department and one police officer from Richland City Police Department in Mississippi, upon receiving reports of suspicious activity, kicked the door into a residential building without an arrest warrant and continued to abuse two black men for more than 2 hours.
According to statements from the US Department of Justice, court documents, and media reports, these six individuals assaulted and sexually assaulted two black men, forcing them to strip off their clothes and using electric guns 17 times, just to compare which type of electric gun from the county and city police stations was more powerful. One of the police officers also put a gun into the mouth of a black man to simulate execution, but the gun went off and hit the latter in the face and neck.
Subsequently, the six individuals allowed the victim to lie on the ground bleeding profusely without taking any emergency measures. Instead, they discussed how to cover up the crime, including attempting to burn the victim's clothes, destroying surveillance footage, and planting methamphetamine in the house. Fortunately, the man who was shot survived, and he and another person jointly sued the Lanjin County Police Department in June this year and demanded $400 million in compensation.
In February of this year, the US Department of Justice launched an investigation into this incident. The six police officers involved, aged between 27 and 52, have all resigned or been dismissed in recent weeks.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the police involved "tortured" the victims and caused indescribable harm, seriously violating the civil rights that the victims should have been protected.
"Discrimination"
△ Relatives of victims
According to a report from the US prosecutor's office, the six individuals mentioned above pleaded guilty to 16 serious crimes on the 3rd, including using firearms in violent crimes and conspiring to obstruct judicial justice. They will also plead guilty to the charges charged by the Mississippi prosecutor's office on the 14th of this month.
The federal court is scheduled to sentence six individuals on November 14th, who will face sentences ranging from 80 to 120 years and fines ranging from $1.5 million to $2.75 million.
The US Department of Justice stated that three of them also pleaded guilty to three felonies committed in another incident in December last year, in which they were accused of using violence against a white man.
According to court documents, some of the six individuals claimed to be members of the "thug squad" because they enjoyed excessive use of force but never reported it. The Associated Press reported that previous investigative reports by this media showed that some of them had at least four "criminal records" of violence against black people since 2019.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark told media reporters on the 3rd that the actions of the six defendants "not only caused serious physical, emotional, and psychological harm to the victims, but also harmed the entire community," causing residents to no longer trust the police.
"Improper behavior is fueled by racial prejudice and hatred," she said.
For a long time, American police have been criticized for violent law enforcement and racial discrimination, and incidents of white police suspected of violent law enforcement against African Americans continue to occur.
On May 25, 2020, African American man George Floyd died after being kneeled and neck pressed by white police for more than 9 minutes during his arrest, sparking long and large-scale protests against police violence and racial discrimination across the United States. The comprehensive investigation report released by the US Department of Justice in June this year pointed out that the police chief in Minneapolis, where the incident occurred, had systemic issues such as excessive use of force and racial discrimination, making a tragedy like Freud possible.
