By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Fifty residents gathered at the Brandon Library, 1475 W. Government Street, from 6:30-8 p.m. on March 19, 2024, to renew the call for the removal of the Rankin County Sheriff from office. This is the fourth such gathering hosted by Rankin County Branch NAACP over the past year, since the raid of the home of Eddie Parker and his friend, Micheal Jenkins, at 135 Conerly Road in Braxton on January 24, 2023. These two black men endured unspeakable torture at the hands of five Rankin County sheriff deputies and one Richland police officer – all six of them white.
Attorney Malik Shabazz, leader of Black Lawyers for Justice, headquartered in Greenbelt, MD, and Rankin County born and raised attorney Trent Walker, were the featured speakers. They took turns recounting facts of the case and laying out the larger picture of decades long violence against citizens of Rankin County by the self-proclaimed Good Squad, and disputing prior statements of Sheriff Bryan Bailey, that he was unaware of this second-shift centered unit’s activities.
“Today, there were important actions in the Federal Courthouse in Jackson, relating to Rankin County – good news for you who live in Rankin County, especially those that have been in fear of police brutality or racism or discrimination. You can know that today there is some justice in this state, in this county and in this country. If you can get some justice in Rankin County, you can pretty much get it anywhere in America,” per Shabazz.
He went on, “As a person who lawyers police brutality cases often, we usually see officers who kill and are not indicted. Sometimes they get a year, or three years, or probation, but here we have something unique that has come out of Rankin County. These six officers are going to jail for a long time following their reign of terror…and why, it’s because of vigorous advocacy of attorneys like Trent Walker and myself and the advocacy of Angela English and the NAACP…we believe in these people, and refused to believe the lies that were put forth in the cover-up by the Rankin County Goon Squad.”
He questioned how this could happen in Rankin County, or if this is just a group of six little rogue officers hiding their actions. He indicates finding more and more cases where this has happened before, concluding a pattern of gross neglect and deliberate indifference to supervise and monitor, implying the Goon Squad was run alongside Sheriff Bryan Bailey; in partnership – a racist white supremacy network. “Bryan Bailey as the sheriff of Rankin County, and as a person free from prosecution, your days are numbered.”
Walker began by extending thanks to Judge Tom Lee, indicating there were no slaps on the wrist today – “and I have it from a trusted source that some in the community were expecting a slap on the wrist because old coaches and old habits can die hard.” Referring to today’s sentences – “Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced to about 20 years in prison, while Jeffrey Middleton, the 46-year-old leader of the so-called “Goon Squad” that abused the men, was given a 17.5-year prison sentence,” per the Associated Press – the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney’s Office, and Judge Tom Lee, were not in a slap on the wrist mood. We are grateful and expect that same tone to continue over the next two days when the remaining four Goon Squad members will be sentenced.”
As someone who grew up in Rankin County, those who want to say this was an isolated incident – I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear crocodile tears from Bryan Bailey in these interviews pretending like you are crying, I don’t want to hear that you have a department with 250 employees, and you can’t keep up with them all. What we have here is a culture where officers come and go as they please and everybody accepts it, and they cover for it. I can’t tell you the number of people who took a guilty plea because they felt it was my word versus theirs. This department needs to be dismantled and the first piece that needs to fall is Bryan Bailey.”
Angela English stated, “We already knew there is no way in the world that all this could take place and Bryan Bailey didn’t know about it. The poison, the culture has existed for decades, and Bryan Bailey was a chosen vessel to continue it. He was trained by Lloyd “Goon” Jones in Simpson County – you can watch it on Youtube at Jones’ funeral – Jones was notorious and Bailey was mentored by him, and so the snake has the venom in his head not his tail, the only way to get rid of the poisonous culture and environment is to take the snakes head off.”
English is now working with others to determine the required number of signatures need to remove Bailey from office – but reported there has been some purging going on, “So we will figure out how many signatures we need, and I will deliver them to the Governor.”
She stressed that she has heard from many white people – this is not just a black thing, it’s a white thing too, it’s a civil rights issue.
Last week English received the Activist of the Year award at the NAACP IMAGE Awards in Los Angeles.
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