JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve were huddled on the back porch of a Mississippi home as Michael Corey Jenkins lay on the floor, blood gushing from his mutilated tongue where one of the police officers shoved a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
As Jenkins writhed in pain, the six white officers devised a scheme to cover up dozens of stunning acts of brutality that they had just carried out during a 90-minute period of terror against Jenkins and a second Black victim.
The officers planted drugs. They stole surveillance footage from the house. They tried to dispose of other evidence. They agreed on a set of lies that would further upend their victims’ lives.
And that was just the cover-up.
Careful to avoid security cameras at the house, they burst in without a warrant, starting the torture session of physical, sexual and psychological abuse. They handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs. They electrocuted them.
The officers had meant to torture the men without leaving physical scars. But one shot Jenkins in the mouth. Miraculously, Jenkins survived.
The six officers pleaded guilty Thursday to a long list of federal civil rights charges. The Mississippi attorney general’s office announced afterward that it had filed state charges that include assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Law enforcement officers are seldom charged for crimes committed on the job, and it’s rarer still for them to plead guilty.……
https://apnews.com/article/e4937b4cd1d2ed2388b2fd1c3aeefcb9