Last month, Cindy Hyde-Smith campaigned at a Rankin County political breakfast with Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who oversaw a group of deputies known as the “Goon Squad” that committed brutal acts of violence, torture, and sexual abuse against Mississipians. According to a new report from American Journal News, victims and Rankin County residents stated that Bailey was warned of the violence but ignored all complaints.
Deputies under Bailey’s purview were convicted of torturing, sexually assaulting, and beating residents, including two Black men, which resulted in lengthy prison sentences. Additionally, Bailey corruptly used his office to help benefit his family’s farm, staffing the farm with Rankin County Jail inmates and using taxpayer money to purchase new equipment.
Read more about Sheriff Bailey and the Goon Squad:
- For nearly two decades, Rankin County deputies, many of whom referred to themselves as the “Good Squad,” would routinely barge into homes in the middle of the night, handcuff people, and torture them for information or confessions. These incidents included ramming a stick down a man’s throat until he vomited and dripping molten metal onto another man’s skin.
- Two Goon Squad members were given 18-to-20 year prison sentences for brutally attacking two Black men in 2024.
- Victims of the Goon Squad’s violence said that they contacted Sheriff Bailey directly, only to be ignored.
- Deputies also said that the mistreatment of Rankin County residents was “no secret to anyone” and that Bailey “didn’t give a shit what I did.”
- Sheriff’s Department records and interviews with a former FBI agent revealed that Bailey had evidence of the Goon Squad’s actions dating back to his early days in office. This included video footage of a deputy ramming his car into a teenager fleeing arrest in 2012 and another video of a deputy using his taser on a handcuffed man in the back of a patrol car in 2022. None of the deputies in question were fired or faced prosecution.
Published: Apr 7, 2026