Citizens call for Rankin sheriff and supervisor to resign ...Middle East

At Thursday’s standing-room-only Board of Supervisors’ meeting, several Rankin County citizens called for Supervisor Steve Gaines to resign because of remarks that some have called racist.

The Rev. Ava Harvey, pastor for the Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Brandon, called for “an honest apology and an honorable resignation” by Gaines, saying, “It is time for our county to heal.” 

In 2023, five of Sheriff Bryan Bailey’s deputies, some of whom called themselves the “Goon Squad,” beat, tased and sexually assaulted Eddie Parker and his friend, Michael Jenkins, before shooting Jenkins in the mouth during a mock execution. The deputies tried to plant a BB gun and drugs on the men to cover up their crimes, but they were ultimately convicted and sent to federal prison for decades.

On May 1, the sheriff’s department’s lawyer, Jason Dare, announced that Rankin County had negotiated a $2.5 million settlement with Parker and Jenkins. Two days later, Gaines praised the settlement and Dare.

“He beat the pants off of those guys—the dopers, the people that raped and doped your daughters,” Gaines told the nearly all-white crowd of 100 gathered at the sheriff’s breakfast. “He beat their pants off.”

Malik Shabazz, a lawyer for Parker and Jenkins, called Gaines’ remarks racist and said his clients are considering a defamation lawsuit.

On May 13, Gaines released a statement saying that his comments were “not aimed at anyone personally.”

At the Thursday meeting, Harvey said it’s obvious that Gaines was speaking of the two men. “If you were not referring to Mr. Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, who were you referring to?” he asked Gaines. “If you’re not speaking specifically to the case that the lawyer was involved in, then exactly who is it? Is there another case out here that no one knows about?”

After Rankin County residents experienced the initial shock of what happened to Jenkins and Parker, there was “utter disgust, complete dismay” and “frayed trust” between the community and the sheriff, he said. “Goon Squad is now a household name.”

Some power brokers in Rankin County have urged Gaines to resign, but he gave no indication Thursday he would do so.

An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror that involved at least 20 Rankin County deputies, several of whom routinely tortured suspected drug users to elicit information and confessions.

Many people have filed lawsuits alleging abuses by deputies, or say they filed complaints with the department or reported these incidents directly to Bailey, but the sheriff has denied any knowledge of these alleged abuses.

Last September, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the sheriff’s department’s practices, but in January, the current administration’s department ordered the Civil Rights Division to halt any litigation or new cases. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jackson did not respond to requests for comment on whether the probe would continue.

The state auditor’s office launched an investigation after Mississippi Today reported on Bailey’s alleged misuse of taxpayer money equipment and supplies used at his mother’s commercial chicken farm.

Outside the meeting, one protester, John Osborne of Jackson, whose son frequents Rankin County, held a sign criticizing Gaines. “Steve Gaines claimed that Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker raped and doped your daughters,” the sign read. “Steve Gaines lied.”

“It isn’t just about the racist trope,” Osborne said. “Gaines’ comments were a celebration of what happened to those two men.”

He said when Gaines made those comments at the May 3 breakfast meeting, “Bryan Bailey did not stand up and say those comments were wrong.”

Addressing the supervisors, Fred Chambliss, a federal correctional officer who became a whistleblower, questioned why Gaines had bragged about a $2.5 million settlement of a case in which “somebody got shot in the mouth, sexually assaulted, basically raped, waterboarded.”

“If you are bold enough to say that in a meeting, what else are y’all talking about behind closed doors?” he asked. 

Leon Seals, who has complained about being tased by Pearl police and is now running for alderman, said if citizens are held accountable, “police officers should be held accountable, or the supervisor members should be held accountable.”

In 2023, Harvey ran against Gaines for supervisor for District Four, the largest district in the county, stretching from east of Brandon to the northeast corner. Gaines, a Republican, won three-fourths of the vote over Harvey, who ran as an independent.

Harvey called the supervisor’s remarks disheartening. “I just do not believe the majority of people in District Four agree with his statement,” he said. “Mr. Gaines has now again brought national attention to our county unnecessarily.”

In an interview with Mississippi Today, Harvey said Gaines’ remarks still make it more difficult for Black Mississippians to navigate life in Rankin County. 

“How am I being viewed by my neighbors?” he asked. “Am I being viewed as a rapist? Am I being viewed as a doper? Is this the type of behavior that my neighbor now endorses, and people that I go to church with?”

Over the past several years, Rankin County has been “trying to go through this healing process” after all of the abuses by the Goon Squad, only for Gaines to “pull the scab right back off,” he said. “We just can’t seem to get past this dark cloud that’s just hanging over our county.”

He said both Gaines and Bailey should step down. Harvey said he may run against Gaines in 2027, saying the county needs better representation and new leadership to restore trust and improve the county’s reputation. 

“This is beyond bad judgment. This is beyond incompetence,” he said. “This is just reprehensible.”

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