Mastodawn

Dan Gillmor Dec 1, 2023

(Revised)

The New York Times is collaborating with local newsrooms on investigative projects. This piece, produced with Mississippi Today, is a brilliant and terrifying look into a Mississippi sheriff's department "goon squad" that operated with violent impunity for years. https://mississippitoday.org/2023/11/30/rankin-county-sheriff-goon-squad-got-away-with-years-of-brutality/?mc_cid=84eb08d38f

Note: The Times' initiative is being run by Dean Baquet, who IMO failed in key ways as the org's executive editor but is doing great stuff with this project. (Sadly, the new NYT editor is no better.)

How a ‘Goon Squad’ of Deputies Got Away With Years of Brutality

For nearly two decades, a band of Rankin County sheriff’s deputies roamed impoverished neighborhoods, meting out their version of justice.

Mississippi Today

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Dan Gillmor Dec 1, 2023

What journalists -- and everyone else -- need to understand is that if the United States goes full fascist, essentially **every** police agency will get license to do this kind of thing, routinely.

Too many get away with lesser versions of it already. Fascist-guided "law" enforcement isn't just speculation anymore.

And right-wingers can hardly contain their glee at such a possibility.

The stakes are that high. Wake up, journalists, and help us move toward justice, not terror.

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PixelJones

@dangillmor
Rogue police "goon squads" have always existed and not just in red states (ex: Organized L.A. police "gangs" that had their own hand signs, tattoos, etc.)

What's terrifying is those becoming institutionalized like "Constitutional Sheriff" conventions around the country giving seminars on how sheriffs can & should defy Federal laws they deem unconstitutional (gun laws, reproductive freedoms, etc.).

Journalists should be rooting out the funders & organizers of this lawlessness.