by Margaret Baker, Sun Herald, Mississippi Today
May 6, 2025

A 74-year-old Navy veteran who says she was assaulted by a retired Long Beach police officer was hospitalized for a couple of days after the alleged attack because of a serious head injury that resulted in brain bleed.

Vivian Ramsay suffered a subdural hematoma of the brain, or a type of brain bleed, caused by a head injury during the April 24 attack, her attorney David Baria said.

“When I was serving my country in the Navy, I never thought there would be a day that any American, especially a retired policeman, would purposely confront me for expressing my opinion in a silent and peaceful manner,” Ramsay said in an interview Monday.

On the afternoon of the April 24 assault, Ramsay had parked her van at U.S. 90 and Jeff Davis Avenue for a peaceful protest against actions by President Donald Trump since he began his second term in office. Her van had signs denouncing various acts during the Trump administration. “We should not have to protect democracy from the President,” read one sign. In another, Ramsay proclaimed, “Married women lose voting rights. SAVE Act is voter suppression.”

Ramsay said she was surprised by the assault suspect, since identified as retired Long Beach Officer Craig DeRouche, 64, who she says approached her and ripped a protest sign off her van.

“He attempted to further intimidate me by grabbing at me,” she said. “I defended myself until he struck me in the head so hard that I fell to the ground, and I think I lost consciousness. His actions were unprovoked and outrageous. I defended my country in the Navy, and I defended myself on April 24, and I intend to defend myself in court for any charge that I violated the law.”

DeRouche has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of simple assault against Ramsay in the April 24 incident. He is charged with a second count of misdemeanor assault in the same incident for allegedly assaulting a man who saw the attack and stopped to help the veteran protester, Long Beach Police Chief Billy Seal said.

READ MORE: See the full Sun Herald article here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article reports on an alleged assault at a peaceful protest, involving a retired police officer and a Navy veteran, without presenting a clear ideological stance. The coverage focuses on the details of the incident, including the victim’s perspective and the charges against the assailant, Craig DeRouche. The tone of the reporting is factual, detailing the actions of both Ramsay and DeRouche, with an emphasis on the harm done to Ramsay and her perspective as a veteran. There is no overt ideological language or framing that strongly suggests bias, but the focus on the victim’s narrative and her outspoken political views may appeal more to a center-left audience that supports protest rights and is critical of actions associated with the Trump administration. The article avoids making a direct political argument but presents the event through a lens that might resonate with those who share Ramsay’s concerns about the political climate. The report is primarily descriptive, allowing readers to form their own conclusions based on the facts presented.

by Debbie Skipper, Jerry Mitchell, Nate Rosenfield, Brian Howey, Steph Quinn and Mukta Joshi, Mississippi Today
May 6, 2025

When the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department agreed to a $2.5 million settlement after “Goon Squad” officers tortured two Black men, the department’s attorney said he hoped it would provide closure for the victims.

But at a breakfast Saturday sponsored by the sheriff and his former father-in-law, Irl Dean Rhodes, county officials struck a much different tone.

Two days after the announcement of the settlement, Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines said the department’s attorney, Jason Dare, “beat the pants off of those guys — the dopers, the people that raped and doped your daughters. He beat their pants off.”

Gaines was referring to Eddie Parker and his friend, Michael Jenkins, who were beaten, tased and sexually assaulted by the deputies before they shot 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.

Parker has one felony conviction in Rankin County is for failing to “stop vehicle pursuant to officer’s signal,” according to court records. In Alabama, he had a 2019 conviction for drug possession with intent to distribute. Jenkins has no felony convictions listed in Rankin County. Neither has a conviction in neighboring Hinds County.

Gaines declined to comment about his remarks.

LISTEN: Two days after the $2.5 million “Goon Squad” settlement, Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines praised the sheriff’s department’s lawyer, Jason Dare, and talked about the two Black men whom deputies beat, tortured and sexually abused. Click the link to hear what he said at the Saturday breakfast hosted by Sheriff Bryan Bailey.

The two men’s lawyer, Trent Walker, said Gaines’ remark fits the racist trope of falsely accusing Black men of raping white men’s daughters.

That remark, Walker said, makes obvious “that attitudes like this permit rogue police to prevail and allow for the conditions in which officers have been able to carry out their unlawful agenda against other citizens of the state of Mississippi.”

An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror by 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.

Gaines, who worked for three decades as an agent with the Office of Inspector General, praised Bailey for enduring the scandals that have wracked his department and prompted investigations by the Justice Department and the state auditor’s office regarding Bailey’s alleged misuse of taxpayer money equipment and supplies used at his mother’s commercial chicken farm.

READ:  ‘You’re His Property’: Embattled Mississippi sheriff used inmates and county resources for personal gain, former inmates and deputy say

“It made me cry at night that Sheriff Bailey, my friend, was absorbing this,” he said. “I’m gonna tell you, he has weathered the storm, and we are back.”

Bailey thanked the county’s leaders for their support. “For the past 28 months through all of this,” he said, “my board of supervisors have stood behind me 110%.”

The sheriff said he was ready to quit several times, but Rhodes urged him to stay and run again for sheriff. “He kept pushing me,” Bailey said. “He’s still pushing me.” 

Rhodes has long been regarded as “kingmaker” in Mississippi politics with many seeking his support in their campaigns. In the early 1980s, he was convicted and fined on multiple counts of felony tax evasion.

Gaines praised other Rankin County officials, citing the county’s smooth roads and relatively low crime rates, and expressed concern about the county’s growing pains, such as students from other counties attending Rankin schools. 

“ How do you feel about paying the taxes that you pay and people from across the river coming over here and putting their kids in your school?” he told the nearly all-white crowd, referring to the Pearl River that separates Hinds and Rankin counties. “They’re gonna pay taxes maybe one year or maybe not at all.”

Rankin County is 72% white, while Hinds County is 72% Black.

Angela English, president of the Rankin County branch of the NAACP, said there is no mistaking Gaines’ words as a racial reference. “That’s the kind of toxic environment that we have in Rankin County,” she said.

A lifelong resident of Rankin County, English helped integrate Florence schools with her sisters. “It’s always good to know where he [Gaines] stands, whether you agree with him or not,” she said. “I’d rather know who I’m dealing with than to be caught by surprise.”

His remark, she said, “alludes to the kind of people who are upholding Bryan Bailey.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Rankin supervisor calls torture victims 'dopers' and rapists appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The article reports on Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines’ comments regarding the victims of police abuse and the ongoing controversy surrounding the actions of the local sheriff’s department. While the article highlights Gaines’ remarks, which are racially charged and supportive of the sheriff, it primarily focuses on the factual reporting of the situation without overt ideological positioning. The article includes quotes from key figures such as Gaines and civil rights activists, and its tone remains neutral, reporting the conflict without endorsing a specific viewpoint. However, Gaines’ controversial language reflects a clear right-leaning stance in terms of support for local law enforcement, framing the victims negatively, which may influence public opinion in a direction that aligns with conservative political perspectives. The reporting itself maintains a factual narrative and refrains from pushing a partisan agenda, but the events described suggest a broader ideological divide in how law enforcement issues are viewed.

by Vickie King, Mississippi Today
May 5, 2025

For the Pearl River Glass Studio, located in the Midtown neighborhood of Jackson, it started as an honor and labor of love, with Memphis-based artist Lonnie Robinson, who out of hundreds of artistic contestants, won the privilege to create the stained glass windows along with artist Sharday Michelle, for the historic Clayborn Temple, located in Memphis, Tennessee, as part of a massive renovation project. 

This team of artisans restored three enormous stained glass windows, panel by panel, for the historic church that was a bastion for the Civil Rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1960s. The stained glass windows depicted Civil Rights icons and paid homage to the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike, which lasted 64 days from Feb. 12 to April 16, 1968. It is the site where sanitation workers agreed to end the strike when city officials recognized their union and their raised wages.

Over time, the church fell into disrepair and closed in 1999.

In 2018, it was officially named a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The $14 million restoration of Clayborn Temple was a collaborative effort by non-profits, movers and shakers on the national scene, community leaders and donations.

The hard work, the labors of love, the beautiful stained glass arch windows and other restorative work at the historic church all came to an end due to a fire in the wee hours of Monday morning on April 28 of this year. 

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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