Mississippi police officer charged for forcing inmate to lick urine off floor – National & International News – THU 14Mar2024

Mississippi police officer charged for forcing inmate to lick urine off floor.

European Commission accused of “bankrolling” dictators to halt migrant flows.

NATIONAL NEWS

Mississippi police officer charged for forcing inmate to lick urine off floor

Michael Christian Green, a former police officer in Pearl, MS, is expected to plead guilty today to a federal charge of deprivation of rights under color of law. In December 2023, a man only identified in court papers as B. E., was arrested for a disturbance at a local Sam’s Club. According to a spokesperson for the city of Pearl, B. E. is Latino and Green is white.

While B. E. was in his holding cell, he attempted to get Officer Green’s attention because he needed to urinate. After waiting some time with no response, B. E. urinated in a corner of his cell.

When Officer Green returned, he threatened to beat B. E. with a phone unless he licked up his own urine from the floor. Green filmed B. E. on his cell phone as he complied. The incident was also captured on security cameras. According to the indictment:

“B.E. gagged when he made contact with the floor. In response to B.E.’s gagging, Green told B.E., ‘Don’t spit it out.’ B.E. gagged again. Green responded to B.E.’s second gagging episode by stating, ‘Lick that sh-t up. Drink your f–kin’ piss.’ B.E. gagged a third time. Green did not have a government interest or law enforcement purpose in ordering B.E. to lick his urine.”

B. E. then proceeded to vomit repeatedly as he was being transported from his cell. Green was fired from the department for his conduct. He had been at the department for six months and had previously worked in other law enforcement departments in Mississippi. The charges against Green carry up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Pearl is in Rankin County where another instance of police brutality made national headlines last year. In that incident, five white Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies and one white Richland Police officer (who collectively called themselves “The Goon Squad”) tortured two Black men in a home for hours before ultimately shooting one of them in the mouth.

Unlike Green, who was swiftly fired, months went by before any action was taken against the Rankin County deputies. In a news conference before Green’s plea hearing, Pearl’s mayor Jake Windham sought to draw a contrast between the Goon Squad case and the recent incident in his city. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

European Commission accused of “bankrolling” dictators to halt migrant flows

Members of the European Parliament have accused the leadership of the European Commission, including its leader Ursula von der Leyen, of pursuing corrupt and inhumane deals with brutal dictators in North Africa. The MEPs raised concerns in particular about payments to Tunisian President Kais Saied, totaling €150 million (about $163 million). The payments were in exchange for Saied taking a harder line on migration, particularly preventing migrants from other African countries from traversing his country and using Tunisia as a departure point to take risky journeys to Europe.

This deal was already controversial at the time. Under Saied’s leadership, Tunisia had already gone in a more authoritarian direction. Migrants, many of them Black sub-Saharan Africans, were routinely brutalized and sometimes forcibly turned back into the desert to die of dehydration and starvation. After the deal was struck, the EU’s chief of foreign affairs Josep Borrell, wrote a scathing letter, saying this deal cannot be “considered a valid template for future agreements”. Von der Leyen also came under fire for negotiating the deal without consultation from other members of European government.

MEPs now allege that instead of being funneled into an EU-sponsored cooperation and development program, the €150 million went straight to President Saied himself. They are particularly alarmed as it now appears von der Leyen is looking to negotiate a similar deal with Egyptian President Abd el-Fattah el-Sisi. 

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