In May of 2024, Holmes County Sheriff’s Office conducted a mass arrest, targeting attendees of the Sol Fest Music and Arts Festival, with overwhelming support from the Holmes County Commissioners as well as community leaders. The mass arrest had been planned by the county ahead of time and commissioners took it upon themselves to start putting false information out into the community to gain more community support. The county also organized for the local jail to transfer a number of inmates from their facility to another county’s facility in order to prepare for the large number of arrests the sheriff’s office was expected to make. The sheriff also reached out to neighboring counties for assistance during the event, giving his deputies and other departments to conduct searches and arrests any way they saw fit, this includes things such as police brutality, neglecting to inform individuals of their Miranda Rights, illegal vehicle stops, illegal searches, planting evidence on suspects, racial profiling, and targeting those with out of state license plates. One of the cases which was mishandled was the case of James Michael Anderson, who is a resident of Holmes County and was volunteering at the event. The sheriff’s office arrested him on charges claiming he had bit an officer while intoxicated on a cocktail of illegal narcotics. This was also the information they released to the media as well as news sources, who had failed to do any further investigating on the incident. The drug screening, which was conducted at the hospital at the time of Anderson’s arrest, also indicated that he did not have any illegal narcotics in his system at the time, although it is on record that the Holmes County deputies had given him 200 mgs of ketamine as well as 2.5 mgs of versed, which is a sedative used during minor surgeries.The news coverage after the event praised officers while also casting a negative and detrimental light on the victims, claiming there was massive drug use, mass hysteria, as well as violence at the event. Although, all the violence and the hysteria originated from the law enforcement's misconduct as well the law enforcement largely exaggerating the amounts of illegal narcotics involved in the arrests. The victims were also mistreated while in custody, with the county neglecting individual's constitutional rights as well as state statute for processing procedures. This includes providing proper bedding, access to an attorney or bonds person, food, self-care products (tampons and pads), medical care, medication, inflated bond amounts, and holding people in isolated confinement without probable cause. The victims were also misinformed and/or misled by correction officers while in custody as well as illegally recommending specific bonds persons to inmates.In the following months, Justice for Sol Fest has been investigating Holmes County as well as its neighboring counties and has found that this is not uncommon for the area. Many of the residents in the county understand their local government as well as law enforcement is corrupt, with a large number of people, including minors, being abused over the years. Justice for Sol Fest has been working with local investigators as well as local victims to try to bring these issues to light and assure that this county will not be able to continue abusing its power and harming innocent people.
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples."
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