Four former inmates at the Oklahoma County Detention Center filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging jail officers played the children’s song “Baby Shark” on loop for hours, according to The Washington Post.
Oklahoma County Detention Center officers allegedly took Joseph Mitchell to a vacant room in Nov. 2019 where they handcuffed him to a wall, The Washington Post reported. The officers then allegedly played “Baby Shark” on loop while Mitchell was secured to the wall.
Officers at an Oklahoma jail played ‘Baby Shark’ on repeat as a ‘torture tactic,’ according to a new lawsuit from detainees who say they were forced to listen to the song for hours. https://t.co/KPzTvGwJoD By @jackiepeiser
— Gina Harkins (@GinaAHarkins) November 5, 2021
Three other inmates claimed they were also subjected to similar treatment, according to The Washington Post.
“This prolonged restraint … under the conditions described herein, is tantamount to torture, was excessive and not rationally related to any legitimate governmental or penological purpose,” the lawyers say, reported The Washington Post. (RELATED: REPORT: Myanmar Military Launches Torture Campaign Against Citizens)
District Attorney David Prater called the use of the song “cruel and inhumane,” adding that it put “undue emotional stress on the detainees who were most likely already suffering,” The Washington Post reported.
The Oklahoma County district attorney’s office filed charges against two former jail employees and their supervisor for the tactic after an Oct. 2020 investigation.
The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment when the Daily Caller called.
