Federal Lawsuit Says Oklahoma Detention Officers Tortured Inmates by Playing 'Baby Shark' on Repeat

In 2015, a Korean children’s entertainment company recorded "Baby Shark", a nursery rhyme, and produced a music video which has gained over 9.5 billion views since then.

Four former detainees at the Oklahoma County Detention Center were subject to "torture tactics" in 2019 when they were handcuffed behind their backs and were left in an empty room, and forced to listen to the children's song "Baby Shark' on repeat for several hours, a federal lawsuit said.

Earlier this week, Joseph Mitchell and three other detainees filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, the county commissioners, as well as the jail trust, and two former officers.

According to the federal lawsuit, the detainees were forced to listen to the song which "was so loud that it was reverberating down the hallways".

It added that the Oklahoma County district attorney's office investigated the incidents last year and charged the two former jail employees and their supervisor with conspiracy and cruelty. Officers Christian Charles Miles and Gregory Cornell Butler Jr. resigned during an internal investigation and Lt. Christopher Raymond Hendershott retired, Former Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor told AP.

"We don’t tolerate it...We always did an excellent job policing ourselves,” Taylor was quoted as saying.

The federal lawsuit also revealed that "Baby Shark" and other kinds of music had long been used as a "device to torment". For example, also in 2019, "Baby Shark" was played on repeat by West Palm Beach officials to deter homeless people from sleeping in public places. At the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, officials used heavy metal to break down prisoners.