Milwaukee man's death captured on video exposes same flaws as George Floyd case | Opinion
What does justice look like for D’Vontaye Mitchell?
Before you answer that, watch the video and ask yourself how you would feel if this was your loved one begging for help? Mitchell is a 43-year-old Milwaukee man seen begging for mercy and crying out, "Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!" as four armed security guards at the Hyatt Regency Hotel held him down with their knees with his arm behind his back.
He could also be heard saying, “I’m sorry!” as his face was pushed down onto the pavement of the hotel entrance. Mitchell was accused of causing a disturbance inside the hotel. Tragically, the father of two died at the scene.
On Monday, his family, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, and community activists held a press conference near the site where he died. Some have drawn parallels between Mitchell's death and that of George Floyd Jr., an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.
Floyd's arrest followed a store clerk's suspicion that he used a counterfeit $20 bill. During the arrest, Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes as Floyd, handcuffed and defenseless, repeatedly said, "I can't breathe." Chauvin was later convicted of murder in Floyd's death but justice didn't come swiftly.
The deaths are tragically similar and follow a sickeningly familiar template. In the midst of dealing with unfathomable losses, families are forced to plead for justice even in the face of incontrovertible video evidence.
I'm tired of seeing Black men die at the hands of police officers and security guards, but I’m even more tired of the long fight ahead to bring justice and closure to a family and a community. The hope was that the protests, marches and struggles that followed Floyd's death would change that.
Instead, here we go.
Again.
D'Vontaye Mitchell had a mental health crisis. He left the scene dead.
Here is what we know about the Mitchell case: Police said he entered the Hyatt on Kilbourn Avenue downtown just before 4 p.m. on June 30. There was an altercation in the hotel, and Mitchell was subsequently escorted out. According to witnesses, Mitchell entered a women's bathroom.
The family has been unable to view video footage of what occurred inside the hotel. What the family and most of us have seen is a one-minute and 4-second video recorded by a bystander outside the hotel showing four security guards restraining Mitchell, who is face down just outside the entrance.
We hear Mitchell saying, “Please!” and apologizing.
Mitchell appears subdued, but the security guards yell at Michell to “Stay down!” and “Stop Fighting!” They keep their knees on Mitchell's upper back for the entirety of the video.
The guard who was yelling at Mitchell then screams at a woman recording the incident, “This is what happens when you go into the lady's room.”
Two women from the Hyatt staff approach the woman recording and one asked, “Why would you want to record that?” but neither attempted to stop the guards from their use of force on Mitchell.
On Monday, Crump said Mitchell was having a mental health crisis and that the "excessive force" used by the security guards led to the death of an "unarmed man." It’s hard to argue against what the video shows. A mental health episode by an unarmed Black man should not lead to his death.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office determined Mitchell's preliminary cause of death to be homicide. Incredibly, the Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement Monday that it is still probing Mitchell's death, but it is not a criminal investigation at this time. (On Wednesday, the DA's office reversed course and said it was investigating Mitchell's death as a homicide).
Family members at the press conference rightfully questioned why the investigation was taking so long with the ample video evidence.
Crump said if the circumstances were different, and it was Crump who had a white man down with his knee buried in his back, charges would already be filed. Crump said we have two justice systems, one for Black America and one for white America. He's right.
What does justice look like? Not what's happening here.
Crump and Milwaukee-based attorneys Will Sulton and B'Ivory Lamarr represent members of Mitchell's family, including his wife, DeAsia Harmon, and their 8-year-old daughter; his former girlfriend, Lueella Jackson, and their 6-year-old son Logan Jackson.
Crump, a nationally recognized lawyer who led the Floyd family's legal team, has often said it's hard for Black families to have confidence in the justice system because the system operates differently when the victim is white and the perpetrator is Black.
Years ago when Crump made a similar statement, he said a white woman questioned him on it. In response, he asked her to imagine if George Floyd had been the one to kill Derek Chauvin by kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes. Crump then asked the woman what would he be charged with and how much time would be be sentenced to? He also asked what kind of names would have been used to describe Floyd.
The woman then understood.
At the press conference, Mitchell’s family and loved ones described him as a loving father and a "big teddy bear." Mitchell’s mother, Brenda Giles, expressed that she was in so much pain that she didn't know what to say. "We need peace. I have been unable to sleep, and I can't shed another tear," she said. "We have to get justice."
What does justice look like?
Unfortunately, we can’t bring Mitchell back, but justice means preventing this from happening again. Justice means refraining from putting your body weight on a person who is face down and unable to move. It means the Hyatt releasing all their video from inside the hotel so the family and the public can see what transpired.
We've been political foes. We're uniting to build trust in Wisconsin elections.
Justice looks like police and security guards having the training not to harm someone or take their life when they are no longer a threat. It also looks like the district attorney’s office filing charges against the four men involved in subduing Mitchell and the Hyatt as well. Right now the employees involved have only been suspended. That's not enough.
And with the Hyatt being located right across the street from the Baird Center, one of the three key venues for the Republican National Convention next week, justice looks like letting the thousands of people who come to this city know what happened to Mitchell.
If the Hyatt continues to refuse to release the video, protesters should continue to make their voices heard to shame the hotel into action. If you think this is extreme, watch the video again and tell me how you would feel if this was your loved one begging for help.
Reach James E. Causey at [email protected]; follow him on X @jecausey.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man's death outside Hyatt replays sickening justice system script