Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump spoke at the Thursday funeral of D'Vontaye Mitchell, the 43-year-old father of two who died June 30 in front of the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Milwaukee after being pinned down by officers. Crump said Mitchell's name belonged alongside George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner, and other Black men and women who have died high-profile deaths in the last decade and a half after encounters with police or people in positions of authority, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Mitchell was pinned by security guards employed by third-party operator Aimbridge Hospitality, who have now been fired. As Mitchell was laid to rest Thursday after a funeral at Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ in Milwaukee, his death is garnering national attention -- at a time when the city is poised to be in the national spotlight as thousands arrive in Milwaukee next week for the Republican National Convention. The Hyatt, which has been the site of frequent protests in response to Mitchell's death, is across from one of the RNC's three main venues.
Prominent civil rights activist and minister Al Sharpton, a former Democratic political candidate for president and other offices, called out the political slogan of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump during his eulogy. “I know y’all got a crowd coming to town talking about make America great again,” he said. “It wasn’t great when I had to sit in the back of the bus … and it wasn’t great that in 2024 you think you can put your knee on a man ... and choke his life out.” Attorneys for the Mitchell family have described Mitchell’s death as an example of racial injustice in the judicial system – describing it as the “two judicial systems.” Sharpton wondered if a white man or woman would be killed following a “disturbance" and, in his eulogy, he said Mitchell was "the least of us" and it was why he was treated that way. During the service, Sharpton handed a $5,000 check to each mother of Mitchell’s two children. His civil rights organization the National Action Network paid for the funeral's costs, and he also called on those in attendance to support the family through a GoFundMe.