The RNC’s Violence Has Already Begun

On Wednesday, July 10, US Marshals announced 260 arrests made by a task force they formed with local law enforcement in Southeastern Wisconsin between April 1 and June 30, 2024. Reporters framed these arrests as an effort to clean up the city before the RNC. Local leaders joined in, ramping up tough on crime rhetoric. 

In recent appearances and interviews, Trump has clarified his comment about Milwaukee being “a horrible city” to just mean it’s a high crime city. When local leaders move to crack down on crime for the RNC, they are reinforcing Trump’s narrative. In reality, after a spike caused by negligence in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, crime is back down in Milwaukee, especially violent crime. 

Meanwhile, local law enforcement and the city attorney have been fighting with protestors, adopting an “escalated force model” that makes violence during the convention more likely. Every law enforcement action is an act of violence. When the US marshal task force shows up to serve a warrant, they bring guns with them. Even if a target surrenders peacefully, they do so under lethal threat and then have the violence of the prison system imposed upon them. 

People in prison are far more likely to die a violent death, to be assaulted, to be tortured. One hundred percent of people taken to prison are forcibly subjected to searches that would be considered gross sexual imposition under any other circumstance. They are held against their will, in a way that would be considered kidnapping or hostage-taking if anyone else did it. Just because this violence is state-sanctioned does not make it cease to be violence. 

A Fox News reporter did a ride-along with the task force and told detailed stories about some of the people they arrested. The ride-alongs all ended with surrender, but during the months this task force was active, other people panicked when confronted by this state violence. The most dramatic example of this occurred on June 20, when six teens in a stolen SUV fled into a construction zone on I-43 and were shot repeatedly by police. Thankfully, none died, but a young woman was hospitalized in critical condition and lost her unborn fetus. 

Running from the police is rarely a smart or thoughtful move, but young people growing up in parts of the city that have been neglected and police-saturated have very good reasons to fear the police. Their families have been subject to the terror of the prison system for generations. No one should be surprised if young Milwaukeeans’ fear of police and incarceration causes them to make desperate attempts to flee the danger.

In addition to US Marshals and local law enforcement ramping up their routine violence, Milwaukee is also seeing unusually amplified and extraordinary violence from private security companies, which will surely continue through this week’s gathering of fascists.

Was D’Vontaye Mitchell the first casualty of the 2024 RNC?

On June 30, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, security and hotel staff attacked and murdered D’Vontaye Mitchell. A narrative immediately emerged in which Mitchell was alleged to be homeless and mentally ill. Mitchell’s family quickly corrected this narrative. D’Vontaye had a home, and did not have a diagnosis. It is troubling that narratives of illness and impoverishment are so readily used to dehumanize and excuse the violence of police or security forces. If D’Vontaye lacked housing or had a mental health diagnosis would that justify his murder? Authorities and reporters seem to think so. 

Mitchell’s family was also able to see surveillance video from the hotel, and, heartbroken and angry, they had to further correct the narrative. They, and their lawyers, told reporters that the video showed Mitchell fleeing from security staff, who had assaulted him. With the help of hotel staff, security captured Mitchell, pulled his shirt over his face and mouth, held him down, and kneeled on his back and neck until he suffocated to death. They described the killers as seeming to be without remorse, some even callously photographed Mitchell’s lifeless body. 

The Hyatt has not said anything about new hires, expanded security, extra vigilance or aggressiveness due to the RNC. It may be mere coincidence that their people killed someone two weeks before the convention, an event which has put many in the city on edge for months.

Mitchell’s family has retained Ben Crump, the lawyer who represented George Floyd’s family in 2020. Crump talked about the impact of the RNC on this case with reporters. He said, "just because they have a big event coming up in Milwaukee, the killing of D'Vontaye Mitchell is just as important as anything else that's going to happen in Milwaukee this month." 

This incident deserves the kind of attention that George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Jay Anderson Jr, and Alvin Cole received, but it is unlikely to get it. Silence in the face of racist murder is a form of violence. The convention media spectacle eclipsing the national spotlight Mr Crump and D’Vontaye’s family are drawing unto his death is an example of this silencing violence already occurring here thanks to the RNC.