Across our area, communities are taking part in National Night Out.

TMJ4’s Tom Durian spoke with Lieutenant Shannon Taylor and Captain Andrew Tischer with the Milwaukee Police Department’s District 4 on the northwest side of the city. They have big plans for the event!

Their National Night Out will be held off Good Hope Road at the Evangel Assembly of God church. Taylor and Tischer say 35 different community groups will be there as a resource for those who attend.

People who come to the event will enjoy free food and entertainment along with a behind the scenes look at the Milwaukee Police Department. Officers say events like these are an important part of community outreach.

TMJ4, Tom Durian.

“That’s like our super bowl of community engagement, where kids families can come out,” said Lt. Taylor. “[You can] see police in uniform in a friendly manner so we can build those relationships now. So, when we do go out in those communities and events happen they feel comfortable giving us information so it’s a good chance for us to break down barriers and build relationships.”

National Night Out for District 4 starts at 3:00 p.m. and runs through 7:00. The address is 9920 Good Hope Road.

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Four hotel employees who allegedly pinned a man to the ground after he behaved erratically in a Hyatt Regency lobby in the US state of Wisconsin are facing murder charges.

D’Vontaye Mitchell, 43, ran into a women’s bathroom before staff dragged him outside, beat him and held him face down on the ground for eight or nine minutes, according to court documents.

Mitchell was unresponsive when police arrived at the scene in Milwaukee on 30 June. He was later pronounced dead.

He died of “restraint asphyxia and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine”, found a post-mortem examination that also noted he was morbidly obese.

Milwaukee County district attorney’s office issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for the four now-former employees at the hotel.

They are two security guards, Todd Alan Erickson, 60, and Brandon LaDaniel Turner, 35, who was off duty at the time of the incident; as well as Devin Johnson-Carson, 23, a front desk agent; and Herbert Williamson, 53, a door attendant, according to court documents.

If convicted, they each would face up to 15 years and nine months in prison.

The incident unfolded when Mitchell entered the hotel and began running around, attempting to hide in places.

He went into the gift shop, then a women’s bathroom, where he tried to lock the door. Mr Turner told police he heard women screaming in the toilet.

Video surveillance footage showed hotel workers forcing him out of the bathroom and dragging him outside through the hotel lobby.

Two of them repeatedly struck Mitchell and another kicked him, according to the court documents. They are apparently heard in a bystander’s mobile phone footage telling him to “stay down” and “stop fighting”.

Mr Erickson told investigators that Mitchell had tried to bite him.

Mitchell is heard saying he is sorry during the struggle, according to audio from a video taken by an onlooker.

One of the employees said Mitchell was having difficulty breathing and had been pleading for help, according to the charge-sheet.

Ben Crump, a lawyer representing the family, said: “Mitchell was in the midst of a mental health crisis and, instead of abiding by their duty to protect and serve, the security officers and other Hyatt staff used excessive force that inflicted injury resulting in death.”

Mitchell’s widow, Deasia Harmon, told reporters on Tuesday she was “grateful” for the charges.

“I just want everyone to be held accountable,” she said.

The company that runs the hotel, Aimbridge Hospitality, has previously said several employees were fired over Mitchell’s death.

WATERTOWN, Wis. — With VP Kamala Harris as its presidential nominee, the Democrat Party is expected to lock up the black vote — just like it’s been doing for 60 plus years.

But in Wisconsin’s key urban centers that could make or break a Democrat, some black voters say the Biden-Harris economy has brought pain to their pocketbooks.

Milwaukee conservative activist Chris Lawrence told The Post that when dealing with black voters, Donald Trump and Republicans need to focus on how people are faring financially after four years of the Biden-Harris administration.

“Have their lives improved the last four years under Joe Biden? What will change from Harris to Biden in the next four years?” he asked.

“If nothing will materially change–why would you continue to support that?”

Lawrence also said he hasn’t seen any on the ground engagement or contact with voters from either campaign.

His advice for the GOP and Donald Trump?

“Highlight what the Democrats haven’t done — the promises they made to black voters that haven’t come through,” Lawrence said.

A CBS News/YouGov national poll of likely black voters at the end of July found Harris has picked up about 8% more of the black vote than Biden had in July before he stepped down, 81% to Trump’s 18%.

The same poll found 74% of black registered voters say they will “definitely vote” this November, compared to 58% in July, also before Biden backed out of the race.

A higher black voter turnout in the majority minority City of Milwaukee could have a major impact on which candidate wins Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes this fall.

While liberal Dane County’s turnout helped push the state into Biden territory in 2020, Milwaukee also saw an uptick in turnout.

Will Harris as the nominee change the calculus for black voters this November?

“That remains to be seen,” Lawrence said.

Will Martin, a Racine businessman and Republican leader, has lived in Milwaukee for 25 years.

He says families of color have been hit disproportionately by double-digit rent increases in Milwaukee, and wages have not kept up with that kind of increase.

Out-of-state investors are buying up housing in predominantly black neighborhoods and boarding up some of the units to artificially increase rents, Martin added.

Voters like Sharon Gray are still feeling the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced her to shutter her small business in Milwaukee.

She now works at a warehouse, and is supporting Donald Trump this November.

Kalan Haywood Sr., a Milwaukee businessman and developer, told The Post that having black outreach events is a good thing, but that what’s more important is coming back to follow up with folks rather than simply pandering in an election year.

Charlene Abughrin is a Republican and a small business owner in Milwaukee.

She told The Post that the black community “hasn’t been inspired to vote in a long time,” a sentiment reflected in a decline in turnout in black majority wards in the city.

Describing the crime in her neighborhood — a fact of life for Milwaukee residents — Abughrin said it’s “4th of July every day and night,” adding: “I hear so much gunfire I think I have gotten desensitized to it.”

Abughrin has not seen much Republican voter outreach in her community and says the complaint she hears often is that Republicans only show up during voting season.

She did, however, mention Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde’s visit to the Juneteenth celebration and several other events.

Black voter outreach has been a big priority for the Trump Campaign. Last month Martin took part in an RNC event with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt, an experience he called “empowering.”

“So often the media portrays black conservatives as being few in number,” said Martin, a GOP Executive Committee member. “It was really exciting to see so many conservatives coming together.”

Republican state Senator Julian Bradley represents a district containing several Milwaukee suburbs, and he believes the Democrats may face a political reckoning from black voters.

“Democrats have taken the black vote for granted for decades,” Bradley told The Post.

“Their years of overpromising and under delivering for the black community is catching up to them.”

“Republicans are reaching out and showing that not only do we care, but we have solutions to the high cost for gas and groceries, we have solutions for crime and underperforming schools that have kept kids from achieving the American Dream, and we have solutions for securing our border and stopping the flow of fentanyl into our streets,” Bradley continued.