Memorial Portrait Poster of Danny Harmon, killed Cleveland police in November, 1996
“What happened to Danny Harmon was this. He was hanging around with some people at the projects late at night on the west side of Cleveland. This was a white guy who basically hung out with people of color. According to his brother it seems like he was probably hanging around the projects into the wee hours of the morning, having a good time partying. As he left, the police came out thinking that he was up to no good–the white guy in a mainly black area–so they started to chase him, actually down past the Westside market parking lot. He’s running, running and he jumped the fence, went down a hill. They kept chasing him to the point where they basically forced him into the water and that’s what happened. He drowned. They just pushed him into the water and he wasn’t found for days upon days.
Now, nobody could find him for a while. I went with the search parties and learned about it and I talked to his brother. His brother said he was a decent guy. He was probably just hanging out with a black woman, whatever, but that they didn’t have to force him into the water because his brother said, “I’m sure he told them, ‘I can’t swim’”. So, he was found in the water under a bridge. They pushed him in the water when it wasn’t necessary. He hadn’t done anything.
I don’t know, there might have been one demonstration. There wasn’t that much response, and it was just an example of, you know, just for the people that run things he’s a nobody, and to the police–nothing. That was that.”–Bill Swain