“It was already the case that law officers were often Klan members. Uniformed law officers, who frequently paraded with Klansmen, often allowed Klan vigilantes to serve as formal or informal deputies. The Portland, Oregon, Klan announced that 150 members of the police department had become “citizens” of the KKK. Portland’s mayor formed a hundred-man vigilante force to augment the police force: they received guns, badges, and the power to make arrests, but their names would remain secret—while the Klan would “advise him” in selecting them.”
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