Long live the shotgun squads by Robert A. Waters
Long live the shotgun squads by Robert A. Waters
Before political correctness swept over the land like a red tide, many
citizens found ways of defeating criminal violence that were, shall we
say, ingenious. Today, nearly all Democrats, many Libertarians, and the
squishy-soft Republican leadership would rise up in arms if the shotgun
squads returned.
But they were once an integral part of the law and order cycle of many
cities.
What brought the subject to mind was a reader of my articles who located
several stories about the squads in the archives of the Houston
Chronicle. After five convenience store clerks were murdered by robbers
during a five-day stretch several months ago, hundreds of callers to a
Houston radio talk show demanded the return of the shotgun squads. (This
piqued the interest of my friend, a newcomer to the area–he decided to
research the squads, which he’d never heard of, and was kind enough to
forward his findings to me.)
For informational purposes, here’s the story.
In January, 1986, the Chronicle reported that Pilgrim Cleaners had begun
hiring off-duty police officers to protect the company’s 300 stores from
robbers. General manager, Guy Robertson, Jr., said, “We’ve been robbed a
lot. We’ve been losing too much money, and I can’t keep my employees.”
Just in the previous week, four of his stores had been robbed.
But the announcement that the squads were returning brought a firestorm
of controversy.
The guards were called “executioners” by a local police chief, and many
departments in the area forbade their officers to work the squads.
Most business owners and Houstonians, however, tired of crimes going
unpunished, backed Robertson who noted that the squads had been used
periodically since the 1960s. He credited their success with helping to
keep the company in business.
A police spokesman stated that Houston Police Chief Lee P. Brown would
never allow his officers to “lay in wait to ambush” suspected robbers.
Clyde Wilson, the private detective responsible for hiring the guards
for Pilgrim Cleaners, responded. “I’m not concerned about the rights of
criminals,” he said. “I’m concerned about the rights of my clients,
their employees, and their customers.”
Robertson explained how the shotgun squads worked. Each store had large
mirrors installed on the walls near the cash register. Some were, well,
just mirrors; others were two-way mirrors fronting a hidden room. “The
robbers are just going to have to play Russian roulette,” Robertson
said. In the rooms behind the two-way mirrors, off-duty cops sat with
shotguns waiting for a robber to appear. He could then shoot through the
mirror and incapacitate the thug.
Over the years, the shotgun squads were highly effective in reducing
armed robberies in many cities. In the late 1960s, guards in Dallas
killed 11 armed robbers. In Los Angeles, 35 robbers were killed by the
squads.
Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes acknowledged that squads
were legal. “I don’t think there’s any question that they’re a deterrent
to crime,” he said.
Despite the controversy, Robertson hired several shotgun guards. Within
a few weeks, the robberies of Pilgrim Cleaners had ended.
The last report of shotgun guards being used in Houston was in 1992 when
Lt. J. W. Fry killed a parolee who had just robbed a Stop ‘N Go
convenience store. Fry, a Pasadena cop (since Houston PD wouldn’t allow
their officers to work the squads, stores imported guards from other
jurisdictions), was no-billed by a grand jury. An autopsy revealed that
the robber, who was carrying a knife, had cocaine in his blood. He’d
been recently paroled after serving a twenty year sentence for–you
guessed it–armed robbery.
The shotgun squads are a little-known slice of urban Americana. While
so-called civil libertarians, liberals, and criminal rights activists
decried the use of the squads, many citizens supported them.
Me?
I’m in favor of bringing back the squads. Might cause a few armed
robbers to look for another line of work.
