The Chinatown Squad was a special unit of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) that was commissioned by Chief Russell Flannagan and Deputy Mayor Walter Buckley in 1878 with the goal of patrolling the streets of Chinatown, San Francisco and preventing Tong violence from spilling over into the white areas of the city; a secondary mission was to prevent the nativist Workingmen and Hoodlums from murdering any more Chinese coolie laborers. Headed by Sergeant Bill O'Hara, the squad consisted of Richard Lee, Robert Stone, Nicholas Harrison, and Sean McLeod, and its achievements were heavily featured in the local press.
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