after the Yukon incident, a small group of miners walking home from a meeting in Export passed coal company property. A squad of 20 sheriff's deputies and State Police troopers attacked them. Several miners were severely beaten, and one miner (trying to protect a child in his arms) was killed. In July 1910, striking miners secured a march permit from the town of South Greensburg. As the miners began their march, deputy sheriffs and Coal and Iron Police on horseback stopped them. Although the local chief of police stepped forward and told the deputies that the miners had permission to march, the deputies ignored him and continued to block the marchers. The miners attempted to walk away, but the deputies charged into them with their horses, swinging clubs. A riot ensued and the sheriff's deputies fired into the crowd—killing a miner. When the chief of police attempted to arrest the deputy responsible, the other deputies seized him and charged him with obstructing an officer in the performance of his duty. Outraged citizens of the town mobbed the sheriff's office and forced his release. Problems with the deputies were so severe that in November 1910 the Westmoreland County sheriff stopped securing them for the coal companies. The companies responded by seeking deputies from local police forces instead. In January 1911, the Westmoreland County sheriff began deputizing striking miners as deputy sheriffs (although they served without pay). In May 1911, four sheriff's deputies were cited for contempt of court for venturing too close to coal company property. The sheriff said that the men had done so in their official capacity as deputies, but the local court fined them anyway. The Westmoreland County sheriff became so frustrated with the injunction that he refused to permit his deputies to patrol marches on public highways. The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) proved to be the most violent group during the strike. The PSP had been founded in 1905 to discourage the use of private police forces in workers' strikes and to provide law enforcement when local police or sheriffs were unable or unwilling to enforce the law. But rather than enforce the law, the PSP proved the group most willing to break it. One trooper described how the State Police dealt with strikers: "We ride in, scoop them up and beat hell out of them." The number of unprovoked violent acts committed by the PSP was