The State - News from Nov. 30, 1986

“We’re not vigilantes and we have no intention of apprehending anyone,” said a market owner who helped establish a citizens’ night patrol to protect lives and property while Madera County sheriff’s deputies remain on strike. Sheriff Ovonual Berkley has begun hiring replacements for his officers, who went on strike and into hiding Nov. 6 after the Board of Supervisors broke off contract talks and offered only a 4% pay increase. Berkley, who lost a reelection bid and will leave office the first of the year, said he approves of the citizens’ patrol, whose members check doorways and patrol streets in the rural Sierra Nevada county after dark.