Mob violence also erupted during the 1942 assembly in Klamath Falls, Oregon. According to Don Milford, mobsters cut the telephone wires bringing a discourse from another convention city, but a brother having a copy of the talk immediately took over and the program went on. Finally, the mob broke into the hall. The Witnesses defended themselves and when the door was closed again, one attacker​—“a large powerful man”—​lay unconscious inside the building. He was a police officer and his picture was taken with his badge alongside his face. “We called the Red Cross,” says Brother Milford, “and they sent in two women with a stretcher and took him out. He was later heard to say, ‘I didn’t think they would fight.’” The police refused to aid the Witnesses, and it was over four hours before the mob was dispersed by the state militia.

As it is, Jehovah’s servants often were assaulted by violent mobs as they engaged in witnessing on the streets with The Watchtower and Consolation. For example, George L. McKee says that week after week in one Oklahoma community mobs ranging from 100 to well over 1,000 infuriated men assailed Witnesses engaged in magazine street work. The mayor, chief of police and other officials would provide no protection.