He denied charges that the union was using "goon squads," as strong-arm detachments are called on the West Coast, and asserted that any violence was provoked by the employers.

No one has ever accused Uganda's mercurial President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada of running a democracy. . . . In Kampala, the capital, much of the terror is committed by Big Daddy's personal goon squad, the 3,000-man Public Safety Unit.

But becoming the "Spirit Father" to a group of cave dwellers threatened by "bandits, insurgent guerrillas" and "goon squads hired by greedy logging companies" gives him a newfound purpose in life.

Goon squad

Meaning

Noun