Strang and his adherents often conflicted with their neighbors on the island and adjacent locales. While claiming dominion of only his church, Strang tended to exert authority over non-Strangites on the island also, and was regularly accused of forcibly seizing their property and physically assaulting them. Open hostility between the two groups was frequently violent, and the majority of the Irish immigrants fled to the neighboring island of Mackinaw. Ruffians beat Strangites at the post office, and Strang once fired a cannon at some unruly drunken fishermen who had threatened to expel his church from the island. Strangites held an increasing monopoly of local government that blurred the distinction between church and state.