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Line of Duty Murder

Homegrown Muslims eyed in Oakland Post editor’s murder. Black Muslim bakery’s handyman confesses:   

 Oakland Trib:

A 19-year-old handyman at Your Black Muslim Bakery admitted to police Friday night that he ambushed and killed Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, investigators said.

Police said Devaughndre Broussard told them he killed Bailey because he was angry over stories the journalist had written about the bakery, its employees and leaders in the past. Investigators said Broussard also was concerned about stories that he thought Bailey might be working on.

Bailey had apparently been working on a story about the group and its finances, authorities said.

…

Police said Broussard had found out where Bailey lived and before the killing Friday morning had gone to the newspaper’s office to see if he was there. When he found that Bailey had not arrived at work yet, he began driving around in a van looking for him and spottedhim in the 200 block of 14th Street, where he confronted him and shot him several times with the shotgun.

SF Chron: 

The son of the late Yusuf Bey was among seven people arrested Friday in predawn police raids on Your Black Muslim Bakery and three homes in connection with three Oakland homicides, including the daylight shooting death of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey.

Yusuf Bey IV hasn’t been formally charged with a crime. But police said they had arrested most of the people responsible for killing Bailey, 57, at 14th and Alice streets on Thursday and for the slayings of two other people four days apart in July. Police did not identify the others arrested.

Two unnamed suspects are still at large, police said.

Police say Friday’s arrests are linked to an Oakland crime spree that started in December, when a car was riddled with bullets from multiple guns. On May 19, two people were kidnapped, one of whom was robbed and tortured. In July, two people were killed in North Oakland. Guns from those killings and Bailey’s slaying were traced back to the December spraying of the car with bullets, said Oakland homicide Lt. Ersie Joyner.

Search warrants were issued Monday, but police said planning began much earlier for the raid, which involved SWAT teams and bomb units from throughout Alameda County.

Assistant Chief Howard Jordan said it was “very disheartening” that Bailey was killed before the warrants could be issued.

Bailey had been investigating the bakery and its businesses as part of a story for the Oakland Post, said Walter Riley, attorney for the newspaper’s publisher, Paul Cobb. Bailey, a former Oakland Tribune reporter, was investigating the group’s finances, Riley said.

“He was working on a story, and they had agreed not to publish it because they were not able to get confirmation on some details,” Riley said Friday.

I guess we should be glad in Boston we were only hit with a nuisance lawsuit.

Newsbusters wonders why a Black Muslim bakery’s reported link to the murder of a newspaper editor isn’t bigger news.

More from the Trib on Bailey and the Black Muslim Bakery:

Bailey was known for not shrinking from any source, said Donna Ayo, a founder of the youth community group BARONS Bridges. Ayo, who knew Bailey for 14 years, said that included the Black Muslim Bakery group.

“He was forthright and gave (the group) their due when they were doing positive things,” she said. “When they started doing negative things, things that harmed the community, he had to notify the community. … He made a decision.”

Ayo knew Bailey’s reporting had angered people affiliated with the Black Muslim Bakery. “But they’re not above the board,” she said. “They (the Black Muslim Bakery members) don’t get a pass.”

Late Black Muslim patriarch Yusuf Bey founded the bakery four decades ago. He built the organization on ideals of black empowerment, respect and self-reliance. In recent years, the group has been tied to murders, racism, sexual assaults on young girls and vandalism.

The bakery and its affiliated businesses occupy several storefronts along both sides of San Pablo Avenue near the Emeryville and Berkeley borders.

The Nation of Islam, a national organization for black Muslims, is not affiliated with the bakery, said Oakland Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan.

Topics: America, Islam

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:32 am on Sunday, August 5, 2007

4 Responses to “Line of Duty Murder”

1. OnlyInBostonKids Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 11:48 am

   It’s called “side with the bully to avoid being a target.”

   None of the broadcast networks are reporting this story because they know the invariable $%&@storm from groups that don’t want their activities broadcast - with investigations leading to their real intents and desires. Furthermore, these groups could turn against the broadcast networks by denying access and boycotting companies that advertise on the networks at best and threatening grievous bodily harm at worst.

   The cable networks (even CNN to its credit) are reporting this extensively. They may fear backlash, but to them, this is a story that affects ALL journalists, editors, and other media interests: the very real danger of getting hurt or killed to get a story.

2. Chris Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

   Two thoughts on this story beyond the obvious, that being the loss of a man who by all accounts was a talented and dedicated journalist. This line in the story from the linked article jumped off the page at me:

   __Ayo knew Bailey’s reporting had angered people affiliated with the Black Muslim Bakery. “But they’re not above the board,” she said. “They (the Black Muslim Bakery members) don’t get a pass.”__

   Since when does one get “membership” in a bakery? It seems almost like an acknowledgement on the part of the author(s) that there was something more than baking bread going on there all along.

   The second issue is raised tangentially in Jules’ piece and commented on by Newsbusters and commenter OIBK, here. I don’t think the MSM is “flooding the zone” on this story, so to speak, because they don’t relate to Bailey at all. He did the type of shoe-leather hard work of cultivating sources and getting to know real people in the community that almost no one at the networks does anymore. They’ve gotten the message long ago that there are certain religions and practices one dare not offend if one wants to occupy the airwaves. Bailey is a reminder to them that they’re not really reporters but merely newsreaders. My two cents.

3. saltydog Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 3:02 pm

   Paris Hilton occupied “reporters” at the network for weeks on end. They invested their money in crews and equipment to sit and wait in breathless anticipation to have footage of her walking into and walking out of the courthouse.

   A reporter is murdered on his way to work because he is investigating Muslims. Little coverage.

   A Danish newspaper prints cartoons of Mohammad, which most of the MSM refuse to show so their audience will know what all the fuss is about, because, they tell us, of fear of reprisal. Neither do they report on the loss of freedom those who drew the cartoons, or those who printed them have suffered because of it.

   A man responsible for giving us the news out of Iraq tells us that he covered-up stories because he didn’t want to lose access. Access to what? Saddam’s propaganda.

   Off the top of my head, that is just a few instances of journalistic cowardice. The list is long and growing.

   Thankfully, not everyone in the profession is selling this country down the river. Thanks, Jules.

4. saltydog Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

   Oops. I lost the “vs.” after the Paris Hilton paragraph.

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