Bailey's Accused Murderers Have History of Enforcing Islam the Hard Way

As reports pointed to yesterday, the gun used to murder former Detroit News writer Chauncey Bailey in Oakland, California has been traced by police there to the Black Muslim group that operates the Your Black Muslim Bakery. (“Police believe they have journalist's killer”). Among the seven men arrested on Friday are Yusuf Bey IV, son of Yusuf Bey, the founder of the bakery. (“Black Muslim bakery members suspected in Bailey death").

As of this morning, a 19-year-old handyman connected with the bakery has confessed to the killing (“Report: Bakery Handyman Confesses To Bailey Slaying”).

It was fairly widely known that Bailey, who was working for the Oakland Post at the time of his killing, “had been working on a story about ‘the financial status of the organization’' and the ‘`activities of a number of people who were working in the organization,’ including possible criminal activity.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle and other sources, the Black Muslim group had a long history of violence, intimidation, and other criminal activity, including rape and kidnapping. Though Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam denies connection with the bakery group, the bakery gang’s founder, Yusuf Bey, and its current members, all wear the distinctive "You Can Call Me Minister Farrakhan bow-tie and slick street menace, and they call themselves "Black Muslims." You can get a look at the younger Yusuf Bey’s TV interview on Thursday night. The highlight of Bey’s spiel, which he gave after Bailey's murder, was his stated devotion to “cleaning the streets up.”

According to Bay Area KTVU-TV:

"Lt. Ersey Joyner, head of the homicide unit at the Oakland Police Department, said, 'In my opinion several members of the bakery have been involved in a very violent enterprise and carried themselves in a manner that was disrespectful to the community and to law enforcement.' Joyner said, 'They are very callous and appear to have believed that they were untouchable.'" ("OAKLAND POLICE: Muslim Bakers Lived Lawless Life”).

Maybe this was why they seemed so unconcerned at being caught on security video when a bunch of them trashed a liquor store in November 2005--one of two they wrecked that night. Significantly, the attackers made clear to the store clerks that they were angry that the “Muslim-owned business would sell liquor when it's against the teachings of Islam to do so.” (“Oakland Liquor Store Vandalism Defendants Considering Plea Bargains”).

Still, in spite of the clearly religious basis of the attacks, Oakland police at the time said “the motive for the attacks was to express anger about the large number of liquor stores in the city's black community.” In the same vein, now Oakland Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan, “[r]eferring to the alleged criminal activity and today's arrests…said, ‘This should not be seen as religious.’”

Intimidating reporters is also an important part of the Your Black Muslim Bakery's community outreach. In 2002 a previous series of reports on the group for the San Francisco weekly, East Bay Express, led to escalating threats against the reporter to the point the paper “stopped writing about the group," and the reporter had to hide out in another county after that. (“Bakery linked to violence in the past”).

In this case, Walter Riley, the attorney for the Oakland Post, the newspaper for whom Bailey was investigating the gang’s criminal activity when he was gunned down, now says “the newspaper was unable to verify key details of the story and decided not to run it, possibly abandoning the article altogether.” Since Bailey was just killed the day before, the newspaper has no business saying it couldn't verify the details of what was probably a complicated investigative story. But we all know what Riley meant: 'we get the message and we're laying off."

Donna Ayo, a community leader who knew Bailey a long time, said she knew about Bailey’s story. She said "'I know about the article they did not approve of. But they're not above the board. They (the Black Muslims) don't get a pass.’”

Two newspapers have already dropped stories about these thugs out of fear. We'll see if they get a pass or not.