Den 57 år gamle redaktøren og journalisten Chauncey Bailey ble skutt ned og drept på åpen gate i Oakland sentrum i California torsdag 2 august. Politiet mente at Bailey langt fra var noe tilfeldig offer, men at drapet antagelig hadde sammenheng med en av sakene han arbeidet med. Dagen etter ble 7 personer med tilknytning til den muslimske gruppen Your Black Muslim Bakery (YBMB) arrestert i forbindelse med drapet. YBMB-medlemmet Devaughdre Broussard tilsto ugjerningen noen timer etter arrestasjonen.

Chauncey Bailey var kjent for sitt arbeid for afroamerikaneres rettigheter, og dekket regelmessig kontroversielle saker blant afroamerikanere i San Franscisco-området. Etter 20 år som journalist i Oakland Tribune, hadde han nylig startet som redaktør i Post Newspapers` Oakland Post, som er en av de viktigste afroamerikanske avisene i California. Han hadde også markert seg som særdeles kritisk til korrupsjon, og irriterte ofte folk i området med sin undersøkende journalistikk.

Hans siste undersøkelser skulle koste ham livet; Chauncey Bailey hadde publisert en rekke negative artikler om organisasjonen Your Black Muslim Bakery som sådan, dens medlemmer og tidligere ledere. Oakland Posts advokat, Walter Riley, bekrefter at Bailey var i gang med enda en artikkel, som skulle belyse YBMB`s finansielle status samt flere av medlemmenes aktiviteter som omfattet mulig kriminalitet. Det irriterte og bekymret det 19 år gamle medlemmet Broussard i den grad at han i avhør hevdet å være en «god soldat» som satte en stopper for Bailey`s virksomhet ved å ta livet av ham.

Etter drapet har nasjonale medier interessert seg for YBMB, og det er ikke en tillitsvekkende historie som nå kommer for en dag. Den er heller ikke særlig flatterende for Oaklands lokale myndigheter.

Born Joseph H. Stevens in Greeneville, Texas, in 1935, [grunnleggeren, som siden tok navnet Yusuf] Bey moved with his parents to Oakland at the age of 5. He joined the US Air Force at age 17, and after four years he was honorably discharged. A qualified cosmetologist, Bey ran beauty salons in Oakland Santa Barbara, before opening a bakery in Santa Barbara in 1968 which later became «Your Black Muslim Bakery». He became involved with the Nation of Islam in 1964, and in 1971 moved his bakery to the East Bay. The bakery sold produce free of artificial colorants, with no refined sugar, fats or preservatives.

Bey had a weekly cable show called True Solutions, a platform for Elijah Muhammad’s brand of Islam. He even ran for the position of Mayor of Oakland. He died on September 30, 2003, of colon cancer, having established an empire running housing, a school, a security firm and retail businesses, including Your Black Muslim Bakery. At the time of his death, he was engaged in a legal battle with a woman who claimed he had first raped her in 1982 when she was 13. She claimed she had been sexually abused by Yusuf Bey since the age of 10.

As members of Bey’s family vied for the position of successor, violence broke out. On February 27, 2004 Waajid Aljawwaad Bey, president and CEO of the bakery, vanished. His rotting corpse was later found in a shallow grave in the Oakland Hills. In June 2005, Bey’s adopted son John was wounded by a gunman in an ambush, and on October 25, Yusuf’s 24-year old son Antar Bey was shot dead at a gas station. Nineteen-year old Yusuf Bey IV appeared to have taken over the leadership – he was indicted for smashing up Muslim-owned liquor stores in Oakland, events which happened a month after Antar Bey was killed. One store was torched, and an employee was locked in the trunk of a car. The tactic of wrecking premises had been employed under the leadership of Bey senior – in 1994 a rival laundry had been trashed by Black Muslims.

Gruppens truende atferd, som inkluderte å skremme omgivelsene ved å avfyre automatrifler i luften, vekket frykt blant innbyggerne i nabolaget, og i november 2005 skapte YBMB nasjonale overskrifter da organisasjonens medlemmer angrep to butikker i Oakland som solgte vin og brennevin, knuste flasker og forlangte at butikkeierne sluttet å selge alkohol. Det fikk ingen konsekvenser:

Bay Area leftists responded by saying, «Liquor stores are a blatant symbol of racism in America.» Oakland’s then-Mayor Jerry Brown gently criticized the attacks pointing out that, «not all liquor store owners should be tarred by the bad ones.»

According to the Oakland Tribune, «The clerk on duty (at the New York Market on San Pablo Ave) Sunday night was reported missing early Monday afternoon. He was found around 2 p.m., locked inside the trunk of a car in a supermarket parking lot in El Cerrito.»

Oaklands myndigheters og politikeres unnfallende holdning til YBMB`s uakseptable fremferd skyldtes den inngrodde offisielle oppfatningen om at organisasjonen spilte en positiv rolle i samfunnet. To dager etter drapet på Bailey fikk YBMB følgende attest av professor Benjamin Bowser ved California State University–East Bay:

The group has deep roots in Oakland’s life and politics, and for decades it played a positive role in Oakland’s black community, said Cal State East Bay professor Benjamin Bowser, a sociologist who has chronicled the city’s history.

The group served as an example of upward economic mobility in an impoverished community, and its members tried to serve as a buffer against the rising drug trade, Bowser said. The bakery has also long provided ex-convicts with one of the few places they could work after being released from prison.

«The Black Muslims along with the Black Panthers were instrumental in really keeping the widespread mass marketing of drugs out of east and west Oakland in the late 1960s, until the government focused on taking the Panthers out,» Bowser said.

Trusler og ødeleggelse av lokale butikker og nabolagets frykt var imidlertid ikke de eneste aktivitetene som ble oversett av byens myndigheter, men etter en skyteepisode, to kidnappinger og to drap i YBMB`s umiddelbare nærhet begynte politiet å interessere seg for gruppen. Den påfølgende etterforskningen og overvåkningen avslørte et omfattende og voldelig synderegister. Samtidig drev Chauncey Bailey sine journalistiske undersøkelser omkring den kriminelle organisasjonen:

Oakland police officials said they suspected that the men were part of a group operating «a very violent criminal enterprise» out of a neighborhood bakery.

The police said the raid came after a lengthy investigation of other crimes, including two kidnappings on a single day in May, and two killings in July that occurred in the same north Oakland neighborhood where the bakery is located. The police had connected those crimes and put the bakery under surveillance before Mr. Bailey was killed.

«During our investigation, Chauncey Bailey was murdered, and it turns out that the evidence in that case also linked the same individuals we were looking at in the other two prior murders to that case,» said Lt. Ersie Joyner of the Oakland Police Department».

Mr. Jordan said it was «very disheartening» to hear about Mr. Bailey’s killing, «and it was particularly disheartening to know it was connected to our investigation.»

Men organisasjonens aktiviteter hadde vekket pressens interesse lenge før politiet og øvrige myndigheter endelig besluttet å etterforske Your Black Muslim Bakery. Allerede i 2002 publiserte the East Bay Express en artikkel som belyste anklager mot YBMB som til da ikke hadde vært offentlig kjent. Artikkelen inneholdt også opplysninger om gruppens lobbyvirksomhet og samkvem med byens myndigheter:

A 2002 article by Chris Thompson in the East Bay Express explained criminal allegations against «Your Black Muslim Bakery» including the March 4, 1994, kidnapping, torture and extortion of Nigerian immigrant Olasunkanmi Onipede over a real estate deal with a Bakery associate. Presiding over the torture and extortion was, «Nedir Bey, the public face of Oakland’s most prominent Black Muslim organization, the man who lobbies the City Council, orchestrates media events, and runs interference for the group’s elusive leader….»

As the Express explained: «A group of up to six soldiers in the Black Muslim organization, led by a senior member of the Bey family, allegedly tortured two men for up to four hours – and were allegedly transporting him under armed escort when police arrived. When Oakland police tried to arrest the men involved in this incident, thirty Black Muslims mounted an organized assault on the officers – and the leader allegedly rallied his troops by calling for the death of white cops.»

Avisen fulgte opp med en leder som stilte spørsmål om hvorfor de dokumenterte og etterhvert tallrike anklagene mot YBMB ikke ble offentliggjort og hvorfor de lokale myndighetene ikke reagerte:

«Why has it taken so long for all these allegations, the torture and rapes and beatings, to come before the public? Why has Bey commanded the respect and admiration of so many people – and why were so many civic leaders eager to call him friend? Countless Oakland leaders have offered the Bey family their services. It’s time for them to answer for it.»

Dette ble skrevet for fem år siden, og i løpet av den tiden har flere mennesker mistet livet. Blant dem redaktør og journalist Chauncey Bailey, kjent for sitt genuine engasjement for minoritetenes rettigheter.

bildet: Chauncey Bailey (57) gravlegges idag. Han etterlater seg en 13 år gammel sønn.

Frontpage Magazine: Oakland’s Unholy Alliance Artikkelen inneholder flere lenker til forskjellige mediers omtale av saken.