Chauncey Bailey Murder Trial Nears End, Oakland Police Drama Begins

Chauncey Bailey Murder Trial Nears End,
Oakland Police Drama Begins


As the Chauncey Bailey Murder trial wraps up, the long suspected Oakland police role in the murder investigation is being uncovered. Oakland Post Newspaper Publisher Paul Cobb and the Black Chauncey Bailey Project organizer Marvin X have long called for an investigation of the OPD's role in the assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey.

The "white" Chauncey Bailey Project has resisted investigating the alleged police role in the assassination of Chauncey Bailey, focusing singularly on the indictment of the Black Muslim Bakery Brothers as the sole culprits, even though at the outset of the editor's assassination in broad daylight, Post Publisher Paul Cobb told the OPD that Chauncey was not only investigating the activities of YBMB, but more importantly, the alleged activities of corruption by African American members of the OPD.


He informed the DA Tom Orloff of his feelings. Not only did Orloff reject Cobb's assertion, but he resigned shortly after the killing. Police Chief Tucker resigned or retired as well.

Before he resigned, Chief Tucker suggested if Cobb wanted the OPD to pursue police involvement in the assassination of Chauncey, Cobb should get himself a bullet proof vest.


When Paul Cobb suggested the "White" Chauncey Bailey Project should also pursue police involvement, embedded OPD crime writer Harry Harris suggested Cobb was out of his mind. Cobb suggests Harris has been hanging around in the OPD locker room too long.


It is clear that Harry Harris has been embedded with the OPD far beyond any objective usefulness. The same may be true for Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynalds who related to Black Chauncey Bailey Project organizer Marvin X that the OPD had fine officers, especially Lt. Longmire, chief investigator of the Bailey killing as well as mentor of the murder suspects who was temporarily relieved of his duties due to conflict of interest. He was in charge of the crime scene and led the raid of the bakery, securing the murder weapon and a confession in less than 24 hours after the murder of Chauncey.


When Marvin X published the conversation he had with Oakland Tribune Editor Reynolds during a lunch meeting, Reynolds threatened to throw a Molotov Cocktail at Marvin X, one of the most prolific writers in America and the world. Marvin wrote eight books last year and is considered the USA's Rumi (Bob Holman), Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed), the father of Muslim American literature (Dr. Mohja Kahf), one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing (Amiri Baraka).

As the murder trial concludes, it appears the OPD drama is just beginning. KTVU television reported last night that a long suspected cover up in the Bailey murder investigation has been uncovered.


Because of his association with those indicted for the murder of Chauncey, there are persons who think Marvin X's assertions are tainted. Marvin X rejects this. After all, Chauncey was his friend as well. One of his last stories was a review of Marvin's book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy.

--Marvin X

the Black Chauncey Bailey Project

http://www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com

5/19/11





OPD Cover-Up Emerges In Bailey Murder Investigation

Posted: 9:10 pm PDT May 18, 2011
Updated: 9:43 am PDT May 19, 2011

OAKLAND, Calif. -- As the eight-week trial of the alleged mastermind of the Chauncey Bailey murder heads to the jury this week, KTVU Channel 2 News has obtained hundreds of pages of legal documents never seen publicly that explain for the first time the inside story of the controversial homicide investigation.

It's a story that KTVU has largely been prevented from telling because of a gag order imposed by the command staff of the Oakland Police Department.

The documents paint a troubling picture of former top commanders at Oakland police misleading the public about several key aspects of the Bailey case.

On December 15, 2008, then-Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker called a highly unusual press conference to respond to a story revealing what may have been the single biggest turn in the assassination of Bay Area journalist Chauncey Bailey.

That was the discovery that Tucker had delayed for two days a massive police raid scheduled for August 1st, 2007 on the violent "Your Black Muslim Bakery" so a member of the chief's command staff could extend a camping trip.

But the next day, August 2nd, a self-described "soldier" from the bakery gunned down Bailey in cold blood on a downtown Oakland street. The delayed raid then took place on August 3rd, the day after the murder.

The documents contain charges that Tucker and his command staff held a private meeting just before the press conference, where they agreed to cover-up that decision when they met the news media.

In the sworn statement KTVU has obtained, an Oakland police captain testified he was in that meeting and spoke to the chief about what he regarded as a lie:

Captain Ersie Joyner: "Chief Tucker was adamant that we had only one date set and there was never two dates."

Attorney: "And to your knowledge, did Chief Tucker know that there were two dates, August 1st and then August 3rd?"

Joyner: "Yes."

Attorney: "Was there anyone else in that meeting with Chief Tucker and Chief Jordan and others who believed that the department had knowledge of the two dates, August 1st and August 3rd?"

Joyner: "Yes."

Attorney: "After that press conference, did you talk to Chief Tucker about what you perceived to be a dishonest statement?"

Joyner. "Yes."

San Francisco attorney John Scott, who is bringing a lawsuit against the city of Oakland on behalf of the lead investigator of the Bailey murder, says Tucker’s action goes to the heart of a story never heard before -- until now.

"The department, I believe, had its own sense of guilt or believed it had its own sense of guilt or responsibility for the murder because the department was supposed to execute a warrant on the Black Muslim Bakery on August 1st, the day before the murder." Scott said. "Now, no one is suggesting or implying the department intended to kill Chauncey Bailey."

Scott is representing Oakland police Sgt. Derwin Longmire, who has been under a gag order by the chief's office since the fall of 2007.

Longmire has never spoken to the news media about the Chauncey Bailey case. He also declined to speak to KTVU for this story.

But KTVU Channel 2 News has obtained sworn statements by Longmire and other Oakland police officials, some testifying that Sgt. Longmire has been unjustly painted as the scapegoat for the Bailey homicide investigation.

Tucker's assistant chief, Howard Jordan, launched internal investigations against Longmire because he believed the homicide investigator had become far too close to the Black Muslim Bakery and didn't tell his boss or colleagues what he was doing.

Recorded phone conversations between Longmire and Yusef Bey IV shortly after Bailey's murder indicate they had a close relationship:

"Nobody has the right to say we can't be friends because you know what I mean," Bey can be heard saying in one recorded call.

To which Longmire replied: "You know what, I totally agree. I totally agree. I feel that way wholeheartedly."

The documents KTVU obtained, however, have sworn testimony from Longmire's immediate supervisor saying he had ordered Longmire to take those actions and that the district attorney also knew -- and approved -- of them.

Longmire's lawsuit charges the Oakland police brass with discriminating against him and it uses sworn statements such as this one by Assistant Chief Howard Jordan to attempt to prove he made biased assumptions:

Attorney: "Did you believe that Sgt. Longmire had compromised the investigation because of that relationship with either the Black Muslims or the bakery?"

Jordan: "Yes."

Attorney: "At the time of the Chauncey Bailey murder, did you believe that Sergeant Longmire was associated with the Black Muslim Bakery?"

Jordan: "Yes."

However, the documents also include evidence that Longmire was not protecting the Black Muslims, showing that as early as five years before Bailey was shot Sgt. Longmire warned the police command staff that the bakery was a criminal enterprise and needed to be cleaned up.

No serious, sustained action was taken on those repeated warnings until it was too late.

The department moved to fire Longmire in May 2009.

After a series of internal investigations, Longmire was ultimately exonerated.

But even then, the Oakland command staff offered Longmire his job back only if he promised not to sue. He refused, and filed his lawsuit in April 2010.

Although Longmire is still prohibited from discussing the Bailey case, he did talk to KTVU when he filed his lawsuit against the department.

"There was so much media attention that when questions came up they couldn't answer about mistakes early on, for them there was no other way but to let it fall on someone and that someone was me," said Longmire.

Assistant Chief Howard Jordan declined to comment on this story through a letter from an attorney representing the city of Oakland.

A phone call to former chief Wayne Tucker, now a civilian, asking for his perspective on the allegations in these new documents brought this brief response:

"I have nothing to say to your s***** station,” Tucker declared. “Why don't you publish that? You should publish that."

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in February 2012.

Copyright 2011 by KTVU.com. All rights reserved.

POST PUBLISHER QUESTIONS OPD INVESTIGATION IN BAILEY MURDER

SF Police Corruption

Alleged Illegal Search, SF Police Brutality Caught On Video


The office of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi released a video today showing San Francisco Police Department officers physically attacking an apparent bystander after (allegedly) illegally searching the room of a residential hotel resident on Dec. 30, 2010. Adachi's office claims that this video directly "contradicts officers’ sworn statement on several counts and appears to support the resident’s claim officers stole his property." In the police report, officers detained Fernando Santana, 48, in the Jefferson Hotel lobby at 440 Eddy "after claiming to see crack cocaine in his outstretched hand." However, in the video Santana's hands are inside his pants pockets.

This has prompted Adachi to demand "a culture change in our city’s police department."

Officers involved in the controversial Dec. 30 arrest are Ricardo Guerrero, Reynaldo Vargas, Jacob Fegan, Peter Richardson, Robert Sanchez and Kevin Healy. Guerrero was the subject of a 2010 New York Times article, identifying him as one of the highest-paid police officers in San Francisco. Guerrero raked in $223,170 in 2008 while working in the narcotics division.

Video of Dec. 30 arrest below:


According to the PD office, here how the search went down:

0:00 Undercover officer Guerrero in dark clothing enters, crosses lobby. 0:19 Guerrero goes to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor of hotel 1:54 Officers pass front desk and one briefly flashes a badge 2:22 Client enters lobby and is handcuffed 4:21 Handcuffed client is led to room and officers search room 6:36: Friend of client's stops by room and is choked and searched by police 9:08: Guerrero exits room with client's bag (not listed in police property list) and walks down hall
Contact the author of this article or email tips@sfist.com with further

Paul Cobb and Marvin X

Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb and author Marvin X at 14th and Broadway, across the street from Academy of da Corner, in front of Rite Aid.

Paul and Marvin grew up together in West Oakland. Paul knows more about Marvin's dad, Owendell Jackmon, a florist, than Marvin. Another brother, Henry Winston, says Mr. Jackmon was his mentor and he holds Marvin's dad in the highest esteem. Mr. Jackmon made his transition at 89 in 1989. He was born in 1900 and particpated in WWI. He was a Race man who was conscious of Marcus Garvey. In Oakland, he was a member of various organizations, including The Men of Tomorrow, Elks, American Legion, et al. Mr. Jackmon was a member of Downs Memorial Methodist Church. Marvin's classic play Flowers for the Trashman deals with the father/son relationship. When the Drama Department at San Franscisco State University produced the play while Marvin was an undergrad, his father attended a performance but wasn't too happy with his son's depiction.

Before moving to Oakland, the Jackmons lived in Fresno. Marvin and his mother, Marian Murrill Jackmon were born in Fowler, nine miles south of Fresno. His parents published the Fresno Voice, possibly the first black newspaper in the Central Valley. They also had a real estate business and sold many blacks their first home after WWII.

See Marvin's autobiography, Somethin' Proper, Black Bird Press, 1998.

photo Walter Riley, Esq.

Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet

book review

African American Review, Spring, 2001

by Julius E. Thompson

It tells the story of the most important Muslim poet to appear in the United States during the civil rights era....Marvin X (Marvin E. Jackmon) [El Muhajir]. Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet. Castro Valley, CA: Black Bird P, 1998. 278 pp. $29.95.

Marvin X's autobiography Somethin' Proper is one of the most significant works to come out of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It tells the story of perhaps the most important African American Muslim poet to appear in the United States during the Civil Rights era. The book opens with an introduction by scholar Nathan Hare, a key figure in the Black Studies Movement of the period. Marvin X then takes center stage with an exploration of his life's story, juxtaposed with the rapidly changing events and movements of contemporary history: the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement, the Black Power Movement, the growth of Islam in America, and especially the influence of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, and the series of challenges facing black people in recent decades.

Marvin X was born Marvin E. Jackmon in Fowler, California, on May 29, 1944, and grew up in West Fresno and West Oakland, California. His early education was completed in these cities, and he later attended Oakland City College (Merritt) and San Francisco State University, where he was awarded a B.A. and an M.A. in English.

He emerged as an important new poetic voice among California black poets in the late 1960s, and wrote for several of the key Black Arts Movement journals of the period, including the Journal of Black Poetry, Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Black Theatre magazine, Black Scholar, Black World, and Muhammad Speaks.

He was also a key playwright of the era, working with Ed Bullins in organizing the Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco, 1966, and in founding the Black House, also in San Francisco, with Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver, and Ethna Wyatt, 1967.

He also worked with Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, 1968. During the last forty years, Marvin X has taught Black Studies, literature, drama, and English at Fresno State University, the University of California, Berkeley and San Diego, the University of Nevada, Reno, San Francisco State University, Mills College, and Merritt and Laney Colleges in Oakland, California.

His very active career is also reflected in a rapid-moving life style. This fact is documented by the author in twenty chapters in Somethin' Proper, followed by an appendix, which captures the life and death of Huey Newton. Marvin X was a busy man during the 1960s and 1970s. He was a Black Muslim, an associate of the key leaders of the Black Panther Party (Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver), an anti-Vietnam War protester (he went into exile in Canada, Mexico City and later in Central America, rather than be drafted into the United States Army), and an outspoken critic of American economic, social, and cultural discrimination of African Americans at home, and of Third World peoples abroad.

This theme is reflected in one of his most famous poems of the period, "Burn, Baby Burn" on the 1965 Watts Riot:

Tired, sick and tired.

Tired of being sick and tired.

Lost,

lost inthe wilderness of white America.

Are the masses asses?

Cool, said the master

To the slave, "No problem,

Don't rob and steal, I'll Be your driving wheel."

Cool.

And he wheeled us into350 years of BlackMadness--

to hog guts, Conked hair, quo vadis

Bleaching cream, Uncle Thomas,

to WattsTo the streets, to theKillllllllll ........

Boommmmm ............

2 honkeys gone.

Motherfuck the police

And Parker's sister too

Burn, baby, burn*******

Cook outta sight*******

Fineburgs,

wineburgs,

Safeway,

noway,

burn .....Baby, burn

Somethin' Proper also reveals Marvin X's family life, marriages, children, and friends, and notes the conflicts which he has experienced across the years with individuals, organizations, and governments. He writes in a style which captures the essence of black language, folklore, and culture in the United States, with an upscale urban beat!

Marvin X notes the high and low points in his own life and that of his associates. Most potent is his analysis of the drug situation in this country, and its relationship to and impact upon the black struggle. He calls for change and reform in this area, stressing the need for continued black struggle to overcome the age-old problems of discrimination, racism, and oppression in America.

Marvin X remains an active writer today. His body of work includes Fly to Allah (1969); Black Man Listen (1969), a key work in Dudley Randall's catalogue at Broadside Press; Woman, Man's Best Friend (1973); and a play, One Day in the Life, most recently produced in 1997 in Brooklyn and Newark, New Jersey.

His most recent books of poetry are Love and War (1995), Land of My Daughters, poems, 2005.He remains a very interesting voice from the Black Arts Movement, continuing to write and to challenge contemporary readers to think and to act, and to assess the past, the present, and the future.

COPYRIGHT 2001 African American Review

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

Marvin appears in the recent literary anthology Black California, Heyday Books, Berkeley, 2011. He was Guest Editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, 2011. Marvin is editing an anthology of writings dedicated to the memory of assassinated Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey.

On May 14, Marvin X will receive the Inspired Artist Award at the Paramount Theatre. He is organizer of the Black Chauncey Bailey Project and the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists.