Malcolm X and Chauncey Bailey, A Comparison of Police Involvement

Chauncey Bailey and Malcolm X, A Comparison

Malcolm X and Oakland Post Editor Chaucey Bailey were both killed by socalled Muslims in conspiracy with the police. Manning Marable's biography will lay bare more evidence of police involvement. Fifty years later there is call for a new trial to consider the New York police role in the murder of Malcolm X.

We wonder will it take fifty years before the citizens of Oakland call for a new trial in the assassination of Chauncey Bailey in broad daylight downtown? But just as Malcolm's killers were acting at the behest of the New York Police, even serving as his body guards, Chauncey's killers were mentored by the Oakland Police, and were under surveillance as well. So how could Chauncey be murdered without their prior knowledge?

And to show the depths of the conspiracy, the Monkey Mind Media only lightly touches on police involvement, after all, Harry Harris, an embedded reporter with the OPD, has long ago outlived his usefulness as an objective voice. He may as well be the chief OPD spokesman. The tragedy is that we cannot separate the Monkey Mind Media from other institutions who defend the political economic structure. They all benefit from the blood of the oppressed, the wretched of the earth. The irony is that they work for the consent of the governed.

The Chauncey Bailey Project, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and the Robert Maynard Institute has reaped millions spreading half truths and is guilty of the sin of omission by not pursuing the very subject matter that is the main reason Chauncey was assassinated: his investigation of City Hall corruption and police corruption. Why has not the Monkey Mind Media used its arsenal of writers and reporters to go beyond surface level scanning of Chauncey's most serious work, police and political corruption, including murder, drug dealing, money laundering, shake downs and false arrests? Yet they laud him as a valiant journalist, but fear to tread in his footsteps. Are they simply cowards or just sycophants. For sure, Chauncey was in the tradition of Freedom's Journal, the first African newspaper published in 1827. I will never forget the day at the Oakland Post Newspaper office when he recited the founding days of that newspaper so vital to representing the voice of slaves. The Monkey Mind Media is more in harmony with the slave masters of today, especially as we advance to neo-slavery. Ishmael Reed thus calls them the Jim Crow Media.

The result is a community full of ignorance and fear at the very thought of blaming the police and politicians for a murder that is a common occurrence throughout the world and most especially just below our border in Mexico.

If you believe in such, it is just a coincidence the Manning biography of Malcolm was released during the trial of those accused of murdering Chauncey. And just as the New York police have yet to stand trial for their role in the murder/conspiracy, the officers who mentored the Bakery brothers are yet to have their day in court.

There is a plethora of community persons willing to testify about police abuse under the color of law. There was a security guard on duty at McDonald's near the crime scene who recognized Officer Longmire as one of the officers who shook him down when he ued to hustle. Longmire was in charge of the crime scene, yes, the mentor of the suspected killers, yet he refused to talk with an eye witness at the crime scene. He was momentarily removed from duty but returned after the chief of police slipped safely into retirement.

Police from New York to Oakland should be aware there is no hiding place. As we watch people around the world, especially in the Middle East, calling for justice and the end to police corruption and abuse under the color of law, the day shall surely come when police in America will face the wrath of people's justice. They can avoid this rapidly arising day of judgment by confessing their sins and deciding to be on the side of the people's revolution. If not, they shall surely find themselves on trial for crimes against humanity.

--Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists http://www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com/

Chauncey Bailey, Wikipedia Bio

Chauncey Bailey From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Chauncey Bailey Born Chauncey Wendell Bailey, Jr.October 20, 1949(1949-10-20)Oakland, California, USA Died August 2, 2007(2007-08-02) (aged 57)Oakland, California, USA Education Merritt CollegeSan Jose State University The Detroit NewsThe Oakland Tribune Chauncey Wendell Bailey, Jr. (October 20, 1949 – August 2, 2007) was an American journalist, noted for his work primarily on issues of the African-American community. He served as editor-in-chief of The Oakland Post from June 2007 until he was shot dead on August 2, 2007.[1] His 37-year career in journalism included lengthy periods as a reporter at The Detroit News and The Oakland Tribune. Chauncey was born in Oakland, California into a Catholic family who were members of St. Benedict's Catholic Church on 82nd Avenue. He lived in East Oakland neighborhoods for many years and attended Hayward High School in the nearby city of Hayward.[2] Bailey earned an Associates Degree from Oakland's old Merritt Community College in 1968, and a Bachelors in Journalism from San Jose State University in 1972. [edit] Career Bailey first wrote for The Oakland Post in 1970, and made his foray into television news that year as an on-air reporter with station KNTV in San Jose, California, where he continued through 1971. During the next three years he worked at the San Francisco Sun Reporter.[3] In the mid 1970s, Bailey moved to Hartford, Connecticut to work on the Hartford Courant for three years. After working for a year on the rewrite desk at United Press International in Chicago, he returned to Oakland in 1978 and wrote for the California Voice through late 1980.[4][3] Bailey again moved to Chicago, where he worked as a publicist for the nonprofit Comprand Inc., and then relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1981 to work for a year as press secretary for the freshman U.S. Representative Gus Savage, D-Ill.[3] From 1982 Bailey spent the next decade as a reporter and columnist for the Detroit News, where he covered city government and worked on special projects.[3] In 1992 he returned to Oakland as public affairs director and newscaster on Bay Area radio with station KDIA, which was co-owned by then mayor of Oakland, Elihu Harris and then California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. During this era Bailey was seen throughout the 1990s as an interviewer and commentator on Soul Beat Television on the Oakland cable station KSBT, where he worked along with former Oakland actress Luenell.[3] Bailey worked at the Oakland Tribune from 1993 until 2005.[3] In the mid 1990s Bailey split from his wife.[4] In 2003 Bailey quit his program on Soul Beat after he failed in his attempt to buy the station. His program was canceled in 2004.[4] In 2005 he began writing freelance travel stories for The Oakland Post. He became editor in June 2007, and then editor-in-chief of all five Post weeklies.[2] The Post is the largest African-American weekly newspaper in northern California, published in Oakland, California by the Post News Group, and serving mainly Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and San Francisco.[5] In late 2004 Bailey became one of the producers, co-founders and hosts for OUR-TV (Opportunities in Urban Renaissance Television) on Comcast Channel 78.[4] Bailey had been known for his aggressive questioning of city officials.[1] Oakland Police spokesman Ronald Holmgren said: "I know him as being a somewhat outspoken type individual, assertive in his journalistic approach when trying to get at matters at hand."[6] [edit] Your Black Muslim Bakery Bailey was shot and killed while working on a story about the finances of Your Black Muslim Bakery, involving its pending bankruptcy.[7][8] After the shooting the Post publisher Paul Cobb revealed on television that, prior to Bailey's killing, Cobb had withheld from publication a story that Bailey had written earlier, saying only that it was about "things like" what happened to Bailey. He later stated that the police had asked him not to reveal anything about the matter. On August 6, 2007 a former employee of the bakery, Ali Saleem Bey, who is not a relative but who adopted the Bey name, revealed that he was Bailey's source for the withheld story, which the Post had decided was not ready for publication. Bailey had asked Bey to give him the story.[9] According to Ali Bey, the bakery business had been seized from its rightful heirs in a coup through fraud and forgery, by a ruthless, younger branch of the family, beginning with Antar Bey and culminating with the current chief executive officer, Yusuf Bey IV. Ali revealed that in June 2005, John Bey, the former head of the Bey security service, was driven out of town with his family after an attempt on his life in a shooting outside his home. John had tried to expose the fraud behind the coup. In 2005, Antar Bey mortgaged the bakery property, to cover back taxes and other debt, and then defaulted, which led to threat of foreclosure.[9] An attorney for the Post also confirmed that Bailey had been working on the story about the "financial status of the organization" and including the possibly criminal "activities of a number of people who were working in the organization".[9] On October 24, 2006 Your Black Muslim Bakery, Inc., had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing its CEO as Yusuf Ali Bey, otherwise known as Yusuf Bey IV. With $900,000 in debts, owed mostly to the mortgage holder, the building was about to be foreclosed upon. The remaining debt, $200,000, was owed to the Internal Revenue Service. The day after Bailey's death, on August 3, 2007 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Jellen ordered the case to be converted to Chapter 7 liquidation effective August 9, 2007.[10] [edit] Final days By 2007 Bailey was living in an apartment near the south end of Lake Merritt, not far from downtown Oakland.[2] He was known to walk to work as a daily routine, and to stop for breakfast at a McDonalds restaurant at 14th Street and Jackson Street, about a half-block from where he was killed in the 200 block of 14th Street, becoming Oakland's 72nd homicide of 2007.[2] On the morning of August 2, 2007, Bailey set out on his usual walk to work. Unknown to him, it is alleged that Devaughndre Broussard, a 19-year-old handyman at Your Black Muslim Bakery, who was on probation for a San Francisco robbery conviction, had found out where Bailey lived. Broussard had worked at the bakery as a handyman and cook between August 2006 and March 2007, before leaving to find other work. He was rehired at the bakery early in July 2007.[8] Broussard grew up in San Francisco's Western Addition district. The office of the San Francisco District Attorney revealed that in January 2006, at age 18, Broussard pled guilty to an assault charge, and served a first-time offender sentence of one year in San Francisco county jail. Upon release, Broussard was also ordered to three years of supervised probation.[11] In addition to his probation status, he was wanted on an outstanding failure-to-appear warrant for his arrest, charged with a 2006 assault with a firearm in San Francisco.[12] Police revealed that on the night of August 1, 2007, Broussard first went looking for Bailey at his apartment complex, having discovered Bailey's home address near the south end of Lake Merritt. Early on the next morning of August 2, 2007 Broussard looked for Bailey at his office, but Bailey had not yet arrived.[8] Police revealed that Broussard also went looking for Bailey twice again at his apartment complex that morning. At 07:17 a.m. an AC Transit bus driver may have seen Broussard near Bailey's apartment, standing outside with the shotgun at First Avenue and International Boulevard. The driver called his dispatcher, who reported the incident to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. The driver continued on his route, and deputies responded to the location, but could not locate the man in their search.[13] Broussard then, in a white Ford Aerostar van, began driving around the route he thought Bailey would be taking to work. Broussard insisted that he acted alone, but police believe he had an accomplice in the van. At 7:25 a.m. Broussard spotted Bailey leaving the McDonald's restaurant where Bailey regularly stopped to eat breakfast. Broussard then got out of the van, parked on Alice Street. Wearing a mask and dark clothing, he approached Bailey with the shotgun. Police cannot confirm that a witness claims that he heard Bailey say "Please don't kill me." The witness claims he recognized Bailey, and that he was in trouble, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the shotgun.[13] Broussard admitted to police the next night that he then ambushed and killed Bailey.[8] Oakland Police investigators said that Broussard confessed that he killed Bailey because he was angry over the past and ongoing articles written by Bailey about the bakery and its personnel.[8] [edit] Assassination As he walked from home to work, Bailey was shot dead around 7:30 a.m. on 14th Street near Alice Street in Oakland's Lakeside Apartments District in what police described as an assassination.[1] Witnesses said the single gunman wearing dark clothing and a ski mask approached Bailey and fired at least three rounds from a shotgun, hitting Bailey at least once in the chest, then fled on foot to a waiting van and drove off.[1][2][6] The gunman first fired a shotgun blast at Bailey's chest, then stood over him and fired again execution style at Bailey's face while Bailey was down, and then fired a coup de grâce to make sure he was dead. The assassin then escaped in the van.[13] Bailey was pronounced dead at the scene.[2] Police Chief Wayne Tucker described the killing as "unusual" because it occurred downtown and in broad daylight.[1] The Mossberg shotgun used in the murder was later identified as one stolen during a liquor store vandalism 2 years prior suspected to have been committed by members of Your Black Muslim Bakery.[14] On the day of the killing Oakland Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland offered up to $25,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the killer. Bailey was survived by his father, three of his four siblings, and his teenage son living in southern California. A funeral Mass was held at the East Oakland St. Benedict's Catholic Church on the morning of August 8, 2007, with an overflowing crowd of 700 in attendance, including a line of people outside for more than an hour into the service. Attendees included Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, actress Luenell, assistant dean of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Paul Grabowicz who once worked with Bailey at the Tribune, and well-known local attorney John Burris. Bailey was buried at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in nearby Hayward, California.[4][15] [edit] Aftermath Beginning early at 5 a.m. on the following morning of August 3, 2007, more than 200 Oakland Police officers and SWAT team members armed with search warrants closed off a number of blocks of San Pablo Avenue, a major thoroughfare in North Oakland. The area of focus included homes and the business properties of Your Black Muslim Bakery, which operated two business locations on either side of the street between Stanford Avenue and 59th Street. The group is a Black Muslim splinter organization founded by Yusuf Bey, and now led by his son Yusuf Bey IV. The pre-dawn raids followed a two-month investigation into a variety of violent crimes, including kidnapping and murder. Police used stun grenades and broke down doors to gain entry. In a news conference later that day, Oakland Deputy Police Chief Howard Jordan said that several weapons and other evidence of value linked the killing of Chauncey Bailey to members of the group.[7] Police also recovered spent ammunition from the rooftops, and detained 19 people for questioning.[8] In addition to the bakeries, the police also raided nearby homes. In the 1000 block of 59th Street, police recovered, from a closet,[9] the shotgun used in the killing of Bailey at the home where Broussard was also detained. The rear yard of the home connected directly to the bakery property.[12] Police also raided a home in the 900 block of Aileen Street a few blocks east of the bakery.[8] Of the 19 detainees on that morning, five were arrested along with Broussard, and Yusuf Bey IV, on probable cause arrest warrants, along with other outstanding arrest warrants, stemming from the prior investigations.[8] Broussard was booked on suspicion of murder on August 4, 2007, for the killing of Bailey, having told police detectives that he considered himself "a good soldier". Though other charges were made against those arrested, none of them were charged with Bailey's murder.[12] On August 7, 2007 Broussard was arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court, on charges of murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.[11] He initially confessed to killing Bailey, then recanted his confession. In a 2008 60 Minutes interview, Broussard claimed he was coerced by Yusef Bey IV to plead guilty for the benefit of the bakery and others arrested.[16] He later plead guilty to manslaughter charges in exchange for a 25 year sentence and full testimony at the trial of Yusef Bey IV and others.[17] Broussard testified for the prosecution at the trial of Yusef Bey IV and Antoine Mackey in 2011. He testified he was ordered by Bey to find, track and kill Bailey before the journalist could print his latest article on the bakery.[17] [edit] The Chauncey Bailey Project To continue Bailey's work and answer questions regarding his death, more than two dozen reporters, photographers and editors from print, broadcast and electronic media, and journalism students are launching the Chauncey Bailey Project. It is convened by New America Media, a project of Pacific News Service and the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. The Chauncey Bailey Project's Web site states that Devaughndre Broussard has confessed to the crime, according to police, but many questions about the possible motive for the killing have yet to be answered. In June 2008, the Chauncey Bailey Project released a secretly recorded police video that reveals how Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV kept the gun used in the Chauncey Bailey killing in his closet after the attack and bragged of playing "hella dumb" when investigators asked him about the shooting.[18] Bey goes on to describe Bailey's shooting in detail, then laughingly denies he was there, and boasts that his friendship with the case's lead detective protected him from charges. Bey also claims he knew he was being recorded. The credibility of The Chauncey Bailey Project is not without its critics. Bay Area Investigative Journalist, Minister of Information JR, who hosts Block Report Radio daily on KPFA 94.1FM during afternoon drive hours, has issued a scathing indictment of the Chauncey Bailey Project in his column: A journalistic critique of the Chauncey Bailey Project. [1]. JR has charged the project with allegations of inaccurate and "self-congratulatory" reporting.[19] [edit] References ^ a b c d e Christopher Heredia, Leslie Fulbright and Marisa Lagos (2007-08-02). "Hit man kills newspaper editor on Oakland street". San Francisco Chronicle. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/02/BAGGCRBL8A6.DTL&tsp=1. ^ a b c d e f Harry Harris and Angela Hill (2007-08-03). "Prominent journalist shot dead in street". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6534337. ^ a b c d e f Josh Richman and Douglas Fischer (2007-08-03). "Bailey's career in news spanned globe for decades". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_6534397. ^ a b c d e Kristin Bender (2007-08-07). "Oakland newsman Bailey to be laid to rest Wednesday". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6563000?source=most_emailed. ^ C. Dianne Howell. "Chauncey Bailey". The Oakland Post. http://www.postnewsgroup.com/. Retrieved 2008-10-26. ^ a b "Veteran Reporter Gunned Down In Oakland". KTVU News. 2007-08-02. http://www.ktvu.com/news/13805439/detail.html. ^ a b "Police Link Bailey Homicide To Black Muslim Group". KTVU News. 2007-08-03. http://www.ktvu.com/news/13812780/detail.html. ^ a b c d e f g h Harry Harris, Kristin Bender and Kelly Rayburn (2007-08-04). "Cops: Editor's killer confesses". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_6544355. ^ a b c d Josh Richman (2007-08-07). "Slain editor's bakery source surfaces". The Oakland Tribune. http://origin.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_6562958. ^ Angela Hill and Josh Richman (2007-08-04). "Esteemed enterprise spirals out of control". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_6544356. ^ a b Harry Harris; Paul T. Rosynsky (2007-08-08). "Bakery leader, cohorts charged". The Oakland Tribune. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20070929103238/http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6571658?source=most_viewed. Retrieved 2008-09-11. ^ a b c Angela Hill and Harry Harris (2007-08-05). "Confessed killer: I'm 'a good soldier'". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_6550155. ^ a b c Harry Harris and Martin G. Reynolds (2007-08-08). "Cops: Killer 'stalked' editor prior to ambush". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_6571657. ^ Jaxon Van Derbeken (2007-10-05). "Trail of the shotgun in editor's slaying". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/05/MNELSL1NT.DTL&tsp=1. ^ Angela Hill, Jamaal Johnson and Cecily Burt (2007-08-09). "Hundreds mourn Bailey". The Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6581036?source=most_viewed. ^ Transcript: Devaughndre Broussard Interview (Anderson Cooper). 60 Minutes. cbsnews.com. March 10 2011. Retrieved 2011-3-29. ^ a b Lee, Henry K. Chauncey Bailey shooter laughed at killings. San Francisco Chronicle. March 28 2011. Retrieved 2011-3-28. ^ Thomas Peele; Bob Butler; Mary Fricker; Josh Richman (2008-06-18). "Secret video raises questions about bakery leader's role in Bailey killing". Chauncey Bailey Project. http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2008/06/18/secret-video-raises-questions-about-bakery-leaders-role-in-bailey-killing/. Retrieved 2008-09-11. ^ by Minister of Information JR (2008). "A Journalistic Critique of the Chauncey Bailey Project". BayView. http://www.sfbayview.com/2008/a-journalistic-critique-of-the-chauncey-bailey-project/. Retrieved 2008-11-22. [edit] External links NBC-11's report on the murder CBS5's report on the murder 60 Minutes: "The Murder of Chauncey Bailey" The Chauncey Bailey Project - Team investigates Bailey murder & continues his work

The Black Chauncey Bailey Book Project Authors

Paul Cob,

Publisher, Post Newspaper Group

Kwan Booth,

Managing Editor,

Oakland Local

Zusha Elison, Reporter, Bay Citizen

John Woodford, Editor,

Michigan Today, University of Michigan

(former editor Muhammad Speaks)

Reginald James,

Editor, the Black Hour

Marvin X,

Publisher,Black Bird Press,

Contributing writer,

Post Newspaper Group

We encourage you to submit an essay for this anthology of writings about Chauncey Bailey, warrior journalist! Deadline Septemer, 2011. Email as MS Word attachment to: jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

--Marvin X, Editor, The Black Chauncey Bailey Book Project

Please make a generous donation to the Black Chauncey Bailey Book Project. Send your donation to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA, 94702.

Malcolm X, Chauncey Bailey and Police Murder

New Malcolm X Bio Urges Feds to Reopen Murder Case

Date: Wednesday, April 06, 2011, 11:46 am

By: EURweb.com

On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was speaking at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan when he was killed.

(AP) A new biography of Malcolm X shines a new light on his murder and has sparked a new call for justice, reports CBS News.“Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” the new book by Columbia University professor Manning Marable, outlines why the investigation should be reopened. Marable died last week, just before publication. Zaheer Ali, Marable’s chief researcher, said, “Professor Marable believed in justice. And his [Malcolm X] killers were never served justice.”On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was speaking to several hundred people at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan when three men suddenly stood up in the front rows and started shooting.Talmadge Hayer was caught at the scene and confessed to being one of the gunmen.

Twelve years later, he signed affidavits claiming two other men, who both served long sentences, had nothing to do with the shooting.David Garrow, historian and author, said, “As Marable’s quite powerful book details, four of the actual assassins never were pursued and at least one of them still lives openly in the metro New York area.”The book claims the New York Police Department knew Malcolm X’s life was in danger but turned the other way in the face of threats.By almost any standard, the investigation at the Audubon Ballroom was shoddy. Four hours after Malcolm X was shot, the Audubon was reopened for a church dance.

The crime scene was cleaned up before a full forensic analysis could be done.“There were still bullet holes in the wall when this dance party was taking place,” Ali said. “So these kinds of questions are the kinds of questions this book raises.”Police deny a cover-up. But in his last interview, Marable told CBS News he wanted the Justice Department to reopen the case. Now plenty of people will wait to see if this last wish will be granted.

Marvin X on Malcolm X, Chauncey and the Police

The murder of Malcolm X is strangely similar to the murder of Chauncey Bailey. James Baldwin said of Malcolm X, "The hand that pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet." We say the same about the killers of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. The Muslims on trial may be guilty but there are co-conspirators roaming the streets under the color of law but they are brute beasts in blue uniforms, to quote the Honorable Minister Farakhan.

When Chancey was killed the then Chief of Police visited Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb but urged him to have a conversation on the elevator. When they boarded the elevator, the Chief punched buttons to every floor so they could take a long ride down from the 12th floor. According to an associate of Cobb's who also took the ride, the Chief begged for his life, urging Cobb not to pursue the possible role of the police in the murder of Chauncey Bailey.

He suggested if Paul Cobb did pursue the police involvement, he should get himself a bullet proof vest. It would be proper for the DA to expand the conspiracy to include the OPD. Anything less is less than justice and a mockery of the American justice system. Former Mayor Jerry Brown was the subject of Chauncey's investigative reporting, along with corruption at the Police Department. Chauncey had been called to a meetinge at Allen Temple Baptist Church by mothers afraid for their drug dealing sons and daughters who were being shaken down by OPD officers then released after they were relieved of their drugs, jewelry and money, making them likely to be killed by drug dealers would not believe their stories of police shakedowns.

There are brothers in prison willing to testify they were victims of OPD shakedowns. When Ronald Dellums became mayor and Jerry Brown became State Attorney General, Dellums called for the AG to investigate the OPD investigation. Only problem was that AG Brown needed to be investigated as he is reported to have said, "I'm going to get that nigger (Bailey) from snooping around City Hall and the OPD." Yes, the investigator of the investigation needed to be investigated!

--Marvin X, the Black Chauncey Bailey Project

Remembering Chauncey by Kwan Booth

Remembering Journalist Chauncey Bailey

Remembering Chauncey Bailey, newspaper editor, mentor and friend.

By Kwan Booth

(August 3, 2007

Deadline nights in the newspaper business are sacred. Nothing compares to that last minute rush of writing, editing and designing, trying to squeeze in that last crucial detail before going to press. When I heard that Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post, was killed yesterday morning, “deadline night” was the first thing that came to mind.

For the last 2 ½ years I’ve been a writer and editor at the Post and Chauncey and I worked together on several occasions. Some of my best memories are from Tuesdays in the production room at 2am: huddled around a computer screen-shirt sleeves rolled up, bags under everyone’s eyes, cups of stale coffee littering every counter top. I remember some nights looking over at Chauncey and seeing the fatigue on his face. But more than that there was the joy-the man was addicted to the news and the business associated with it.

These were the times he relished. These were also the times when he opened up the most. Reports from the last 24 hours have repeatedly mentioned his hallmark aggressive style and brevity, and for good reason. Chauncey wasn’t one for small conversations. From the way he answered the phone-”This is Bailey. What?” to his habit of writing stories in the body of emails or dictating them to layout designers directly to speed the process-he was all about getting it out quick, hard and correct.

But his style always came across as more tough love than “tough shit.” Late nights he’d open up about the screenplays and movies he was working on and his frustration trying to get movie studios to read scripts that showed real life black characters. He’d tell stories of his years chronicling the African American community in the Bay Area and Detroit and the roadblocks he encountered trying to increase the presence and credibility black people in the media. The man truly loved people and he was the first person to really drive home the importance of knowing the people you write about. He would always say “how can you report on the community if you’re not in the community?”

We’d have long debates on media and the best way to reach under served neighborhoods. I’d call him a dinosaur for his unrelenting faith in the power of print news and old school TV broadcasts. He thought I put too much emphasis on all this “new media.” His rationale: you’ve got to reach people where they are and most poor folks aren’t checking for the Daily Kos. Understandable coming from a man who never figured out how to send an attachment in an email, but from those late night conversations I learned a lot about the inner workings of the news industry.

Chauncey taught me everything from how to really grill public officials to how to score a spot on the coveted “press junket.” We often joked about it in the office, but Chauncey really was the James Brown of Bay Area reporting-”the hardest working man in journalism.” He refused to have a computer in his house, explaining that he’d “never stop working.”

It was a regular thing for staffers to make late night and early morning runs to the office to find Chauncey sitting there, hunched over his computer, ballpoint pin in his mouth, eyes three inches from the screen surrounded by mountains of press releases, phone numbers and story notes. Chauncey had a great feel for what people wanted and was a big fan of short, tightly written stories. He liked to tease the reader and make them come back for more next week.

He regularly chided contributing writers for their verbosity “I wrote about the entire state of black people in California in 300 words, why do you need 800 for a record review?” This article-756 words written in his memory-would have probably driven him nuts and I can imagine him over my shoulder with a red pen in hand, slashing copy. Like most journalists he didn’t like to be the center of attention and I could see him bumping his own memorial for something more “newsy.”

For just this once though, long winded or not, I hope he’d agree that the length of the article fits the occasion. Chauncey you were a good dude, a trusted mentor and a hell of a newspaper man. Your contribution to the community will be greatly missed. End of story.

Chauncey Bailey Murder Trial: A Personal History

The Chauncey Bailey Murder Trial: A Personal History

The author, who knew the victim, reflects on the murder of an Oakland journalist

By Zusha Elinson on March 28, 2011 - 12:00 a.m. PDT

Journalist Chauncey Bailey was killed in 2007

Zusha

It’s strange to cover a murder trial when you know the man who was murdered – and several people on the witness list.

I met Chauncey Bailey when I was an editor and reporter at the Oakland Post. There, I also had my first encounters with Your Black Muslim Bakery, whose leader, the young Yusuf Bey IV, is on trial for ordering the hit on Chauncey for a story he was working on about the bakery.

The Oakland Post wasn’t the most obvious place for my first job as a journalist. The Post is a venerable African American weekly newspaper and I was a young white Jewish kid fresh out of college. But it was the first paper to offer me an internship after I rolled into Oakland in my red pickup truck – and it turned out to be an excellent training ground.

In one of my first encounters with Chauncey, he appeared on the Post’s front page – as a subject, not a writer. He was leaving the Oakland Tribune, where he’d long worked as a staff writer – and was moving to St. Kitts. There, he would somehow serve as the Oakland Post’s "Caribbean Correspondent." The headline, written by Paul Cobb, the word-playing publisher of the Post, read: “Let’s Just St. Kitts and Say Goodbye.”

Chauncey was a news-generating machine, a tough no-nonsense questioner, and always smartly dressed. When he returned from the Caribbean and began appearing on the Post front page as a writer, he would sit at his desk and pound out a half-dozen stories a day. At the same time, he was writing stories for the Globe, a competing black weekly, and doing television shows for two competing TV stations. As Paul liked to say, “He was the James Brown of journalism: The hardest working man in the business.”

The Post was always short-staffed and getting the paper together each week was an entertaining scramble. I would write, edit, take pictures and lay out the pages. After Chauncey came along, we easily filled the paper each week with his stories. Some appeared under his byline, some under “Post Staff,” just for variety.

Although I was technically an editor, I was young and inexperienced and Chauncey taught me how to report and write quickly and how to turn most anything into the story. By example, with his tough questioning, he taught me how to cut through politicians’ bullshit.

When, after a year and a half at the Post, I was eying an open position at a weekly paper in Marin, the Post newsroom good-naturedly gave me shit: I would surely be writing about hot tubs and yachts instead of the more life-and-death issues in Oakland’s black community. But Chauncey took me aside and told me it would be good for my career, which even though I ended up writing about yachts, it was.

Chauncey eventually succeeded me as editor of the Post.

The first contact I had with Your Black Muslim Bakery was writing a story for the Post about the death of Waajid Aliawaad Bey. He was an adopted son of the charismatic and controversial founder of the bakery, Yusuf Bey, and had inherited the throne after Bey died in 2003. Soon after, Waajid was found in a shallow grave in the Oakland hills.

Waajid Bey’s murder has never been solved, but I remember interviewing the young Antar Bey, another son of the founder, who’d taken control of the bakery after Waajid’s death. Throughout the interview, he said he had no idea who the killers were, but insinuated with his cavalier and mocking tone that business had been taken care of.

Soon after, Antar Bey was murdered at a North Oakland gas station. Another son, Yusuf Bey IV, now accused of ordering Bailey’s murder, followed him as the leader.

Sitting in the advertising department of the Oakland Post was another key player in the saga. She was a former model and a lieutenant in the Nation of Islam and went by many different names throughout her life: Sister Felicia, Nisa Islam, Nisa Bey and finally Nisayah Yahudah as I knew her.

Dressed fashionably and often sporting blonde hair, Nisiyah volunteered to sell advertising, though she didn’t sell much, and she had some sort of modeling agency on the side. She was a friend of Chauncey's and, as it turned out, the ex-wife of the bakery’s founder, Yusuf Bey.

As the Chronicle reported in a well-researched story by Matthai Kuruvila, many thought it was Nisiyah who’d passed word along to the bakery that Chauncey was working on a story about their crumbling finances – sparking anger and eventually murder.

Nisayah, too, is a witness in the murder trial.

I had been gone from the Post for less than two years when Chauncey was gunned down while walking to work on the morning of August 2, 2007. I visited the spot and attended the enormous funeral at Allen Temple.

Time has passed. But seeing the photos of Chauncey’s dead body — riddled with red holes from shot-gun blasts — that the prosecution put on the screen this week was like getting punched in the stomach.

A few months after Chauncey was killed, I was at the laundromat near my house and I ran into a man who ran the North Oakland branch of Your Black Muslim Bakery on Telegraph Avenue. (The headquarters that was raided the day after Chauncey was murdered was on San Pablo Avenue). We’d become friendly over the years. He’d help me with stories occasionally and I would buy those famously thick bean pies from him.

There are small visceral reactions to traumatic events – and since Chauncey had been murdered I felt sick at the thought of those bean pies, so I hadn’t been back to his bakery. I approached him while we were washing our clothes, demanding answers about what had happened. He blamed the young men who’d had taken over the bakery: they were wild and didn’t listen to their elders.

The explanation was hardly satisfying.

Now those young men are on trial. On Thursday, Devaughndre Broussard, 23, who pleaded guilty to shooting Bailey at close range with a shotgun, was on the stand. He was there to implicate the head of the bakery, Bey IV, for ordering Bailey’s murder because of the stories he was working on. Bey IV, who is now 25, was sitting at the table in a tan suit jacket with a matching tan bow-tie – the signature accessory of the black Muslims. Bey IV, who infamously led missions to destroy liquor stores for selling alcohol to the black community, is also on trial for ordering the murder of another man.

Progress in the case has been made. Excellent reporting by the Chauncey Bailey Project, a group of journalists that banded together to investigate his death, and others nudged the District Attorney to eventually charge Bey IV. At first, Broussard had taken the rap alone. Broussard’s testimony will be key to convicting Bey IV, but the defense plans to discredit him using his criminal past and changing stories about what happened on August 2, 2007.

It was the first time I'd seen Broussard and Bey iV in person. I was struck by how young they were. I wondered if they even understood what Chuancey's life as a tireless journalist and a voice of the black community was all about. Related Chauncey Bailey – The Carnage has No End in Sight Jury Selected in Chauncey Bailey Murder Trial Bey Blames News Media for Tainted Jury Zusha Elinson Reporter covering bikes, buses, BART, buildings, and buds at the Bay Citizen. I was a legal reporter at the Recorder, an editor at the Marinscope and I started my career at the Oakland Post. Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12b4F)

How We Viewed Chauncey Bailey in the Midwest

Notes from the Black Chauncey Bailey Book Project:

How We Viewed Chauncey Bailey in the Midwest

by John Woodford, Editor, Michigan Today,

University of Michigan

Mainly, out here in the Middle West, Chauncey acted as a gadfly--one of those Black journalists who seemed to enjoy getting a rep as a contrarian against Black progressives. Now, on one hand, that is positive in that it sparks self-criticism and open debate, which helps ventilate musty ideas and perspectives. But on the other, it can boil down to delighting the racists who like to foment public fights between all of African descent. Stimulating and exploiting financially internecine combat among Blacks is a time-old ploy. For example, right now we have this current concocted controversy over what Jalen Rose had to say about his teenage opinions of the Fab Five's Black competitors on the Duke basketball team. So Chauncey played and enjoyed that sort of role, possibly deriving his role from his conservative Catholic upbringing, which includes in part a proclivity to debate for the pleasure of it. Nevertheless, the commercial, white-dominated media gravitates toward those who will assume that role. On the other hand, it took courage for Chauncey to expose not only what seemed to be gangterism in the Oakland Black community but in the law enforcement, courts and city hall as well. And whatever differences I may have had with some of Chauncey's essentially America-Firster international politics, I admired his guts and the way he relished argument.

The anthology The Black Chauncey Bailey Project, will be released next year, 2012, edited by Marvin X. The book will be published by Black Bird Press, in association with The Post Newspaper Group and Bay Area Black Authors. You are invited to submit an essay on Chauncey Bailey for this anthology of writings. jmarvinx@yahoo.com