Justice Served

Nearly four years ago, Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey died walking on his way to work.

Yesterday, an Oakland jury convicted the former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery of murder for ordering Bailey’s assassination, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Yusuf Bey IV, 25, was also convicted of ordering the murder of Bailey and two other men in summer 2007. The jury also convicted Bey’s codefendant, Antoine Mackey, of two counts of first degree murder for the killings of Bailey and Michael Wills, 36, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The jury split on a third count against Mackey involving the slaying of Odell Roberson Jr., 31. Both face life terms in prison without the possibility of parole when they are sentenced July 8.

Before his death, Bailey was working on a series of critical articles on Your Black Muslim Bakery. Confessed triggerman Devaunghdre Broussard reached a plea bargain with prosecutors and testified against Bey.

I write this entry for two reasons. First, my younger sister and I knew Chauncey Bailey. He served with me on the board of the Bay Area Black Journalists’ Association, a chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. My sister knew him socially when she lived in Oakland. We were shocked and saddened upon hearing about his assassination.

Second, Bailey was a fellow journalist. I also knew him when he worked for The Oakland Tribune, a sister publication to The Daily Review of Hayward, where I worked. Bailey was the first journalist killed on U.S. soil since 1976 when Don Bolles of The Arizona Republic was murdered in a car bombing by criminal gambling interests.

But the reporting that Bailey started continued. A coalition of journalists knows as The Chauncey Bailey Project cast a spotlight on the close relationship between the bakery and top Oakland elected officials who for decades continued to give active support to the Beys despite evidence of their well-know criminal dealings, the Times reported. The journalists discovered problems with the police investigation and found new evidence that kept the heat on authorities.

Trial prosecutor Melissa Krum said the verdicts send the message that “the First Amendment is not going to be murdered by murdering journalists. You cannot kill the man and expect the message to be killed.”

Wendy Ashley-Johnson, a cousin of Bailey’s, echoed that sentiment. “Journalists have a job to do, and they should not be squashed in what they do.”

So true.

Writing Diva