How neighbors see Muslim group
Some perceive Bey's legacy of progressive action overcome by factionalism and recent violence
- Jim Herron Zamora and Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, December 4, 2005
In the late '60s, Your Black Muslim Bakery was one of the few businesses that took a chance on a blighted North Oakland neighborhood, offering jobs to ex-cons, fixing run-down storefronts and feeding the hungry.
For that, neighbors have overlooked rumors that the Muslim group operating from the bakery and originally led by the late Yusuf Bey sometimes relied on back-alley justice to enforce its business and religious dealings.
But since Bey's death in 2003, neighbors say the group is changing in frightening ways. Two heirs to Bey's leadership have been killed, and a third successor -- Bey's 19-year-old son -- was accused of vandalizing one of two Oakland liquor stores that police say were trashed on Nov. 2 by a group of men wearing suits and bow ties.
Yusuf Bey IV and bakery associate Donald Cunningham, 73, turned themselves in to police and were charged last week with hate crimes and false imprisonment in connection with the vandalism. Police are investigating whether Bey operatives kidnapped a merchant and torched his liquor store.
While the crimes have sparked discussion about the overabundance of liquor outlets in the African American community, the dominant topic of conversation in the neighborhood is about the crumbling Bey organization. Neighbors fear the group is deteriorating into a street gang caught in an internal power struggle and far removed from its original goal of black empowerment. Employees at the bakery declined to comment.
"They're good neighbors, they work hard, and they really care about the African American community," said hairstylist Donna Word, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, as she cut a woman's hair Thursday. "Yet I totally disapprove of their violence. Those negative things pretty much outweigh all the positive things they do."
Once, Word recalled, she looked outside her beauty shop and saw a group of young black men in bow ties attacking a prostitute on San Pablo Avenue. "They hit her with this stick -- it was, like, 2 feet long -- and they yelled at her to get off San Pablo Avenue and never come back," Word said. "They were chasing her down the street."
The bakery and its affiliated businesses take up several storefronts on either side of the 5900 block of San Pablo Avenue near the Emeryville and Berkeley borders. The block also includes a Chinese restaurant, an Indian video store and two Arab-owned clothing stores. Nearby are a black church and yoga ashram.
Gwenn McIntyre, a customer of Word's who works nearby, said she sees much good in the Muslim group but fears that positive aspects of Bey's legacy will be outweighed by crime and violence.
"They get people off the streets and get them off drugs, that's no small task," McIntyre said. "But they've gotten carried away, going way beyond what is appropriate."
She said the elder Bey's rape case was the start of the group's downfall. A year before his death, Bey was charged with 27 counts in the alleged rapes of four girls under the age of 14. Bey was awaiting trial on one rape charge when he died.
Twelve people who live or work within a block of the compound said they would talk about the North Oakland black Muslims only if their names remained unpublished and businesses were not identified. Several of them, who had observed the group for years, said there appeared to be a power struggle within the group since the elder Bey's death.
"You've got a 19-year-old in charge, and I don't think he has the support of everyone in the group," one longtime neighborhood activist said. "I don't think the passage of control was done properly. The sense I'm getting right now is that there is a split. I talked to employees. They are afraid there will be more violence."
The activist said there are more young men hanging around and more street crime. "It used to be that their block was pristine," the activist said. "There was a woman robbed within sight of the bakery. That never would have happened before."
But other neighbors were surprised that police linked the bakery to the vandalism, saying that's not the way the elder Bey did business.
"I was amazed that they would do something so unlawful and so out of character," said lifelong resident Josephine Lee, 80. "I have known them for years and watched them operate. I have never seen them do anything like that before."
Charles Porter, 62, co-chair of the San Pablo Avenue Golden Gate Improvement Association, said the bakery has often helped his group with improvement projects.
"I hope when things settle down there, we are able to work together again," he said.
Several neighbors said they feel too intimidated to complain about the group. Two neighbors on 59th Street separately recounted an incident in which a woman's car was vandalized after she complained about some of its members.
"I mind my own business, and I'm still alive," said one neighbor who has lived there for about 10 years and spoke on condition of anonymity. "I want to stay that way."
A nearby business owner said that when the elder Bey was in charge, his followers could act heavy-handed, but they worked hard to help the block. But that merchant said things have changed.
"There are a lot of arguments -- some you could see from here," the merchant said. "Then the top people keep getting killed. I think there is some kind of big shakedown coming."
Longtime resident James Oliver, 42, is one of the few neighbors who supported the violence against liquor stores.
"They have guts and they're right -- liquor stores are killing us," Oliver said. "You don't see all these liquor stores in Piedmont or Montclair. You think they could have one on every corner in Alamo or San Ramon?
"I'm not going to join them and do this, but I will not condemn them," Oliver said. "They're taking a stand because nothing else works."
E-mail the writers at [email protected] and [email protected].
Page A - 1
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/04/MNGH0G2P961.DTL
Some perceive Bey's legacy of progressive action overcome by factionalism and recent violence
- Jim Herron Zamora and Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, December 4, 2005
In the late '60s, Your Black Muslim Bakery was one of the few businesses that took a chance on a blighted North Oakland neighborhood, offering jobs to ex-cons, fixing run-down storefronts and feeding the hungry.
For that, neighbors have overlooked rumors that the Muslim group operating from the bakery and originally led by the late Yusuf Bey sometimes relied on back-alley justice to enforce its business and religious dealings.
But since Bey's death in 2003, neighbors say the group is changing in frightening ways. Two heirs to Bey's leadership have been killed, and a third successor -- Bey's 19-year-old son -- was accused of vandalizing one of two Oakland liquor stores that police say were trashed on Nov. 2 by a group of men wearing suits and bow ties.
Yusuf Bey IV and bakery associate Donald Cunningham, 73, turned themselves in to police and were charged last week with hate crimes and false imprisonment in connection with the vandalism. Police are investigating whether Bey operatives kidnapped a merchant and torched his liquor store.
While the crimes have sparked discussion about the overabundance of liquor outlets in the African American community, the dominant topic of conversation in the neighborhood is about the crumbling Bey organization. Neighbors fear the group is deteriorating into a street gang caught in an internal power struggle and far removed from its original goal of black empowerment. Employees at the bakery declined to comment.
"They're good neighbors, they work hard, and they really care about the African American community," said hairstylist Donna Word, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, as she cut a woman's hair Thursday. "Yet I totally disapprove of their violence. Those negative things pretty much outweigh all the positive things they do."
Once, Word recalled, she looked outside her beauty shop and saw a group of young black men in bow ties attacking a prostitute on San Pablo Avenue. "They hit her with this stick -- it was, like, 2 feet long -- and they yelled at her to get off San Pablo Avenue and never come back," Word said. "They were chasing her down the street."
The bakery and its affiliated businesses take up several storefronts on either side of the 5900 block of San Pablo Avenue near the Emeryville and Berkeley borders. The block also includes a Chinese restaurant, an Indian video store and two Arab-owned clothing stores. Nearby are a black church and yoga ashram.
Gwenn McIntyre, a customer of Word's who works nearby, said she sees much good in the Muslim group but fears that positive aspects of Bey's legacy will be outweighed by crime and violence.
"They get people off the streets and get them off drugs, that's no small task," McIntyre said. "But they've gotten carried away, going way beyond what is appropriate."
She said the elder Bey's rape case was the start of the group's downfall. A year before his death, Bey was charged with 27 counts in the alleged rapes of four girls under the age of 14. Bey was awaiting trial on one rape charge when he died.
Twelve people who live or work within a block of the compound said they would talk about the North Oakland black Muslims only if their names remained unpublished and businesses were not identified. Several of them, who had observed the group for years, said there appeared to be a power struggle within the group since the elder Bey's death.
"You've got a 19-year-old in charge, and I don't think he has the support of everyone in the group," one longtime neighborhood activist said. "I don't think the passage of control was done properly. The sense I'm getting right now is that there is a split. I talked to employees. They are afraid there will be more violence."
The activist said there are more young men hanging around and more street crime. "It used to be that their block was pristine," the activist said. "There was a woman robbed within sight of the bakery. That never would have happened before."
But other neighbors were surprised that police linked the bakery to the vandalism, saying that's not the way the elder Bey did business.
"I was amazed that they would do something so unlawful and so out of character," said lifelong resident Josephine Lee, 80. "I have known them for years and watched them operate. I have never seen them do anything like that before."
Charles Porter, 62, co-chair of the San Pablo Avenue Golden Gate Improvement Association, said the bakery has often helped his group with improvement projects.
"I hope when things settle down there, we are able to work together again," he said.
Several neighbors said they feel too intimidated to complain about the group. Two neighbors on 59th Street separately recounted an incident in which a woman's car was vandalized after she complained about some of its members.
"I mind my own business, and I'm still alive," said one neighbor who has lived there for about 10 years and spoke on condition of anonymity. "I want to stay that way."
A nearby business owner said that when the elder Bey was in charge, his followers could act heavy-handed, but they worked hard to help the block. But that merchant said things have changed.
"There are a lot of arguments -- some you could see from here," the merchant said. "Then the top people keep getting killed. I think there is some kind of big shakedown coming."
Longtime resident James Oliver, 42, is one of the few neighbors who supported the violence against liquor stores.
"They have guts and they're right -- liquor stores are killing us," Oliver said. "You don't see all these liquor stores in Piedmont or Montclair. You think they could have one on every corner in Alamo or San Ramon?
"I'm not going to join them and do this, but I will not condemn them," Oliver said. "They're taking a stand because nothing else works."
E-mail the writers at [email protected] and [email protected].
Page A - 1
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/04/MNGH0G2P961.DTL
