In the wake of the murder of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey, there's been a lot of speculation about the reasons for downplaying the story -- particularly after a suspect was arrested and confessed. It strikes me that there's an unsettlingly urgent desire to have closure, ASAP, with as little fanfare as possible.

I speculated that a primary reason is that journalists were successfully intimidated by the killing of one of their own, as well as desire not to offend multiculturalists and identitarians.

Andrew Walton of the Hawaii Reporter -- in a shocker titled "Taxpayer-funded Muslims Arrested in Murder of Oakland Editor" -- thinks that the relationship typifies a systematic working relationship between thugs and the left:

In spite of its lengthy criminal ties, "Your Black Muslim Bakery" was able to establish retail locations at Oakland International Airport and the Oakland Coliseum. They received $1,100,000 in taxpayer money as a business development 'loan' in 1995--about a year after leaders pled guilty in the felony torture of Mr Olasunkanmi Onipede. The loan has never been repaid. While they allegedly murdered Oakland residents, they sold "natural" "reinvigorating" baked products through several Bay Area health food stores. Bey's company was even recommended to provide security at Oakland's Airport and Container Terminal.

Why is this group still in business? It is not because the accused-child-molester Bey was popular, he won only 5% of the vote in his 1994 run for Oakland mayor. Politically correct Bay Area authorities have a long history of coddling gangsters who attach political rhetoric to their crimes. And it is done publicly and openly.

What's with the deliberate coddling of gangsters? In another piece, Walton elaborates:

Most leftists are too effete to physically enforce their own ideology. This is why they need thugs to do it for them. Substantial portions of Hillary Clinton's 1969 senior thesis are about the benefits of "test(ing) whether the mechanisms of (Chicago) gang structures could not assist in shifting attitudes toward productive adult citizenship." (p. 34.) Hillary's mentor, Saul Alinsky, spent years working with Al Capone's Chicago gang.

It was not a problem when the victims were other members of the Bey group or private citizens in Oakland, but with the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the thugs made the mistake of taking out one of the elite - a journalist. Suddenly the "very thin" Oakland police find themselves permitted to make multiple arrests and shut down the bakery. It is not yet clear whether Oakland authorities will actually finish the job and dismantle the Islamist monster which they have for years cultivated in their midst. But a line has been crossed. With the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the Islamists have killed one of the cultural elite.

The Black Muslim Bakery is par for the course; if a thuggish group or cult can supply muscle and deliver votes, its excesses will be overlooked until they no longer can be. A recent example of the latter was the Los Angeles gang leader who was caught selling guns -- his taxpayer funded "NO GUNS" group notwithstanding.

Tom Hayden's reaction?

"These guys perform a service. If they backslide, well, who doesn't?"