So, it turns out the local bakery that I frequent to buy sweet rolls, hamburger buns, and cookies (especially their heavenly ginger snap and chocolate chip varieties) has been an alleged hotbed of illegal activity. This morning, around 5am, SWAT, Oakland PD, & co. raided the establishment (along with other related locations) and made several arrests on multiple charges, including homicide. :eek:
It turns out, completely unbeknownst to us, that they had a very checkered (even corpse-riddled) past. No. Idea. Goes to show it probably couldn’t hurt to read the local paper once in a while. :smack: I went there simply because they didn’t use salt in their baking (for my HBP) and their products were really good. Still, I hope all the appropriate cases can be made (especially if they’re tied to the brazen murder yesterday of a newspaper reporter in broad daylight). Yikes.
That’s what I thought, too. ‘Newspaper reporter who is too nosy for his own good and gets whacked in broad daylight’ sounds like a plot device for one of the crappy mystery novels I am addicted to; it doesn’t sound like a headline on CNN.
I’ve read more than a few stories about the problems they’ve had over the past years, including the sexual assault investigation against Yusuf Bey and the dustup when Yusuf Bey IV and some others smashed alcohol in a store run by Muslims. There was just an article in the Chronicle this morning about the problems other reporters at various papers have had when they wrote stories about YBMB - threatening calls, brick through the window, reporters being followed and harrassed, etc.
A friend’s exhusband used to shop there (he’s a vegetarian) and she said that while they’d serve him it was an uncomfortable experience, it was made clear that he wasn’t quite welcome there.
I read about this on Sunday. Before, I’d always thought of bakers as jolly souls…
ArchiveGuy, did they sell any baked goods that were out of the ordinary? My husband and I were trying to figure out if the name meant “Your Black Muslim Bakery–A Source for Tasty Halal Treats” or “Your Black Muslim Bakery–Not That Korean-Owned Bakery Down the Street.”
I wouldn’t say the baked goods were out of the ordinary, but there was an emphasis on natural ingredients. From their website:
Here’s a list of their products. Most of the goods were simply off the shelf, pre-packaged (cookies came in batches of 4). Not the pies, though, and I was always curious about them but never much of a pie eater.
And unlike Valgard’s friend, I never felt remotely uncomfortable going there (I’d take my Mom when she came to town), and I’m neither black nor muslim. I don’t think I ever remember seeing a male employee there, though. The counter person was always a young woman wearing a head scarf and though there was always a rather expansive place in the back (the customer area was fairly small), I never remember anyone working back there (though, being a bakery, I imagine most of the work was done in the early morning).
That makes me so sad because a friend of my family recommended some of their baked goods. My brother is backpacking around the world right now and he said before he left that when he comes back he wants to go with the entire family to get some of their baked goods. Not anymore, I guess…
