Business
Newsmaker Becomes Center of News After Break-In at The Oakland Post
According to publisher Paul Cobb, three thieves spent over three hours rummaging through drawers, shelves, files, and boxes. For Cobb, owner of the Post News Group, which produces nine weekly newspapers, the theft comes at a sensitive time. “We just honored and celebrated the renaming of an area on 14th Street, where our celebrated editor Chauncey Bailey was slain in 2007.”
By Carla Thomas
The Oakland Post, the oldest African American publication in Northern California, is used to producing the weekly news. Thieves changed that on Tuesday night when they ransacked, vandalized, and burglarized the office in Downtown Oakland making the organization the center of the news.
According to publisher Paul Cobb, three thieves spent over three hours rummaging through drawers, shelves, files, and boxes. For Cobb, owner of the Post News Group, which produces nine weekly newspapers, the theft comes at a sensitive time. “We just honored and celebrated the renaming of an area on 14th Street, where our celebrated editor Chauncey Bailey was slain in 2007.”
While Cobb hopes there is no connection to the break-in, he’s especially glad that his staff was unharmed.
As Office Manager Brenda Hudson oversees the cleanup, she mentions how OCCUR, their upstairs neighbor in the Greenlining Building at 360 14th St. was also broken into. “They lost checkbooks and thousands were taken out of their account and we had cameras, recorders, and other supplies stolen,” she said. “Our surveillance cameras show one of the thieves with his bicycle breaking in.”
Among broken glass, Cobb also said a coin collection and a monitor was stolen. As a Civil Rights Movement activist who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and advocated for much of the trailblazing infrastructure and programs BIPOC millennials enjoy today, Cobb is no stranger to challenges.
“The world is strained, and our City of Oakland has its fair share of homeless and the disenfranchised, so we have to be mindful of the times we’re living in.”
Cobb, who sees theft as an economic issue, says the best way to prevent theft is to create sustainable jobs and plans to use the incident to promote change in the community.
“The break-in is alarming, and our City is under siege economically with far too many left on the sidelines of the economy,” Cobb said. “I’m going to dedicate a series of articles on available jobs and job creation. Again, I’m glad the break-in occurred when no one was on site.
“Our staff is safe and looks forward to continuing to cover the news and not being at the center of it in this light,” Cobb said.
