Burglar ransacks Oakland Post office

Publisher: Paper will print `if it's the last thing we do'

The largest black weekly newspaper in Northern California expects to keep alive its decadeslong string of not missing a publication date, even though a burglar ransacked the building late Wednesday or early Thursday.

The Oakland Post lost an estimated $15,000 in property and other damages in a burglary that left glass strewn throughout the office, according to business manager Brenda Hudson. The suspect did not get away with the news organization's desktop computers.

No one was injured. Publisher Paul Cobb said the weekly paper would go to press Thursday night.

“We're gonna get one out tonight if it's the last thing we do,” Cobb said by phone Thursday afternoon.

“We haven't missed a publication date in 20 years.”

Hudson said she walked through the office early Thursday and “what met me was a cascade of glass, all in the hallway.”

According to Hudson, Cobb's rare coin collection was taken. The newspaper also lost cameras, a radio scanner, an audio recorder and credit cards.

“My reaction is, `What else is new?'” Cobb said. “We have to find ways to get livable wage jobs for these guys out here in Oakland, or we're all gonna be subjected to this on a regular basis.”

The burglar also broke into the nonprofit organization OCCUR and the Greenlining Institute, which both operate out of the same building.

On Thursday afternoon, health care provide Blue Cross announced that it would donate $20,000 to the Post and an additional $5,000 to the OCCUR organization to help both groups recover from the burglary.

Police were investigating and had not made an arrest as of midday Thursday.

Hudson said surveillance video showed a male on a bike with his face covered by a mask breaking into the building. She also said the news organization will review security measures to make sure its employees are safe.

The Oakland Post is located near a stretch of 14th Street recently renamed after former Post Editor-inchief Chauncey Bailey, who was assassinated in 2007 after his reporting on Your Black Muslim Bakery angered leader Yusuf Bey IV.

“I'm shook up,” Cobb said. “I'm not so shook up that I'm motivated to buy a gun or arm myself, because what good is that gonna do?”