By Richard Prince

COMMENTARY – Oakland, Calif., Mayor Ron Dellums called for an expansion of the state investigation into the Police Department’s handling of journalist Chauncey Bailey’s slaying to include a newly reported delay in the raid of Your Black Muslim Bakery, an operation Bailey was investigating, Thomas Peele and Bob Butler reported for the Chauncey Bailey Project.

“Dellums’ comments came in reaction to reports Tuesday by The Chauncey Bailey Project that the raid was delayed 48 hours to accommodate the vacation schedules of two SWAT commanders.

“Police postponed the raid from the planned date of Aug. 1, 2007, to Aug. 3, 2007, because two senior SWAT commanders were on a backpacking trip, the Bailey Project, a consortium of Bay Area journalists, reported.

“If not for the delay, Bailey might be alive. A masked gunman killed him Aug. 2, 2007 — between the date the raid was first scheduled and the date when it was carried out.”