When Biden took office, one of his first acts was the elimination of our border security. Like a power-hungry dictator, Biden simply decided to ignore our immigration laws. His catastrophic border policy resulted in untold millions of unidentified foreign citizens from around the world pouring into our country. Its impact is now being felt in cities across the country. The worst is yet to come. PETER LEMISKA - AND WE'RE ALREADY THERE!!!
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
BLACK VIOLENCE IN AMERICA - 'ZEBRA' KILLERS DENIED PAROL - MURDER SPREE TARGETING WHITES AT RANDOM - Most Serial Killers are Black Men
Last two living ‘Zebra’ killers denied parole; tied to massive California murder spree targeting whites at random
Bulk of killings motivated by Berkeley police shooting
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Larry Craig Green, left, and Jessie Lee Cooks, right, as they appeared at the time of their arrests in 1974. (San Francisco Police Department)
SAN FRANCISCO — Two Bay Area men who were convicted and sent to prison for participating in the notorious racially-motivated killing spree known as the Zebra murders in the 1970s have been denied what may be their final chance at freedom.
Jessie Lee Cooks, 75, agreed this month to postpone a scheduled parole hearing until sometime after his 80th birthday, in 2025. Cooks’ co-defendant, Larry Craig Green, 67, was denied parole for five years at a hearing last August.
Cooks and Green, along with co-defendants Manuel Moore and J.C.X. Simon, were convicted in 1976 of multiple murder and conspiracy to commit murder counts, all in connection with the Zebra murders. Simon died in San Quentin State Prison in 2015, at age 69. Moore died in 2017, while incarcerated at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, at age 75.
The Zebra murders comprised 15 killings — 13 by firearms and two by machete — all said to be motivated by an extremist interpretation of Nation of Islam teachings — that white people were “devils” and deserving of violence. The randomness of the killings horrified San Francisco residents and inspired copycat crimes, including a 2007 killing by members of Your Black Muslim Bakery, who were also behind the murder of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey.
Cooks has admitted guilt before parole boards, but Simon and Moore consistently maintained their innocence until their deaths, according to parole hearing transcripts.
“This is a legal lynching,” Simon told a parole board in 2007, moments before walking out of his own hearing. “You’re going to lynch me whether I like it or not…You might as well put a rope right on top of the ceiling that’s going to let me hang.”
Green has also consistently denied involvement, though he told a parole board in August that he believed at the time white people were “devils.” He has since come to the realization that, “we’re all human beings,” he said.
A city gripped by fear
The murders started Oct. 20, 1973, when a group of men later identified as Cooks, Green, and Harris kidnapped Richard and Quita Hague, a newlywed San Francisco couple on an evening stroll at Telegraph Hill. Quita was sexually assaulted and hacked to death with a machete, while Richard was clubbed and hacked.
Richard miraculously survived the attack. A week later, Cooks was arrested after fatally shooting Frances Rose, 28, near the University of California Extension on Laguna Street. It would take six months for police to link him to Quita Hague’s murder.
Though the 1970s was marred by infamous Bay Area crimes — the Zodiac murders and the assassination of Oakland schools superintendent Marcus Foster by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army among them — the Zebra murders were particularly terrifying to Bay Area residents. Media reports at the time describe businesses shutting down early, school children calling in sick, and downtown areas being completely empty after dark, out of fear over the seemingly-random murders.
Then-Mayor Joseph Allioto responded to the fear by introducing a short-lived, unconstitutional stop-and-frisk program called “Operation Zebra,” where police were instructed to stop black men at random and question them. A week into it, a judge ruled that Operation Zebra was illegal.
Finally, in early 1974 a man named Anthony Harris came forward to police, implicating Green, Cooks, Moore and Simon in the shootings, the attack on Hagues, and the 1973 killing of an unidentified man who he said was hacked to pieces with a machete. Harris minimized his own involvement, claiming to be a witness but never a participant. Harris cooperated for reward money, and disappeared after testifying at trial.
At the time of the arrests, Allioto claimed the perpetrators were part of an extremist sect called the “Death Angels” that was responsible for dozens of murders across California.
‘Generate cause for arrest’
On Jan. 25, 1974, a group of black men were driving a van, selling fish door-to-door as part of a Nation of Islam-sanctioned business, when they were pulled over by Berkeley police. They objected to being stopped, leading to a physical altercation.
During the fight, one of the fish salesman, Larry “3X” Crosby, disarmed one of the officers and pistol-whipped him with his own gun. Crosby then dropped the gun and took off running, at which point one of the officers shot him in the back, paralyzing him for life, according to media reports at the time.
Crosby, who has since changed his name, shared images of the shooting on his YouTube page:
Fury ensued. The next day a huge protest was held at Mosque No. 26, where Harris, Green, Simon, Cooks and Moore were members. It was later revealed that Berkeley police had been ordered to profile Black Muslims and “generate cause for arrest,” adding to the outrage.
Two days after the rally, Simon and Moore drove around San Francisco, shooting white people at random. Tana Smith, 32, Vincent Wollin, 69, John Bambic, 84, and Jane Holly, 45, were all killed. A fifth victim, Roxanne McMillan, then 23, was also shot and paralyzed as she got clothes from her car on the 100 block of Edinburg Street.
Harris, who testified he was with Simon and Moore that night, told police the two thought it was poetic justice someone had been paralyzed. It was the bloodiest day of the Zebra murder spree.
“I’m 69 years old now, but not a day goes by that I am not reminded of how that single violent incident has changed my life,” McMillan said in a written statement at Green’s August hearing. She added, “Doing everyday tasks and caring for myself from a wheelchair is becoming increasingly more of a challenge.”
Three months later, in April 1974, three Black Muslim men were charged with murdering Joseph Bellmore, 24, in Sacramento, as well as two nonfatal shootings. In 2009, one of the defendants, Larry Pratt, told a parole board the attacks were a direct response to Crosby’s shooting. Pratt was granted parole.
“Talk centered on doing something about what took place in Berkeley against the shooting of the Muslim there,” Pratt said, according to the transcript. “We decided to right that wrong…All of our assaults were random. It was basically black on white.”
The only Bay Area reporter to publicly make the connection between Crosby’s shooting and the Zebra murders at the time was Chauncey Bailey, who wrote articles for the Sun Reporter suggesting the two incidents were linked.
A copycat killing in 2007
Ironically, after Bailey was slain in 2007 by members of Your Black Muslim Bakery, a Nation of Islam offshoot sect, it was revealed that his killers committed a copycat Zebra-style killing.
Devaundre Broussard, who shot Bailey and later turned state’s evidence, told prosecutors that the July 12, 2007 murder of a white restaurant worker happened because bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV was in a car talking about the Zebra murders and “white devils.”
As he spoke, Bey IV saw the restaurant worker, Michael Wills, crossing Oakland’s San Pablo Avenue and told the man in the car with him, “there goes one right now,” meaning a white person. Bey IV’s accomplice, Antoine Mackey, confronted Wills, firing an automatic rifle as Wills tried to run.
Minutes later back at the bakery, Broussard said Bey IV and Mackey were laughing and mocking Wills because when he was hit with bullets, one of his legs shot up in the air as if he were kicking a football. They put their arms in the air as if signaling a field goal had been kicked. ‘”It’s good. It’s good!”‘ they shouted, he said.
But Broussard said Bey IV described the Zebra murders as a killing spree in the East Bay, not San Francisco, which ended after two perpetrators committed a robbery and were caught.
Interestingly, in April 1974, there was an incident that appears to mirror Broussard’s account: two Black Muslim men were arrested for allegedly shooting a cab driver in Oakland. The victim somehow survived two gunshot wounds to his head. One of the suspects was found with literature about killing “white devils.” They were charged with robbery and assault causing great bodily harm, according to court records.
20 shell casings from three guns found after Third and Pine shooting amid uptick in gang activity
Seattle police have identified two suspects in Wednesday’s shooting at Third Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle: Marquise... (Courtesy of Seattle Police Department)More
Not quite three years ago, Jamel Jackson, a member of a Seattle street gang, was involved in a melee at Third Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle, the same corner where he is accused of exchanging fire with two other men Wednesday in a gunfight that left one woman dead and sent seven other people — including Jackson — to the hospital with gunshot wounds, according to police and court records.
In a Thursday news conference, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said a fight among the three men outside a McDonald’s quickly escalated, with innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire. Though Best didn’t identify the three suspects by name, she said gang-unit detectives who reviewed the first video-surveillance footage from the shooting scene recognized one of the shooters.
“They knew him to be a felon and they knew he cannot be in possession of a firearm, which he had in his hand in the video,” Best said. “So they went up to Harborview [Medical Center] and located this person…and arrested him for illegal possession of a firearm.”
A King County judge Thursday found probable cause to hold Jackson, 21, on investigation of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and set his bail at $50,000, according to King County prosecutors. It’s expected he could face additional charges as the police investigation continues.
In May 2017, a then-19-year-old Jackson waded into a crowd of at least 20 people and inserted himself into an argument between a gang member and a man she was fighting at Third and Pine, court records show. Jackson repeatedly punched and kneed the victim and then was punched himself as others joined the fray, which pushed the fight into the street and forced buses to slow to avoid hitting people. As officers arrived, everyone scattered and Jackson was arrested a short time later with a loaded 9 mm handgun tucked into his waistband, charging papers say.
It does not appear the assault victim was ever identified and Jackson pleaded guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and was sentenced to four months on electronic home detention, court records show.
Also Thursday, Seattle police identified Marquise Tolbert and William Tolliver, both 24, as the two other suspects in Wednesday’s gunfight that sent people running for cover at the height of the evening commute and forced the shutdown of several blocks of Third Avenue well into the night as officers gathered evidence and documented the scene.
Tolbert, who appears to be from Des Moines, and Tolliver, whose last name appears with only one “L” in court records and whose last known address is in Bellevue, have been arrested multiple times, court records show. Best said one of them — apparently Tolbert, based on court records — has been arrested by Seattle police at least 50 times, and the other suspect, about, 25 times.
A woman in her 40s died at the shooting scene, which spanned roughly 1 1/2 blocks. She has not yet been identified by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said at the Thursday news conference at Seattle City Hall that investigators had not yet been able to notify the woman’s next of kin.
The woman who died ,and a 55-year-old woman who was critically injured, were both longtime residents of Plymouth Housing, which offers supportive housing as a solution to chronic homelessness, spokeswoman Amanda Vail confirmed.
“As part of our permanent supportive housing model, our buildings become close-knit communities; these women were like family to many,” Vail’s emailed statement says. “Our hearts go out to the families, friends, and neighbors of all the victims. We are providing support to our staff, residents, and community partners during this very difficult time.”
The 55-year-old woman was in serious condition Thursday afternoon in the intensive-care unit while a 9-year-old boy and a 32-year-old man were in satisfactory condition, according to a Harborview spokeswoman. Three men, ages 34, 35 and 49, were treated and discharged Wednesday night along with Jackson. An Amazon spokesperson has said two of the injured men are employees who were outside the company’s offices in the old Macy’s building.
Durkan characterized Wednesday’s shootings as “gang activity.” Best said she couldn’t currently confirm that the shooting was a result of a gang dispute, though she said Jackson was a known gang member.
Best said officers at the shooting scene recovered more than 20 shell casings from three different caliber weapons.
“This is not a new thing. We know we’ve had an uptick in gang violence,” the chief said.
Though Tolbert’s and Tolliver’s gang affiliations aren’t clear in court documents, the two were arrested in Kent with a third man in July 2018 in connection with a drive-by shooting. The victims in that case told police three men flashed gang signs before opening fire, court records show.
The drive-by shooting charge against Tolliver was dismissed by prosecutors “in the interest of justice,” but the records don’t include further explanation.
According to court records and the state Department of Corrections (DOC), Tolbert was imprisoned from April to July after he was convicted of second-degree robbery for ripping a $1,500 gold necklace from the neck of a woman in Bellevue in 2018. As part of a plea agreement to resolve three other felony cases against him, including the drive-by, he pleaded guilty to the robbery charge and was sentenced to a year-plus-a-day in prison and given credit for time he had already served in jail, the records show. He was also sentenced to 18 months of community supervision.
On Aug. 19, less than 7 weeks after his release from prison, a DOC warrant was issued for Tolbert’s arrest for failure to comply with the conditions of his community supervision, a department spokeswoman said. He has been at large since then.
In April, Tolliver was sentenced to three months in jail after pleading guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, according to court records.
A DOC warrant was issued Thursday for Tolliver’s arrest, also for failure to comply with conditions of community supervision, the DOC spokeswoman said.
Staff reporter Scott Greenstone and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.
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