How's this for a neighbourhood business?

People are still scared to talk out about this in Oakland.

In the late '60s, Your Black Muslim Bakery was one of the few businesses that took a chance on a blighted North Oakland neighborhood, offering jobs to ex-cons, fixing run-down storefronts and feeding the hungry.

For that, neighbors have overlooked rumors that the Muslim group operating from the bakery and originally led by the late Yusuf Bey sometimes relied on back-alley justice to enforce its business and religious dealings.

But since Bey's death in 2003, neighbors say the group is changing in frightening ways. Two heirs to Bey's leadership have been killed, and a third successor -- Bey's 19-year-old son -- was accused of vandalizing one of two Oakland liquor stores that police say were trashed on Nov. 2 by a group of men wearing suits and bow ties.

Yusuf Bey IV and bakery associate Donald Cunningham, 73, turned themselves in to police and were charged last week with hate crimes and false imprisonment in connection with the vandalism. Police are investigating whether Bey operatives kidnapped a merchant and torched his liquor store.