[Ppnews] Reporter faces felony charges for covering Oscar Grant rebellion

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6362.shtml

Reporter faces felony charges for covering Oscar Grant rebellion

By Diane Bukowski -Special to The Final Call-
Updated Sep 4, 2009 - 7:14:25 AM

J.R. Valrey, an Oakland, Calif., multimedia journalist, was bound 
over Aug. 20 in Alameda County Superior Court on a felony arson 
charge related to his coverage of a January rebellion against the 
<http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/Community_leaders_accuse_officers_of_lying_in_Oscar_Grant_shooting_case.shtml>police 
murder of Oscar Grant III.

Mr. Valrey faces up to three years in prison. His attorney Marlon 
Monroe said his next court appearance is set for Sept. 3.

Mr. Valrey's supporters say prosecutors are pursuing his case despite 
having dropped charges against over 100 individuals arrested during 
the rebellion because of his unflinching coverage of "police 
terrorism" as they term it.

"J.R. has really been a thorn in the police department's side," said 
San Francisco Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff, whose online 
publication has published Mr. Valrey's work. "His stories are like 
those of Mumia Abu Jamal. He's young and really smart, and the people 
love him, they are really organizing, so the police are always after 
him. The judge even tried to get him (Mr. Valrey) to cop a plea to a 
misdemeanor, something I've never seen a judge do. But they really 
blew it this time because he didn't do anything except his job. The 
police even admitted that they didn't see him set any fire."

The profferred plea bargain involved five years of felony probation, 
warrantless searches at any time of Mr. Valrey's body, car, home, and 
places of employment, time served, and restitution.

Mr. Valrey is associate editor of the Black-owned San Francisco Bay 
View newspaper, and also a radio reporter for Pacifica, with his own 
show available online at 
<http://www.blockreportradio.com/>blockreportradio.com.

"I've been covering what we call police terrorism for a good six to 
seven years, not just in Oakland, but Chicago, New York, and 
Atlanta," Mr. Valrey earlier told this reporter. "I've covered not 
only the police killing of Lovelle Mixon after he killed four 
officers in Oakland, but the murder of Anita Gaye, a 52-year-old 
grandmother and Gary King, a 19-year-old Black youth."

Regarding the controversial Mixon case, he said, "The saying among 
low-income Black people in the streets of East Oakland, and in the 
Bay area, is 'How does it feel when the rabbit has the gun,'" he 
said. "That's a response to all the Three Strikes supporters, police 
sympathizers and prison industry businessmen. We separate the word 
'hero' from the term 'heroic act.' Mason carried out a heroic act, 
and most Black men between the ages of 12 and 45 in Oakland have felt 
the same way at least one time."

Among Mr. Valrey's supporters is former Congresswoman Cynthia 
McKinney, who was in town to aid his newspaper's fundraising efforts, 
and the Bay area's most popular hip hop broadcaster Davey D, who 
interviewed her on his behalf. Former Congresswoman McKinney was not 
available for comment due to an illness in her family.

Mr. Valrey said the Oakland police finally returned the camera he was 
using the night of the rebellion, his main evidence that he was there 
as a journalist. Their months-long refusal to give it back had 
delayed his preliminary exam.

The Oscar Grant rebellion Jan. 7 was one of three that took place in 
Oakland after the New Year's Day murder of the 22-year-old Black man. 
Mr. Grant, a father and an apprentice butcher, was lying on his chest 
when Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Officer Johannes Mehserle shot him 
in the back. Mr. Grant's murder was captured on cell phone cameras 
and posted worldwide on the internet. Mr. Mehserle resigned 
afterwards, was arrested after the mass protests, and faces trial 
later this year on murder charges.

Mr. Valrey is also minister of information for the Prisoners of 
Conscience Committee, an organization headed by Chairman Fred 
Hampton, Jr., the son of the Black Panther leader executed by police 
in his bed in Chicago in 1969, as his girlfriend Deborah Johnson, who 
was pregnant with Fred Jr., slept by his side.

(For information on activities for Mr. Valrey and the fundraising 
campaign to save the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, contact the 
Committee to Free M.O.I. JR at 
<mailto:editor at sfbaview.com>editor at sfbaview.com, or 415-671-0789.)




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