In the 6 years I've known journalist and political organizer JR Valrey he's always used his various media platforms to push "the people's agenda." "Freedom fighter is first on my list of priorities" he says "then journalist." Over the last 10 years the Oakland native has become a fixture in the Bay Area progressive media as well as one of it's most polarizing figures.

Currently juggling positions as Associate Editor at the San Francisco Bayview newspaper, producer of The Block Report radio show, promoter for a series of touring community conversations as welling as being a budding filmmaker, Valrey has managed to almost completely sidestep traditional channels while developing a national network of grassroots outlets and supporters comprised of like minded activists and independent media. His writing, photography and interview style are hard, direct and opinionated and feature political organizations, urban residents and cultural activists are a far cry from the norm. Valrey makes no qualms about the activist components of his work and maintains that has no faith in the objectivity of the press. His supporters consider him their outspoken champion, always "on the front lines" and willing to speak truth to power. Critics however-including some city officials, law enforcement and the occasional media organization-have viewed his shoot from the hip style of reporting as reckless and too heavily biased. But while opinions of his work varies, there's no doubt that Valrey has become one of the loudest public voices of a large, often unheard segment of the population. But being loud has its drawbacks. During the January 7th Oscar Grant protests in downtown Oakland, he was one of 100 people arrested and is currently one of only two people still facing charges. When he returns to court on Friday Oct. 30, he will be fighting felony arson charges that his defense has repeatedly denied, citing both lack of evidence and questionable accounts by the arresting officers. Following Oakland Local's mission to deliver "news for the people" and to become a central hub for Oakland's diverse voices, I sat down with JR on the eve of his court date to discuss the Oscar Grant case, media, and his thoughts on how Oakland is evolving. *Editors note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. As you know there's a lot of conversation now about Oakland becoming a "model city"--this includes everything from Jerry Brown's 10,000 new downtown residents idea to the new focus on the green economy. As someone from Oakland, how do you feel about the way Oakland is changing and what are the up and down sides? Well let me say 1st that the more some things change the more they stay the same, like these killings by police. The black community has constantly been at war with the police. And that's been going on for decades. I recently talked to Nancy Nadel for an interview and she pointed out how it used to be part of the agenda in Oakland to keep all the Black people in West Oakland. So I just wanted to say that, but in terms of the nonprofits and the gentrifiers coming in, I understand. They want to be close to San Francisco, so the demographics of Oakland are changing.

You have a new population coming in and pushing the Black, Latino and Asian populations farther out into deep east Oakland. And as the demographics are changing the culture is changing and they're trying to feed of the culture without feeding it. And I'd hoped that in 5-10 years my daughter would grow up in the same Oakland that I grew up in, but times change. So what do you think city officials can do and what can individual community members do to push Oakland forward and achieve some kind of social and political equality? I think the city can get these police off of our backs. They can keep these police from killing us and terrorizing our communities. City government needs to bail out homeowners as well as provide some type of employment for youth.

I think that there should be funding for home grown nonprofits and community organizations instead of these carpetbagging, gentrifying nonprofits and organizations who come in, use our resources and make a buck off of our misery. Politicians could focus more of their resources on people who are actually from these communities and not just who swoop in from out of town. They can deal with the people who are making it happen in these communities and who are surviving in these communities with no government help, even though they're taxpayers.

And the people, you know, the people are doing a good job. We could be better engaged and get more organized and support each other but the people are doing a very good job that I'm proud of. In terms of staying engaged with that's going on with Oscar Grant and keeping up the momentum.

There are organizations like the Village Bottoms and Pushing the Beat Records that are doing good work and I urge people to support these types of organizations that are keeping young people from taking penitentiary chances and giving them a way to support their families where they don't have to go head up with the police. So what do you think about what's going on right now with the Oscar Grant case and the recent change of venue? It's not surprising. The police were going to do anything they could to get it out of here and the judicial system will do anything it can to not prosecute Mehserle as the murderer that he is.

So if they want to move the trial we're going to move the resistance. We're doing a movie and we're mobile. I don't have any problem setting up camp wherever the venue gets changed to and educating the community there. And bring in a bus load of people who'll do the same thing. So it's not disappointing. We haven't been getting any justice for decades but my belief is in the people and hopefully we can force this judicial system to do what it is that we want them to do but if we can't I'm still proud of the mobilizing and the fact that the people have maintained it.

Whenever I hear someone talking about the movement they criticize it and we're always under attack but no one's ever telling us what we're doing good. I look at what's happened in 2009 and I think it's beautiful, knowing that we will stand up and that people from all different walks of life have stood up, from high school students to white anarchists to black freedom fighters. We've all stood up for this and wherever they go we're going to be there. So do you think he's going to get acquitted? He may get acquitted, but he may go to jail. But I don't assume that if he goes to jail he's going to go for 25 to life. I don't assume that he'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I don't think that we're going to get justice. But at the same time we're going to fight for what we feel is right. But so far I think what we're doing is right and that we're doing a brilliant job. So you're a full time community activist and journalist. This is your passion, this is your job, this is what you do. And you want to support the community you serve but you also want to challenge them and ask the hard questions, right? So both as a journalist and a community activist, what is your responsibility to these people? Oh, it's to educate the community. My position, in our political organization The Prisoners of Conscience Committee, is the Minister of Information. So I see it as, you know, my job is to inform and educate a community that's been basically under psychological siege ever since we've been in this hemisphere. So I see myself as an advocate for the community who's not separate from that community. I'm also a member of the community I report on.

So it's not like I'm some "spectator journalist" like they call them in sports, where I have all this critique for the sport but I've never played and I'm making these blind critiques. Nah, I live in the community, I'm from this community and I have a vested interest. My daughter lives in the community I represent, so if this community falls we fall. If the community is better educated that means that my peers, my neighbors and the people I live around are better educated. So that's my goal, to educate people so that they can better move and better act in their community's best interest. Okay so you have a vested interest in the stories you do. But how does that effect the objectivity of your story? I believe that every story has a bias. I think the questions that you ask promote your bias, the questions you don't ask promote your bias. The places you publish, in front of what crowd, the words you use, all promote your biases. I think all of that plays into it. But me, I don't hide from it because I thought about all that years ago when I first became a journalist. And I just believe in being up front and being a niche journalist and knowing exactly what side of the line we fight on. I mean, you can't be a freedom fighter by day and a corporate spokesperson at night. So you definitely have to accept that it's you, and be totally comfortable in that.
So, that's where I'm at with it. And I accept the biases and I think I get respect as a journalist, mainstream or otherwise, because they know what side of the fence I'm on. And I don't have a problem with that. I'd say that corporate media does the same thing but you just know they're on the side of the police. They're going to publish what the police said. They're going to incorporate the police's press releases, like you've seen with reporting done around Oscar Grant, Lovell Mixon and Purnell Smith.
So I've been following your interviews and stories and you talk to people and get interviews I don't see in any other media. You've interviewed Yusef Bey. You've interviewed Cynthia McKinney. You regularly talk with Mumia Abu Jamal and I've seen interviews with just about every hip hop figure to come through the Bay Area. How do you build up these networks and how are you so plugged into these groups?

Track record. I think that my reputation is solid. What side of the fence I'm on is solid. I don't sway in between. I feel like I do ask hard questions at times and I try to challenge the person that I'm with to go deeper than just the surface of the subject and I think I'm respected by those particular people. All the people who grant me interviews, they know I'm not going to take their words out of context. They know I'm going to keep it solid and not manipulate it with my words.

And they also know that I'm fighting for a bigger goal than just putting out a publication or putting on a broadcast. They know that somewhere down the line, me and their self interests meet. They meet with the community's interest, with the people's interests. And you know, I'm not just talking about political figures but also artists and cultural figures like Herbie Hancock, India Arie, Gill Scott Heron and Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.
I think that I respect what they do and they respect what I do. And I built these ties not just through journalism but by working in the community and journalism was just one of those tools. You know, freedom fighter comes before journalist in my priority list and I think people see I'm not just some career journalist. More than anything I'm a career freedom fighter. That's what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life and journalism just aids that. That's just the horse I ride in my freedom fighting.
So one interview I want to ask you about in particular. You have a strong community base and a lot of people on the ground support what you do and they've got your back. But I've noticed some critiques coming from the media either from reporters, institutions and critics. And one piece they brought up in particular was your Yusef Bey interview. How do you feel about the way that was handled, because some people said that you didn't ask the hard questions and they felt that you were doing more of a promotional piece. How do you feel about the interview and what you did with it?

You know it goes back to what we were saying before. The interests that we have are very important to consider and most of the journalists who've had that to say probably had a vested interest in working with the police. They wanted me to ask questions that would further their agenda, which I refused to do. Me and Yusef Bey have talked several times. We have a relationship, and a lot of journalists don't have access because they represent the state. And they have a track record that represents the status quo, either through their work flat out, or the institutions they write for or the media companies they're a part of.
Now why I did the story and why they wanted me to do the story might be entirely different. Why I did the story? Because this is a young black man that's been attacked in the media, at this time on a daily basis, by corporate media. And not just one outlet but by the whole damn machine in the Bay Area. And I wanted to give him a chance to respond. I'm the microphone for the community so that they could hear what he has to say in the way that he had to say it. And I was trying to give him the voice that none of them gave him, the consideration that none of them gave him. They're attacking a young black man that I have a relationship with and they assume that I'm going to assume what they assume. They act like I'm supposed to believe whatever they've said or believe.
But that's not me. I make up my own mind. And my community has an agenda that's separate from theirs. I will say that the betterment of the black community is not in everyone's best interest and I think we need to realize that. If this community improves it's social and political standing a lot of people might be out of a job and that could extend to police, DA's, media and nonprofits. So I think it's important for us to look at this in the context of a political struggle.

Okay, so what advice do you have for someone hoping to go into the media and report on important issues, from whatever view point?

What advice do I have for people looking to get into media? Just do it. There's enough material out here, there are enough stories to get. The way that journalism is moving, it's possible to be a journalist without an institution today. You can post the stories on Facebook. You can be a photojournalist on Flickr. You can learn how to use internet radio. And those are just starts. And in no way am I saying limit yourself to these social networking sites, but I am saying sharpen your skills there. Learn what people like, learn what you're good at, and then work on perfecting your product.

I'd also say to get involved with people. You know, be involved, be a part of the story you're reporting on. Don't let there be a separation between you and the story. Don't be afraid to have a vested interest in your subject and hope they win or, shit, hope they lose.

I just really try to write with feeling and I feel like a lot of journalists don't have that feeling so I would definitely say that. Write from your heart, write from your mind, be a believer in what it is you do.

Oakland Local will be profiling a range of community leaders, personalities and changemakers--send us your ideas for people to profile, please. Eail editor@oaklandlocal.com