JR Valrey speaks to the loss of Hajj Malcolm Shabazz

My response to slander initiated by Fred Hampton Jr. and others online saying that I was involved in Malcolm’s assassination

by JR Valrey

First I want to offer condolences to everyone who knew and loved Hajj Malcolm Shabazz. When I got the word Thursday that Hajj Malcolm Shabazz had been assassinated in Mexico City, like many, I did not want to believe it. As somebody who traveled with him extensively over the two-year period of ‘10-’12, it was hard to imagine that he was beat to death in Mexico City, including reports that said that he was thrown from a window.

Yuri-Kochiyama-Malcolm-JR-1110-by-JR, JR Valrey speaks to the loss of Hajj Malcolm Shabazz, Local News & Views The stories that I read are very sketchy, with a lot of holes. I don’t believe them at all. I don’t know what happened, and I am waiting to hear the truth like so many of you who are reading this.

But as I was taught by my Panther mentors, “No investigation, no right to speak.” That is the reason why this article took so long for me to release. The white power system (the government) assassinated the father of Hajj Malik El Shabazz for being a Garveyite. The Little/Shabazz family have been targets of Cointelpro for over four generations, which is why I cannot accept a story like the one being told about what happened. We know the U.S. government wants to eradicate the bloodline.

What I do know about this assassination is that the enemy’s media has been working overtime to malign Malcolm as a drunk or hoe-chaser who got into a “bar fight” over the last few days. That depiction is far from anything I knew about Malcolm.

What I know about the man is that he had a passion for helping young people understand and hopefully avoid the pitfalls that the U.S. government has set up for our community. He used his troubled life as a platform to let people, in general, know that he is not just preaching – he spent years locked up and, like his grandfather, he used the time to politically and spiritually educate himself for his next stage in life, that of an ever evolving freedom fighter.

Malcolm was a very charismatic speaker, who had no problem holding a crowd’s attention. He was comfortable speaking to diverse audiences. He could speak in a Masjid to Muslims from other nations in Houston, then turn around and spend 20-30 minutes talking to young people walking down the street in East Oakland. That was another skill he seems to have inherited from his grandfather.

People have asked, “With you and Malcolm having been close, why did you not rush to say something in the media?” The answer is that when I first heard of Malcolm’s assassination, I was shocked and saddened. At no time did I have the urge to run to jot down my feelings on Facebook or to write an article or do a radio interview. Malcolm was a comrade and Brotha to me. I have feelings just like everybody else; just because I am a journalist does not mean that things don’t affect me.

While emotions are running high and people are asking for answers, there are a small number of opportunists who are playing off of the raw emotions in the situation for their own malicious intent. I have heard that someone said I was in Mexico and that I am responsible for Malcolm’s assassination. I was not in Mexico nor did I know that Malcolm was in southern Cali with intentions to go to Mexico. I was in Oakland. I am disgusted that somebody from another state, who knows nothing about what’s going on, could accuse me of something with no investigation into the real facts of the case. I did not have any prior knowledge of or responsibility in his assassination.

Somebody said that I introduced Miguel and Rumec to Malcolm. Malcolm and I met Miguel and the crew at the same time, at Malcolm’s first speaking event in Oakland, at the Black Dot Cafe, in July of 2010. Miguel talked in depth to Malcolm about building a Masjid. This can be verified by Malcolm’s Imam, Hashim Alauddeen, located in the Bay Area. I am not Muslim. I was not involved in those conversations.

Another accusation was that I was selling Malcolm’s books and DVDs. I haven’t sold any of Malcolm’s stuff. The Bay View newspaper put up an old ad, on their website, for an unpublished, unfinished book that was never used. The intent of the sfbayview posting is clearly stated in a response that the newspaper just released on their website sfbayview.com. It was to show that Malcolm was working on something constructive in contrast to the mainstream media just tying him to his prison time. This can also be cleared up by Imam Hashim Alauddeen, the Imam over the Janazah, who was working with Malcolm on his literary projects.

Somebody asked, “Why would Fred Hampton Jr. slander you?” The only thing I could say is that we organized together and went around the country and world as comrades for over seven years. After we parted ways, he started slandering me and my family, calling my grandfather and myself a government agent. My grandfather retired from the military as a special forces pilot in the U.S. army before I was born.

If you know the history, the Bay Area was populated by Blacks from the South who were seeking to work in the wartime industries in West Oakland, Hunters Point and Richmond. It’s hard to find families on the West Coast who did not play a part in World War II and the Vietnam War. That is who first employed Blacks in mass to the West Coast.

I have never worked for the U.S. government in my life. I can’t speak for anybody’s intentions but my own. I don’t know why Fred does the things that he does. I challenge you to judge me by my work record and not some rumor that somebody started to try and become the center of attention. Hit me on my Facebook page about questions that you may have and I will respond – FB: Jayshortbutfunky.