The Jason Vassell case had all the right ingredients for a bonafide hate crime - the victimized young black man, the violent and bigoted white kids, and the racist legal system. Unfortunately, the police report details seem to offer contrary insight.
The case has been followed by campus news since last February, when an African American UMass student named Jason Vassell reportedly stabbed two white, non-students - John Bowes, 20, and Jonathan Bosse, 19 - around 4 a.m. in the lobby of Vassell's dorm, MacKimmie. According to the Committee for Justice for Jason Vassell, also known as CJJV, Vassell stabbed the men in self-defense, after being accosted with racial slurs and punched in the face. Now, Vassell is being charged with aggravated assault and Bowes is being charged with a civil rights violation.
The incident captivated UMass for months. Furious activists saw Vassell as the victim of a hate crime and created the CJJV, which is calling for the legal system to drop charges against Vassell and bring more serious charges against Bosse and Bowes.
But that's only part of the story. The local media and the CJJV - made up of some Student Government Association leaders, including President Malcolm Chu - have neglected to report numerous important details about the case. Additionally, the CJJV has been using a fragmented and seemingly skewed recap of the events to collect donations and support from sympathetic students and community members.
Though the CJJV Web site has pages of information on the case, it implies a scenario that does not appear to be entirely supported by the police report. It implies that Vassell was blindsided by Bosse and Bowes, and was then forced to use his pocket knife to defend himself against their two-on-one attack.
The police report indicates a slightly different story. It says that the 5'10, 200 lb. Vassell armed himself with two weapons before leaving his dorm room to meet up with a male friend, who he had specifically called to help him in the event of a fight. The police report read, "[Bowes' and Bosse's use of racial slurs] enraged Vassell. He called a friend to help him. Vassell armed himself with an iron and a pocket knife and went to the ground floor of MacKimmie."
The CJJV also purposefully avoids mentioning Bowes' and Bosse's injuries, leading us to believe that they were not seriously hurt by Vassell. But according to the security camera footage, Vassell stabbed Bowes and Bosse nine times, causing them significant blood loss which resulted in emergency surgery at Bay State trauma center. The CJJV calls Vassell's actions "self-defense."
While everyone loves a good self-defense story, according to Massachusetts law, this argument only works if the force used is equal to the force received. Stabbing someone who has punched you certainly goes far beyond what most consider excessive. "After the fist fight broke out," the police report states, "Vassell drew a knife and an iron, repeatedly stabbed both Bosse and Bowes… [who received] numerous stab wounds and were seriously injured."
Besides calling for the legal system to drop the "undeserved" assault charges against "victimized" and "law-abiding" Vassell, the CJJV also demands harsher charges for Bowes and Bosse even though surveillance tape footage shows Bosse trying to break up the fight. "Based on the body positions of the four in the lobby, it appears Bosse and [Vassell's friend] are trying to keep Bowes and Vassell apart," states the record.
Perhaps the most ironic part of the police report alleges, "When Vassell attacked [Bowes and Bosse]…they state he was wearing a ski mask [and that] previously [Bowes and Bosse] were outside where they encountered Vassell and an unknown Latino male that was yelling racial slurs at them."
Whether or not these claims are true, the CJJV finds itself in the awkward position of calling for "an end to hate crimes," even though their own poster boy reportedly used racial slurs against others - and then stabbed them.
What is most shameful is that the CJJV has used the Vassell case to prey on the emotions of community members - hundreds of whom have taken time off of work and school to attend Vassell's court hearings and even donated their own money to the group.
However, the real victim of the CJJV crowd is the Civil Rights movement. Horrible racist attacks do occur in America, but attempting to turn ordinary people into Rodney Kings or Amadou Diallos dilutes the gravity of those few serious incidents.
If the CJJV truly believes in Vassell's innocence like they claim, then why the distortion and omission of relevant facts? Even the CJJV Web site, which was updated only last week, has never been changed to reflect the police report that was available as early as seven months ago. These group members should be the first ones clamoring for the school to release the security tapes and posting the police report on their Web site.
Perhaps after seeing all of the evidence, we'll all discover that Vassell's "undeserved" assault charges actually are just the product of the supremely racist Amherst legal system.
