California: Off Duty Police Officer Murders Unarmed Man

Authored by: Virgin Molotov on Wednesday, February 16 2005 @ 11:16 AM UTC

Strangely, I've only ever really known one customs officer, and he was a gun-crazed nutter and devout Catholic.

Returning however, to the matter at hand, it is, to say the very least, fucked up. It is rather painfully obvious that, had that pig ended up with an extra hole in his head, Bassim would probably be on his way to death row.

I suppose this is obvious - I just feel like I have to vent.

F.u.c.k.e.d. .u.p..

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"Moose . . . Indian . . ." -Henry David Thoreau

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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, February 16 2005 @ 12:22 PM UTC

y'all need to post locations. half the news pieces on info shop don't have them. how do we know where stuff is happening?

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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, February 16 2005 @ 01:14 PM UTC

Was this customs officer arrested and charged?

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Authored by: Virgin Molotov on Wednesday, February 16 2005 @ 03:56 PM UTC

(If I'm not mistaken, this happened in LA)

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"Moose . . . Indian . . ." -Henry David Thoreau

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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, February 16 2005 @ 01:28 PM UTC

from DailyKos.com:
Off Duty U.S. Customs officer shoots unarmed 19-year old in head...
by keever77
Tue Feb 8th, 2005 at 09:54:20 PST

... Authorities state that officer committed no wrong-doing.

As far as a political discussion, this would probably fall under the same category as Amadou Diallo, and Abner Loumia in an example of law enforcement brutality bordering on outright criminality. Here are the relevant facts:

A college-style house party was held at an apartment complex in Mission Viejo, CA. Early in the morning on Saturday February the 6th around 1:30 am, there was a verbal altercation between a group of 4 to 6 friends and other party goers over a thrown can of soda. As the altercation escalated, a neighbor living next to the party, Douglas Bates, an off duty U.S. Custom's officer, left his home with his badge in hand and gun drawn confronting the group of 4 to 6 friends. Apparently he was upset at the noise and commotion. Mr. Bates then pistol whipped one member of the group. As that was happening, Bassim Chmait, one member of the group, stepped forward toward Bates and his friend who had been whipped, and then was shot in the head by Douglas Bates.

Diaries :: keever77's diary ::

Every member at the scene was unarmed except for Mr. Bates. After shooting Bassim, Mr. Bates simply walked back into his apartment. The Orange County Sheriff's Department Spokesman, Jim Amormino stated, "We treated this the same as we would any case. There was no clear evidence of a crime being committed, so there was nothing to book him on."

Here are the reports that this information was taken from:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-agent6feb06,1,5675134.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/10839269.htm?1c

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/02/08/sections/local/local/article_402241.php (registration required) (edit: use Bassim/Bassim for the login and password)

Full disclosure:

I know and was casual friends with Bassim Chmait for the short time that I have lived in California. He and his friends were accepting and friendly to a sort of clueless New Englander transplant that I am here in Orange County. To me, this group was a typical group of homies, attending college, partying on the weekends, working crappy mall jobs on the side, even forming their own rap group complete with self-produced CDs. No different than any other group of friends I knew of growing up in suburban Massachusetts. I'm obviously biased towards Bassim and his friends regarding this incident, but that does not mean a reasonable person would not be suspicious after weighing the facts. I just took information from the A.P. and Orange County Register reports above, and didn't include information that I know from 1st and 2nd party sources. There are two independent witnesses not connected at all to the group of friends who saw the shooting, one of whom, a 30-something blonde women, I overheard saying that the authorities would arrest Mr. Bates, but had to go though established procedures. I can't help but think that was empty lip-service paid to a woman who had saw first-hand a violent death. Also, I've heard from members of the group that Bassim was not walking toward Mr. Bates to threaten him, but to aide his friend (whose name wasn't in the report) Mike who was on the ground bleeding from his head after being pistol-whipped. After shooting Bassim, Bates put his gun on the ground, and walked back into his apartment calmly, as if what he did was routine. If these kids were so dangerous enough to brandish a firearm, why would he leave it on the ground for them to pick up and use in retaliation? Probably because they weren't dangerous aggressors, but actually boisterous drunk kids at a college party, no different than any other weekend party in almost every college-town in America. The threat level they presented in a worst case scenario could have been met with a non-lethal device such as pepper spray or a taser.

I attended the candlelight vigil last night at the apartment complex where Bassim was murdered. Rap music from the local group he was in played in the background highlighting a scene where typical suburban parents and grandparents mourned the fallen intermixed with younger peers sending off Bassim in a contemporary hip-hop fashion. All this occurred while Douglas Bates was 100 yards away in his apartment, seemingly unafraid of being arrested for murder. Words cannot express the frustration and anguish for everyone in attendance to know that he was still free while they were attempting to mourn and celebrate his short life.

It is hard not to let the pain of losing someone you know under these circumstances fuel suspicion in the integrity of the legal and law enforcement process. The Arab-American community that Bassim was part of is deeply suspicious of the process, and at various times attendees yelled out "Justice" during the vigil. I can't help but think that if this occurred in the college apartments in Amherst, MA where I attended college, and if the group of kids involved wasn't Arab-American, that there would be no question that an off-duty federal officer would be apprehended immediately. How can there even be the implication that Bates was just defending himself with the facts taken from the incident? But that implication exists in the news reports, where they noted he had a cut lip. The group of young adults had no way of issuing a threat of lethal force; there was no excuse for Bates to use his firearm.

I have been a Kos reader from the days even before 9/11. The purpose of posting this is to simply give it more of an audience than Orange County. I figured it would be front page news that a federal officer shot and killed a 19-year old young adult. All that it is has gotten is two A.P. releases, and a write-up in the Orange County Register Local section. In an incident like this, the facts that come out first serve as the template for later attention, and I want to get out the facts that suggest that Douglas Bates behaved in a criminal manner, and not in righteous self-defense. If Mr. Bates receives no punishment, there is the possibility for a news story in the magnitude of Amadou Diallo. If the established media don't look into incident in a more detailed comprehensive way, I would hope that this could be kept alive in blogdom to prevent it from sinking down the memory hole.

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