This thread in a nutshell: old white guy doesn't get why hate crime status exists. It doesn't surprise me, mind you, because you've proven over the years that you're blind to secondary consequences. Still, you of all people should remember when the civil rights act was passed and what the United States was like fifty years ago. At one point, relatively minor crimes could be used to intimidate people of color. The definition of who can be intimidated has legal expanded over the years, but the intent never changed: hate crimes exist to prevent a systematic expulsion of undesirable groups through fear and implied threat. As you can quite plainly see, a bunch of delinquent bullies misdirecting their frustration on an unfortunate victim does not rise above the usual charges of assault and kidnapping just because the victim was white and some anti Trump slogans were used. I'm sure a vindictive prosecutor can use the code to enhance the charges because the law has to be written broadly to be effective, but the supporter is still right. This isn't part of some kind of war against whites.