From the article:
I bet the Harris family is feeling real proud tonight.
“Good job, son, you beat up a one-legged man.”
“Yeah, but I held one hand behind my back and only kicked with the one leg.”
or, “I just saw The Fugitive and when I saw that one-armed man I just went nuts. I just figured he lost the leg somewhere else along the way.”
That’s fucked up. I see the cops are charging it as a hate crime because it was motivated by the victim’s disability.
I’m generally not a fan of hate crime legislation, but in this case it seems to get the level of the offense up to where it should be anyway. Without the hate crime aspect, the charge would have only been a misdemeanor, not a felony.
How the fuck can it be only a misdemeanor to stop your car, get out, and beat a total stranger for absolutely no reason?
I wondered that, too. IANAL, but I’d think it would be felony assault at the very least.