Thread: 2 charged with hate crime after beating

2 charged with hate crime after beating
JACLYN O'MALLEY
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 10/16/2007
STORY CHAT(read or post comments)
Twin brothers are behind bars and accused of attacking a Hispanic man with a knife and a bat after earlier yelling racial slurs at him.
Chase and Bart Haney, 20, were arrested after police tracked them down through a personalized license plate displaying their last name that was seen on the pickup leaving the scene.

The brothers remained in the Washoe County Jail on Tuesday on a charge each of suspicion of battery with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement because the two men were white, the victim Hispanic.
Police say the incident is not connected to reactions from the recent federal immigration raids that led where dozens of illegal immigrants who worked at McDonald's restaurants in the region were arrested. There also have been no crimes reported to the Reno Police Department involving hate crimes against Hispanics related to the raids or in general, said Sgt. Chris Lang, who oversees the special investigations unit.
According to a police report, a man was having dinner with two friends about 7:10 p.m. Monday at a Wendy's fast food restaurant on South Virginia Street.
The Haney brothers had also been inside and allegedly yelled racial slurs at the man.
The man took offense and followed the brothers outside, the report said. One of the brothers removed a baseball bat from their truck while the other got a knife. The man was struck with the bat and stabbed in his leg. He was taken to Renown Regional Medical Center for treatment for non life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses told police that the license plate of the brothers' truck was "BHANEY." Officers went to the address of the registered owner on Spanish Springs Road and found and arrested the brothers.

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic ... eakingnews

Question, when a person fights another person, and racial slurs are called out, does that automatically make it a hate crime?
People call people names all the time. So maybe this hispanic did something insulting to the twins which started the fight, then during the fight racial slurs started flying around. Is that a "hate crime"?

I believe when the man followed the twin outside, he was threatening the twins and they protected them selves. And they have the right to do this is they feel threatened.

Originally Posted by dyehard39

I believe when the man followed the twin outside, he was threatening the twins and they protected them selves. And they have the right to do this is they feel threatened.

That's how I feel too.

Originally Posted by dyehard39

I believe when the man followed the twin outside, he was threatening the twins and they protected them selves. And they have the right to do this is they feel threatened.

That is what I saw in the story, too.

Being called a name never gave me license in school to beat the heck out of, or even slap, much less stalk or pursue the name caller.

Act like a testosterone driven arena bull and your going to get treated like one (citizen or not). A LAW ABIDING CITIZEN would have called the police to report the "verbal assault" at most, a mature person would have laughed their immature idiocy off, this person did neither, he took it into his own hands, at which point they defended themselves.

I did notice that nowhere in what I read did it mention if the aggressor was legally there, or not.