Four black individuals have now been charged in the brutal beating of a Chicago man, all while clearly shouting “white boy” and “he voted Trump,” yet none of them will be charged with hate crimes.
In a shocking video of the attack that went viral in the week after Trump’s election, a group of young black males brutally attack David Wilcox, an older white male, screaming “Why would you vote Trump, damn it?” and “You voted Trump?! Damn, he voted Trump.”
By Wilcox’s own account, after a small car accident, he stepped out of the car to exchange insurance information but was then approached by a black male who said “yeah that’s one of those white boy Trump supporters.”
“The next thing I know, the guy said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’re going to beat his ass.’ And then punches were thrown and the next thing I know, I have five people on me and I fell to the ground. I was kicked in the head. They were in my car, stealing all my stuff.” Wilcox said.
He did actually vote for Trump, but the attackers didn’t know that at the time, just assuming he did because he was white, according to Wilcox.
Four have now been charged with one felony count of vehicular hijacking, according to the Chicago Tribune.
However, none of them have been charged with hate crimes, despite the victim maintaining the attack was because he was a “white boy Trump supporter.”
The FBI defines a hate crime as such:
“A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a ‘criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.’ Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.”
If the attackers really did target Wilcox for being white, then this attack should fall under the umbrella of a “hate crime,” but apparently not.