What else could they possibly classify it as?
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It's not a description, it's a legal term. If they claim it is a hate-crime they have to be able to prove they had a specific motivation which can be difficult.
They beat a person near to death for looking too man-ish and being in the women's bathroom. I don't think hate crime will be a hard thing to prove here.
Yeah just like it wouldnt be hard to prove cops killing innocents when there is literal video evidence, yet we know how thats working out.
ThEy wErE cOmInG rIgHt 4 us!!
Remember, some of the jury will probably be at least loosely against lesbians or trans people. If all you have is she said, he said, those people won't convict for a hate crime. But if you stick to just the beating, which doesn't need to prive a motive, they would vote to convict. It sucks, but that is what a jury of your peers means.
Oh, I know
I said as much further down
The legal burden of proof is fraught
My initial reaction was born of frustration and disgust at what had happened
Fucking seriously!!! What is there to weight?!
Sadly, the odds of getting a conviction
They can easily get assault, but a hate crime requires proving intent and having a jury sympathetic to the victim
It's a shitty situation
A group of strangers started harassing her and using anti-gay slurs as she left the restroom
Sounds open-and-shut hate crime to me.
Now convince a jury of stupid, ignorant yanks of that.
Edit: I live in Australia
To us, you're all "Seppos"
Septic-Tank>Yank
There are no Yanks in Illinois. That's the Midwest. We're in the Northeast (though ignorance is not regional).
I live in Australia,
I was unaware of your regional differences with that word!
We use it to describe all of you
Canada too.
Y’all down there in Red White and Stupid land can complain all you want about “yanks” meaning all the US considering you’ve co-opted “American” to mean the same thing.
They don’t understand that we mean it like “Yanqui”, as in, imperialists.
Yanks are from the northeast, which is generally fiscally conservative and socially progressive.
Yeah, why is there even a question about this?
Can’t they charge and try for multiple counts?
I dunno, maybe
Hopefully.
At least Attempted Murder 2 and Assault & Battery 2... But I'll bet that those hateful fucks are good boys and things just got out of hand.
She told the strangers she is a lesbian and flicked her wrist at them.
What does "flick her wrist at them" mean?
I would guess this means the universal “get away from me” or “shoo” gesture.
Possibly like this

Ah, that makes more sense than what I was thinking.
i was thinking limpwrist.
Say "I'm a lesbian!" while putting up both hands in exasperation, then again only using one hand. Flick the wrist like a conductor to emphasize the idiocy of the situation.
Kane county is a cross-vector for urban blight machismo and good ol’ Bible thumping bigotry
"The Kane County State's Attorney's office initially declined to issue hate crime charges, but on Wednesday said they are working with police to determine if hate crime charges are appropriate." What else could this be?
Not sure why they need to add that she's lesbian. She's a woman and that was enough for them to attack her.
A group of strangers started harassing her and using anti-gay slurs as she left the restroom.
When she walked away, she said they followed. She told the strangers she is a lesbian and flicked her wrist at them.
"How it started was because I'm a lesbian — just because I walked into the woman's bathroom, and I looked the way I look," Grass said.
Sounds like the reason it's mentioned is because it's why they attacked. It was a homophobic attack.
Thanks for the correction, I understood that she was attacked because they tough she was a trans woman.