What part of the phrase "hate crime" don't you undertand?

Note that the expression "hate crime" consists of TWO words, "hate" and "crime".

Taking the noun first, I assert that one cannot call placing (or tossing) a ham sandwich or a ham steak on another student's lunch table a crime. "Teasing" is too mild, without a doubt. Misbehavior, I suppose might fit. Gross impoliteness, certainly. And I'll accept "insult". Even bullying, maybe. But "crime", hardly.

Now, the adjective, referring to the source of the action. Nothing I've read about this incident requires a reading of "hate" as the motivator. "Arrogance", "group friction", or other descriptors, possibly. In my youth I saw worse behavior even against students or groups who were not even held in particularly low esteem.

And for a "hate crime" you have to have a crime motivated by hate. Here we don't appear to have either of those terms justified.

Dave Oesterreich