A rookie NYC firefighter assaulted a 51-year-old Bangladeshi man yesterday at a commemoration of the 911 attack, saying he looked “like he’s al-Qaeda.”

NYC Firefighter Assaults Immigrant (AP)

Hours after many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a firefighter was arrested for attacking an immigrant worker and telling him he looked “like he’s al-Qaeda,” police said.
Firefighter Edward Dailey was arrested Sunday afternoon on charges of criminal mischief and felony second-degree assault, Police Sgt. Kevin Farrell said. It had not yet been determined whether the charges would be upgraded to a hate crime, he said.

Dailey, 27, is accused of breaking a piece of Plexiglas off a curbside news stand and throwing it at a 51-year-old man who works there, Farrell said. Dailey had said the man, an immigrant from Bangladesh, looked “like he’s al-Qaeda,” Farrell said. The victim, whose arm was cut in the alleged attack, was treated at a local hospital and later released, Farrell said.

[…]

Dailey was the class valedictorian at his FDNY graduation ceremony last year.

An unfortunate incident, to be sure.

This strikes me as more than “criminal mischief” but less than a “hate crime.” Of course, the fact that such judgments are made after the fact is yet another reason why the whole idea of “hate crime” as a separate criminal category is problematic.