In the wake of the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax, there’s been a lot of discussion in the media about hate crimes. As the truth about what happened became impossible for the media to deny, the message shifted from “this is America under Trump” to “even though this was fake, don’t forget hate crimes are on the rise under Trump.” Keep in mind, when Obama was elected, the media alleged that hate crimes rose because of that, too.
What the media is trying desperately to hide from us is another form of hate crime—those motivated by political prejudice. Jussie Smollett’s hate crime hoax got enormous attention, not just because of Smollett’s celebrity status, but because it fit the narrative: gay black man assaulted by Trump supporters.
Below is a selection of recent examples of anti-Trump hate crimes that the media barely covered. But make no mistake, there are many more examples of anti-Trump /anti-conservative prejudice not covered in this list, such as incidents of vandalism, refusal of service, etc. The important thing to realize here is that these aren’t simply a bunch of isolated incidents. The left has become so consumed with hatred that they will attack anyone who supports Trump, be it children or the elderly, and often without provocation.
14. Pro-Trump student assaulted in Minneapolis
In March 2018, a student carrying a pro-Trump flag was assaulted by “a mob of students” during the National School Walkout in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The attack took place while students at Southwest High School were supposed to be observing a moment of silence to commemorate the 17 students and teachers who died in the Parkland, Fla. shooting last month, WCCO reported.
Police said the student was waving a flag in support of President Trump when he was ambushed by at least eight classmates. The mob forcefully took the “Trump” flag from the student and damaged a camera he was carrying. While it was previously reported he sustained minor injuries, a family friend told Fox News he was taken to urgent care because his arm was broken in two places.
A broken arm over politics? Between high school students, for crying out loud! What exactly are kids today being taught?
13. The D.C. restaurant assault
In April 2018, a 29-year-old woman in Washington, D.C., overheard a political conversation between a man and two women and decided to get involved by telling them, “I support Donald Trump.” After this revelation, things got ugly.
“I’m a Trump supporter. I stood by my views, then they called me a racist and then they started attacking me,” Maricela told FOX 5.
She claimed the two suspects assaulted her despite their male friend trying to step in to stop them. The victim said she took herself to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland for treatment of her injuries, the police report said.
“After it happened, I got a bruised right eye,” the victim said. “My blood vessels inside my eye burst. I got a fractured finger, a bruised knee and minor bruises all over my body.”
D.C. police released video of the suspects captured on the restaurant’s surveillance cameras.
This is why I rarely inject myself into public conversations about politics.
12. The Whataburger assault
Here’s a story we probably only know about because it was captured on video, and the video went viral. Last summer, a 16-year-old wearing a Trump hat was verbally and physically assaulted at a Whataburger in San Antonio, Texas, and had his hat stolen.
San Antonio police detectives nabbed Kino Jimenez, 30, without incident in nearby Universal City, Texas and booked him on a theft of person charge, according to the police department.
Bail for Jimenez was set at $5,000, police said.
The arrest came after a cell phone video surfaced on Twitter showing 16-year-old Hunter Richard being verbally abused and assaulted for wearing the bright red hat early Wednesday morning inside a San Antonio outlet of the popular Whataburger fast-food chain.
The video, which was recorded by a friend of Richard and quickly went viral in online social media, shows a bearded man throwing a drink in the teen victim’s face, and then yelling “you ain’t supporting s—t” as he left the eating establishment with the hat.
CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill seemingly condoned the assault in a series of tweets.
11. Elderly man assaulted at “Build The Wall” rally
It’s not just the young who are attacked for supporting Trump. In June 2018, a 75-year-old Trump supporter named Dan Russell brought a pro-Trump sign to a demonstration at Waterfront Park in San Diego, which was not warmly received.
Video of the event shows Russell presenting his message as anti-Trump protesters walk by yelling and cursing at him.
Then 36-year-old San Diego attorney Benjamin Siminou took Russell’s sign and ran away with it. Russell gave chase. Siminou dropped the sign and as Russell reached down for it Siminou pushed him to the ground.
When Siminou picked up the sign and continued his flight San Diego deputy sheriffs apprehended and arrested him.
Neither young kids nor the elderly are exempt from being physically assaulted for supporting Trump, apparently.
10. Florida man attacked over Trump yard sign
In July 2018, a man in Boynton Beach, Florida, was attacked for having a Trump flag in his own yard.
A fun night of fireworks was ruined for a Boynton Beach man. Jeff Good says he was attacked for having a President Trump flag in his yard.
Good said he was watching fireworks in his driveway when someone drove in front of his house and started yelling at him about President Trump.
“He was saying vile things about our president,” said Good.
The driver of the car then told Good he had to remove his flag. When Good told him no, he said the driver punched him in the face.
Good said he instinctively tried to punch the man back but the man drove off with Good’s arm stuck in the car, and Good was then dragged for about 30 feet.
If you’re willing to drag a man with your car over a political sign, what won’t you do?
9. Punk rocker assaults Trump supporter at concert
In July 2018, Mike Ness, the lead singer of a punk band called Social Distortion, criticized Donald Trump on stage, prompting a Republican concertgoer to respond.
Tim Hildebrand said he suffered two black eyes, a busted lip and concussion at the hands of Ness during a Social Distortion show at Ace of Spades concert hall in Sacramento on July 19, KOVR-TV reported.
Ness, 56, had been criticizing Trump on stage, and Hildebrand – a Republican – didn’t like it.
“I pretty much said I paid for your music, not your politics,” said the farmer from rural Galt, Calif., about 30 miles away from Sactown. “I stood pretty much with my silent protest with my middle finger up for the next two songs.”
Cellphone video of the incident appears to show Ness motioning for the man to come forward – before the singer spit on him.
Then Ness puts his guitar down and wades into the crowd and gets into a tussle that’s obscured from the camera’s view.
Perhaps the most disturbing part is that the crowd cheered Ness on.
8. The attempted stabbing of a GOP candidate
Yeah, when a candidate for Congress is threatened and nearly stabbed, that’s pretty newsworthy, but can you remember endless coverage of this story out of California?
A Castro Valley man shouting profanities about President Trump attacked a Republican congressional candidate who was working an election booth at a town festival, threatening him and trying to stab him with a switchblade, authorities and the candidate said Tuesday.
Farzad Vincent Fazeli, 35, was jailed after the alleged Sunday attack on Rudy Peters at the Castro Valley Fall Festival. Alameda County prosecutors charged Fazeli on Tuesday with a felony count of making criminal threats and misdemeanor counts of exhibiting a deadly weapon and possessing a switchblade.
No one was seriously injured. In an interview, Peters said he had never been concerned about his safety prior to Sunday, though his wife has often warned him to be careful.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “People are just polarized right now, and this country’s divided and it’s just a mess. It shouldn’t be that way.”
Fazeli made disparaging remarks about the GOP and screamed “F— Trump, f— Trump!” before walking off, then decided to turn around and approach the booth again.
Peters said the man grabbed a coffee cup from the table and threw it at him, prompting Peters to come around the table and “grab him.” Peters said he threw him to the ground before the suspect hopped back up, reached into his pocket and grabbed the switchblade.
“He’s screaming, ‘I’m gonna kill you, motherf—er!’” Peters said. “He had the knife, but the blade wouldn’t shoot out.”
A sheriff’s deputy said in a court affidavit that Fazeli threatened to use the pink switchblade on Peters but “could not open it.”
Peters said he grabbed a sign from a nearby cupcake booth and braced to use it as a shield. Someone stepped in and urged the attacker to calm down, Peters said, before he left the booth.
This could have turned out very differently had the attacker been able to open his switchblade.
7. Stanford College Republican assaulted
In October 2018, the president of the Stanford College Republicans, John David Rice-Cameron, was assaulted at a pro-Brett Kavanaugh event on campus following his confirmation to the Supreme Court. What makes this story significant (and newsworthy) is that Rice-Cameron is the son of Barack Obama’s former national security adviser Susan Rice.
Across the country, Rice-Cameron was holding court at an event on the Palo Alto campus celebrating Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Signs displayed Tuesday at a so-called Change My Mind event — regular events designed “to promote conservative viewpoints,” as the group’s treasurer told Fox’s Laura Ingraham last week — proclaimed “Kavanaugh is innocent until proven guilty,” according to the Stanford Daily.
One student whose mind was not changed was Melinda Hernandez, a sophomore who became involved in a disagreement with the president of the campus GOP.
The dispute ended at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday when Rice-Cameron called Stanford police to the central university plaza where, he alleged, Hernandez had assaulted him.
Rice-Cameron claimed that Hernandez had shoved him in the chest with her hand, said William Larson, a spokesman for the Stanford University Department of Public Safety. Deputies interviewed both parties, as well as witnesses, and placed the suspect under a “private person arrest” — also known as a citizen’s arrest — and issued her a citation for battery requiring that she appear in court.
Crickets from the national media.
6. Trump supporter hospitalized after assault in Tucson
Trump supporters aren’t safe from political hate crimes at home, or even walking down the street. In November 2018, Jonathan Sparks of Tucson, Arizona, was brutally assaulted from behind for wearing a MAGA hat and carrying a Trump sign.
“I felt a very strong grasp on my hat. It pulled me back and grabbed a lot of hair,” Sparks said. The assailant jumped onto my ankle from behind and so not knowing my ankle was broken into four pieces, I turned around to grab and take the hat back. My hands latched onto the hat.”
According to Sparks, they both fell to the ground.
“Then I heard the words Hitler, Nazi and Trump. He was shouting things like that,” Sparks said. “He came over the top of me and over and over again, he hit me.”
People nearby ran over and pulled the attacker off of Sparks. They held him down until police arrived. Tucson Police Department said the man was arrested for assault.
“I was making a statement that I personally believe that Donald Trump is a fantastic president of the United States,” Sparks said. “I think that intolerance to his ideology was the flame.”
Sparks required surgery to repair the injuries he sustained in the attack.
5. The Kentucky Sam’s Club incident
A couple shopping in a Sam’s Club in Kentucky had a gun pointed at them for daring to shop at the store wearing MAGA hats two weeks ago.
A Tennessee man faces a charge of first-degree wanton endangerment after allegedly pulling a gun on a Sam’s Club customer in Kentucky for wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
James Phillips, 57, told police he made an obscene gesture with his finger towards Terry Pierce and his wife inside the store because they were wearing MAGA hats, according to a police citation obtained by WKNY.
After Pierce returned the gesture, Phillips, who was wearing a veterans hat, “pulled a .40 caliber out and stuck it in my face, backed up and said, ‘It’s a good day for you to die,’” Pierce told 13 News.
“I said, ‘Then pull the trigger. Put the gun down and fight me or pull the trigger. Whichever one you want,’” Pierce added. “And he backed up and he said it again, he said, ‘It’s a good day for you to die.’”
Clearly anti-Trump liberals would never defend to the death the right of others to say things they disagree with.
4. Store clerk verbally assaults 14-year-old wearing MAGA hat
Here’s a story that didn’t get the Smollett treatment in the media, but PJ Media covered it: Last week, a 14-year-old boy was verbally assaulted by a store clerk because he was wearing a MAGA hat.
Over the weekend, an employee at a clothing and shoe store in Kansas demanded that a teenage boy take off his MAGA hat, and when the kid didn’t, the employee said “f*ck you,” according to the boy’s mother.
“He did nothing to you,” the mother told the employee. “What did you say to my son, to my 14-year-old?”
“I’m sure he’s heard it before,” the employee responded sheepishly.
“Where’s your manager?” she snapped. “Let’s go.”
The woman explained what happened to the employee at the counter: “My son walked into the store — that gentleman first told him, ‘take off your hat.'” She pointed out that the teen did not say a word to the employee.
“He said ‘F you’ to my son,” she complained, and repeated her point that her son hadn’t said or done anything wrong.
Once again, adults attacking kids. Very nice.
3. Woman assaults Trump supporter at Mexican restaurant
PJ Media readers are also familiar with this story we covered a few days ago, involving a Massachusetts woman who was “charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct after attacking a man wearing a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat in a bar.”
Police in Falmouth, Mass., were called to the Casa Vallarta bar at about 8 p.m. Friday after Rosiane Santos, 41, allegedly went on a drunken rampage, verbally assaulting and attacking a man who says he was minding his own business.
Bryton Turner said it was due to the MAGA hat he was wearing.
Turner recorded the incident with his phone saying, “Ignorant people like this. I’m just trying to sit here, eat a nice meal.”
The video shows Santos walking up behind Turner and knocking the hat off his head.
“That’s the problem with America these days. People are just ignorant. They want to lash out on people who are educated,” Turner said in the video.
2. The UC Berkeley attack
Another incident in the wake of the Jussie Smollett hoax that should have gotten more attention but didn’t (and still hasn’t) is that of the brutal assault of a conservative activist on the UC Berkeley campus last week. This assault was also captured on video.
A conservative activist was assaulted at UC Berkeley on Tuesday while recruiting for the conservative non-profit organization Turning Point USA. The unprovoked assault, captured on video from two angles, shows a man wearing a black shirt and pants accosting Hayden Williams, a campus representative for Leadership Institute. The assailant angrily shouted obscenities at Williams, knocking his phone out of his hand, and punching him in the face. The man accused Williams of “encouraging violence” just before attacking him.
Because just being a conservative or a Trump supporter triggers violence, of course.
1. The “Build The Wall” dinner assault
A mere two days later we have another anti-MAGA hate crime that has been virtually ignored by the media when an attendee of a “Build The Wall” event organized by the California Tea Party Caucus was assaulted outside the restaurant the event was being held at.
That attendee, John Berry, told the Bee he was inside the restaurant, then went outside to film the protesters. Berry’s video shows one protester knocking Berry’s phone from his hands.
“I’m not going to be intimidated by a bunch of little punks,” Berry told the Bee. “We’re 100 members attending a dinner and they were trying to shut us up. The irony is they were so cartoonish it was actually funny. They did us a favor by providing us publicity and a reason to go.”
A suspect arrested in connection with the attack received a citation for battery and was released, according to the report. He was identified as Clayton Isaeff.
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Matt Margolis is the author of The Scandalous Presidency of Barack Obama and the bestselling The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. His new book, Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy, will be published in 2019. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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