In my opinion, hate crimes should not even be a thing. If you have 2 different people, both commit an identical crime, and one person did it just for fun, and the other person did it because of hate, how is the hateful one worse? The hateful one will now also receive harsher punishment, it does not make sense.

Not to mention they just throw on "hate crime" to whatever they want, and blatantly ignore it when it does not fit their narrative. I've seen a bunch of those cases of black people seeking out and attacking asians purely because of hatred, and they don't get charged with a hate crime, just assault.

There are also tons of Hate Crime Hoaxes where people essentially attack themselves, Smollett comes to mind. And there is no harsher punishment for those people, despite blatantly trying to sow hatred against whomever they were framing.

The worst that should happen to this guy is to pay for any damages, and I mean actual damage to the object, not emotional damage. And that statue should not have even been there.