Tuesday, January 3, 2017.

A Facebook Live is started under the account of Brittany Covington, 18, out of Chicago. The graphic, 30-minute live stream features herself, three other young African-Americans, and one young white male. The stream continues to show the young white male, tied up. In a corner. With a gag in his mouth. The two black males, Cooper and Hill, aggressively cut his clothes with a large blade while ranting expletives concerning "white people" and "Donald Trump." And, of course, things get worse.

Cooper and Hill take the blade, and while cutting off hair from the imprisoned young man's scalp, they cut deep into his head. Laughter erupts from the four. While the parade goes on, in the background, you can hear the young man being mocked and abused. Covington reads comments from viewers. Many in the context of confusion to what the young adults are doing, others commending their "gang," another with the topic of being arrested.

Did it cross their minds what they were doing? These four young adults -- color aside -- were they even aware of the damage they were doing, to themselves, and let us not forget another human being? A young man that is mentally disabled at that.

Police were made aware of the video between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, after the young white male was discovered distraught, wandering the neighborhood. "It's sickening. You know it makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that," Police Supt. Eddie Johnson commented Thursday.

Wait a second. You wonder? Seemed pretty clear in the half hour long video I watched. These people are deranged. They are cruel, hateful people.

Supt. Johnson continued with: "I think some of it is just stupidity, people just ranting about something that they think might make a headline. I don't think that at this point we have anything concrete to really point us in that direction, but we'll keep investigating and we'll let the facts guide us on how this concludes."

This stupidity you are calling, that you feel the need to investigate, is called a hate crime. Something that a rather large investigative bureau in our justice system called the FBI translates as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

This young man was taken against his will, tortured, abused, and verbally assaulted for at least twenty-four to forty-eight hours and you think this is just some kids being stupid? These are racist, sickening people that most definitely knew and were fully aware that what they were doing was wrong. If the situation was reversed, the damage to Chicago and the nation, would not be comparable to any of the other rioting and mobs we have seen in recent years. There would be little "investigation" and the word "stupidity" would be thrown out the window. So why are we dancing around the fact that this was a hate crime? The double standard is appalling.

Anyone can commit a hate crime. Anyone can be a victim. This is a hate crime.