According to WIST tv, the solicitor in Columbia,SC says that the fact that eight black teens attacked a white kid, dragged him a couple of blocks down the road, beat him and left him for dead doesn't necessarily mean it was a hate crime.
He says "no evidence suggests the beating was racially motivated other than the race of the people involved."
Glad that's all cleared up.
http://www.wistv.com/story/14993157/solicitor-no-evidence-that-five-points-beating-was-racially-motivated