I guess the big problem with the whole Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom case NOT being a hate crime is that neither of the victims lived long enough to tell anyone that they had been called bad names.

A white homeless man was charged today with a hate crime after allegedly threatening a black teenager outside a drug store.

Ronald Allen Bramlett, 55, was charged with felony counts of aggravated assault and criminal threats. He also faces sentencing enhancements and allegations for hate crimes, the personal use of a deadly weapon and prior convictions for a 1994 bank robbery in Oregon and a petty theft in 2001, according to Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

The victim and his friends were standing in front of a CVS pharmacy at 1835 Newport Blvd. when Bramlett allegedly made racial slurs, Schroeder said. Bramlett allegedly claimed to be a member of a white supremacist gang and allegedly told the teenager he didn’t have a right to look at him.

Bramlett was also accused of challenging the boy to a fight while waving a knife and threatening “to cut you up, boy,” according to Schroeder.

Bramlett faces up to 18 years and eight months in prison if convicted.

Source/Full Story: KPCC