A 16-year-old boy was attacked for wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hat while he was dining at a restaurant in Texas.
Hunter Richard and his friends were at Whataburger in San Antonio, when a diner aggressively approached them on Tuesday evening.
The man first pulled off the hat off the boy’s head, grabbing some of his hair with it, before launching a vicious attack on him.
The unknown man, later identified as Kino Jimenez, then threw Richard’s soda at him and yelled, ‘F*** the President!’
The incident was filmed by one of Richard’s friends.
‘You ain’t even support s**t n****,’ the attacker says as he walks away with the cap.
‘This is going to go great in my mother f****** fireplace, b****,’ Jimenez says shaking the hat at the teen one last time.
‘Alright, have fun with it,’ one of the friends calls out.
The boys said Jimenez attacked them without any kind of provocation from their side.
Richard’s mother Patricia Spittler shared the since-deleted video online hoping to identify the perpetrator. The video went viral as soon as it was posted and was viewed by more than 2 million people.
‘Please help ID this “Scum BAG of the Year”! His friend was wearing a Patriotic Hat and this happened! It would be nice to know who he is for someone to let him know his actions are not ok! Real tough guy… approaches a group of teenagers minding their own business just having a burger! He kept his hat too! Scum bag!’ she wrote with the video.
Jimenez was identified by San Antonio bar ‘Rumble’ where he used to work as a part-time employee. The bar management immediately terminated him after the video went viral online.
In a Facebook post, the bar management wrote: ‘It came to our attention earlier this evening that a part-time employee was captured on cell phone video assaulting another person at a local eatery. The assault took place, presumably, because this employee did not agree with the other individuals political stance.’
‘We have since terminated this employee, as his actions go against everything that this establishment stands for. Rumble has, and always will be, a bar that is as inclusive as any establishment could possibly be.’
Speaking about the incident, Richard told News4 San Antonio: ‘I support my President and if you don’t let’s have a conversation about it instead of ripping my hat off.’
‘I just think a conversation about politics is more productive for the entire whole rather than taking my hat and yelling subjective words to me,’ he added.
A police report has been filed against the man and the incident is under investigation by the authorities.
However, it isn’t the first dispute that has arisen in the US for wearing the Make America Great Again hat.
In April, a New York Judge dismissed a lawsuit where an infuriated man claimed he was denied service at a bar for wearing the MAGA hat, but the judge said the bar hadn’t violated any law.
And last month, an employee at Vancouver restaurant was fired after he allegedly asked a customer to remove his MAGA hat if he wanted his order to be served.