When is a hate crime not a hate crime?

Double standards on hate crimes:

A Hartsville man says two robbers took his money, then dragged him behind a truck last weekend.

The 26-year-old victim told Darlington County deputies he was getting a drink at a store when the two men came up and demanded money, sheriff's Lt. Robin Bryant said.

The men then beat the victim, stealing his money and forcing him into his own pickup truck. The three then drove to a field, where the suspects beat him again and made him take off all of his clothes, deputies said.

The victim said he was then chained by his legs to the truck and dragged until he could free himself and run away, authorities said. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover from cuts and abrasions he suffered during the assault, Bryant said.

The victim, who is white, told officers the men used racial slurs as they chained him to the truck. But Bryant said he does not think at this point the crime was racially motivated.

"I'm sure there was name-calling and mean words were used, but I don't think that the victim's race was the motivation for the crime," Bryant said. "I think in a situation like this, the first thing you look at is the first thing that happened and the first thing that happened here involved money and robbery, not race."

Of course, if the perpetrators had been white and the victim black then this almost certainly would have been labeled a hate crime.