Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Texas teenager attacked on video for wearing Make America Great Again hat

Unidentified suspect hurls drink in 16-year-old Hunter Richard’s face while saying 'you ain’t supporting s***' 

Maya Oppenheim
Thursday 05 July 2018 19:40 BST
Comments
Texas teenager attacked for wearing Make America Great again hat 2

A 16-year-old boy has been verbally abused and assaulted at a restaurant for wearing one of Donald Trump’s trademark “Make America Great Again” hats.

The ordeal, which took place in San Antonio, was caught on camera and has been widely shared.

The clip shows an unidentified suspect chucking a drink in Hunter Richard’s face while saying “you ain’t supporting s***” before leaving the restaurant with his red hat.

Mr Hunter, who is from the Texas city, was having a meal with his friends at a Whataburger restaurant in Thousands Oaks when the incident took place.

"I support my President and if you don’t let’s have a conversation about it instead of ripping my hat off," Mr Hunter told News 4 San Antonio.

"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: “I was looking at the comments by some people and they are like ‘this is uncalled for’ and other people are [have] mixed opinions. I didn’t think it would blow up to what it is now.”

The clip has been viewed more than two million times since Patricia Spittler - thought to be one of the boys' mothers - shared it on Facebook.

Ms Spittler issued an appeal for users to help identify the "scumbag of the year."

“It would be nice to know who he is for someone to let him know his actions are not okay,” she said in a since-deleted post.

“Real tough guy… approaches a group of teenagers minding their own business just having a burger! He kept his hat, too.”

A police report has reportedly been filed over the incident.

The saga is one of many examples of mounting tensions between Trump supporters and his critics playing out day-to-day.

Last week, a restaurant manager in Canada was sacked after refusing to serve a man wearing a MAGA hat.

Darin Hodge, who was manager of Vancouver’s Stanley Park Teahouse restaurant, said he had “absolutely no regrets” over the incident which resulted in him losing his job.

The row erupted after he asked the unnamed customer to remove his baseball cap which has become a prominent emblem of Mr Trump’s presidency.

Opponents of the Trump administration have come to see the hat as synonymous with the presidency’s perceived racism and xenophobia.

“I stand by my decision to ask the patron to remove his hat,” Mr Hodge told Global News. “The MAGA hat has come to symbolise racism, bigotry, Islamophobia, misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia.

“As a person with a strong moral backbone, I had to take a stand against this guest’s choice of headwear while in my former place of work. Absolutely no regrets.”

However the Sequoia Group of Restaurants, which owns the Teahouse, argued Mr Hodge’s refusal of service constituted a violation of the company’s “philosophy of tolerance”.

A spokesperson for Whataburger said: “We were shocked to see this video and certainly don’t condone this type of customer behavior in our restaurants. To be clear, no Whataburger employees were involved or witnessed the incident, and we ask that questions be directed to San Antonio PD as we continue supporting their efforts.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in