Why would anyone think this is a hate crime?

From The Gothamist:

More details have emerged about the man who was stabbed on a Park Slope subway yesterday—while initial reports said that the incident occurred on the G train, the Daily News says it was an F train, and the spat began over some anti-Semitic comments.

Emil Benjamin, a loan broker from Bensonhurst, was on a southbound F train approaching the 4th Avenue/9th Street station around 10 p.m. Monday night when two men reportedly started taunting him, saying "You're nobody, you Jewish bastard." The men attacked, and Benjamin fought back, even as the doors opened and the fight carried over the platform. "They were on my from both sides," said Benjamin, who didn't even realize that he had been stabbed in the back and the thigh until his jeans were soaked with blood. He was taken to Lutheran Medical Center and has since been released.

Cops busted Rafael Padin, 22, and Jose Santos, 18, shortly after the attack, and charged them with assault. Padin, who left his knife on the platform after the attack, was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Police said they are not investigating the incident as a hate crime. Benjamin, for one, knows his verdict: "They are punks," he said of the attackers. "A real tough guy only needs his fists."

Other New York media didn't mention the "Jewish bastard" part.

(h/t Vandoren)