Political Vandalism

Drudge points to an article about a Republican headquarters being attacked:

A police officer reported Friday that about 100 people wearing masks and gloves were walking down a street near the headquarters.

Does this qualify as a hate crime? Maybe as a violation of the anti-Klan statutes?

It's also happened in New York where a recruitment station and a Republican HQ were attacked. A letter was left at a local TV station:

"Concerned Citizens Retaliate Against GOP Agenda", claim[s] responsibility for both acts of vandalism.

Whoever left the letter claims they are victims of "this war brought by the Republican administration", and they "encourage more people to raise their level of resistance and attack the ones who are sending us to our deaths."

So the message is "I'm anti-war so I want to start a revolution." Not very inspiring.