Just stop. The can collector was menaced by racists and it qualifies as a hate crime whether or not he was physically injured. He was forced to cower to verbal threats while being mocked and humiliated under visible distress. At any moment in this altercation there was a threat of escalation to physical violence.
"Hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts which are seen to have been motivated by bias against one or more of the social groups listed above, or by bias against their derivatives. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, mate crime or offensive graffiti or letters (hate mail).[5]
For these laws to have the intended societal effect, they need to be properly applied when it calls for it- and not brushed under the rug just because you saw no threat in this victim's situation.