Can someone help me with this?

If a church is torched or some idiot writes anti-christian messages on the side of the building there is no question that this is a hate crime.

If a similar group of morons spray paints swastikas and anti-Jewish messages along the outer wall of a synagogue without hesitation it is declared a hate crime.

Should a Muslim group find the windows of their Mosque broken, the inside destroyed and anti-Islam messages written on the inside, no time is wasted in identifying the act as a hate crime.

I can not wrap my mind around the hesitation in declaring the vandalism of Patricia Gardner's home a hate crime. Hateful messages were written directly on the side of her house. Not a temple where she worships, on her HOME.

...someone scrawled a lengthy diatribe on the side of her house that invokes the Lord's Prayer and calls Gardner an "evil witch" and a "spook" while asking God to "please move evil away." As the picture clearly shows, the term 'evil witch' is also written there.

I imagine it's horribly upsetting to find one's place of worship vandalized or destroyed, but when it happens at your home, that has to be frightening. It screws with your sense of security; not only is the identity of the writer a mystery in this case, but there is no way of knowing if they'll come back with a group of similarly hateful individuals as backup and if they do, will the situation end in violence?

Considering what happened to Darla K. Wynne, and the fact that the more foamy of the fundie set don't even take a moment to think before approaching others for the purpose of proselytizing, there's good reason to be concerned. Religious issues still get people hurt and killed. Ms. Gardner may find that this hateful act of vandalism is just the beginning. I hope not, but you really just can't tell which way it's going to go until someone makes a move.

Even if it doesn't become dangerous, the writing itself is a hate crime; the defacing of a building based upon dislike for the religious beliefs of the victim.

Why are the police so hesitant to call this incident exactly what it is? What has to happen before it will be seen as a religiously motivated act of hate?