The bad news is that Trump supporters are being once again being blamed for fake hate crimes, but the good news is that the fraudster is so inept that the cops were able to bust him right away. The latest attempt to leverage the media’s nonstop hatred of Trump and his supporters into a fabricated hate crime for personal profit also involves a minor African-American celebrity, in this case a former NFL player.

ABC Channel 8 in Atlanta reports based on CNN and AP dispatches:

 An ex-NFL player trashed his pizza restaurant and ice cream shop near Atlanta to fake a racially motivated burglary so he could file an insurance claim, police said.

Gwinnett County police officers responded just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday after a 911 call reporting a man damaging the businesses, according to a Friday news release. The caller said the man was driving a black Chevrolet Silverado without a license plate.

Officers stopped a truck matching that description as it was leaving the shopping center and noticed televisions attached to brackets with damaged drywall in the back, the release says. They learned the driver, 31-year-old Edawn Louis Coughman, owned the businesses.

A back door of one of the businesses had yellow pry marks, and officers saw swastikas, “MAGA” and racial slurs on the walls inside in what appeared to be fresh black spray paint, the release said. Some of the booth cushions were sliced open, mirrors were broken, wires were cut and a video surveillance system was broken.

Coughman told officers he noticed the damage and theft earlier in the day and called his insurance company but not police. Officers concluded the damage hadn’t actually happened earlier in the day and arrested Coughman on charges of false report of a crime, insurance fraud and concealing a license plate.

After getting a search warrant for Coughman’s truck, officers searched it Thursday afternoon and found a yellow crowbar and cans of black spray paint.

Police said it appears Coughman planned to make it look like a hate crime had been committed and to file an insurance claim while also selling the undamaged electronics and appliances.

Edwan Louis Coughman

Mug shot courtesy Lawrenceville, GA Police

Once again, it is clear that the demand for hate crimes by progressives anxious to play victims far exceeds the supply. That Trump supporters would be targeted as villains reflects the frenzy of the media intent on ascribing evil to the half of the country that supports the president.