A 20-year-old man was charged with disturbing the peace after video showed antisemitic epithets being hurled at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy outside Mississippi State University, police said Tuesday.
The Starkville Police Department said video of the confrontation also showed the suspect throwing coins.
Police stated that a hate crime enhancement was under review.
“The State of Mississippi allows courts to impose enhanced penalties if a violation meets the criteria for bias-motivated or discriminatory reasons,” the department said in a statement. “This remains under investigation.”
Police said Patrick McClintock was charged, processed and released on Monday. It wasn’t clear Tuesday night if he had legal representation for the case. Attempts to reach him at a phone number listed for his name were unsuccessful.
Portnoy, who is Jewish, was in Starkville, Mississippi, on Friday for a Mississippi State football game and was producing a college-town pizza review when a man approached, video posted to Portnoy's Instagram account shows.
"Hey, f--- the Jews. F--- you, Dave Portnoy," the man can be heard shouting in the video. "F--- you. Get out of Starkville."
The video also shows the man attempting to confront Portnoy outside Boardtown Pizza & Pints in Starkville, a city of 25,000 about 140 miles west of Birmingham, Alabama. The man was blocked by another man and forced to back up while being shouted down by apologetic patrons of the restaurant, the video shows.
"There's a--holes everywhere. What are you going to do?" Portnoy said after the confrontation, the video shows.
Mississippi State spokesperson Sid Salter said McClintock was a student at the school but voluntarily withdrew within hours of police announcing Monday that they had issued an arrest warrant.
“What happened on video didn’t reflect the culture and values of the university,” Salter said.
In a portion of the Instagram video in which he provided commentary on the encounter, Portnoy said he blames online rhetoric for the rise in antisemitic incidents. He said he believes McClintock “hates” his life and needs something to blame. “And what’s an easy answer? Oh, it’s the Jews’ fault,” Portnoy said.
The nonprofit Endjewhatred said McClintock should face hate crime charges. "The same level of hatred seen against any other minority community would result in an immediate hate crime charge, but instead Patrick was charged with 'disturbing the peace,'" it said on its Facebook Page.
The American Jewish Committee said the incident reflects "the broader rise in antisemitism across America today."
Mississippi doesn't have a specific hate crime law but allows prosecutors to add a hate-crime enhancement when they believe a crime was motivated by racial, religious or ethnic hatred. It can be used to increase sentencing upon successful prosecution.
Portnoy, 48, has been critical of campus protests against Israel and its actions in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
He has also been embroiled in controversies involving antisemitism in the past.
In May, two servers at Barstool Sansom Street in Philadelphia delivered a sign bearing antisemitic language to a crowded table, Portnoy said at the time, after video showing the incident was posted to social media. He said he believed that incident was more practical joke than hate, but he terminated the servers.
