Man brutally attacks teen for refusing to remove hat during national anthem: cops
39 years of exposure to the State and all it's mechanisms of power. That takes it's toll. We don't have all the details on his life, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is unexceptional. For many all the hypocrisy and confusion leads to resignation and a life of 'quiet desperation'. But for some it's more satisfying to take it out on a young victim.
Doubly sad, on top of the terror suffered by the child, is his naive appeal to what he thinks will allow him some mitigation - declaring subservience to the State by demonstrating 'respect' for the national anthem. The State is nasty and violent, but it's not stupid. The PR value of coming down hard on this extremist is fourfold. They fulfill the role of 'protector' by avenging the boy, they get to cage another 'citizen', they can leave the part about 'respecting the national anthem' quietly implied (an unspoken 'truth') and they (State employees), most importantly, get to make themselves appear like the sober, reasonable and just arbiters of what is 'good' and 'evil' when they send him down for what will probably be a lengthy term. In fact this character's biggest mistake was being too obvious (violent coercion is axiomatic to the State). They'll be happy to sacrifice him as a propaganda tool. Very few will reflect, at any length, over the root cause of such violent outbursts.
What remains to be seen is whether the boy has been made stronger or weaker from the experience. We'll know it's the later, perhaps, if we get to read a similar story in a couple of decades time.
More telling, on a daily basis, that you can experience for yourself, is the subtle and sometimes not so subtle endorsement of the same values and ideals of 'respect' for the 'Nation State' in your conversations with those around you. If you find yourself agreeing with many of those ideas perhaps you could ask yourself where they originally came from and did you always voluntarily subscribe to them. Do you even today?