Sure it can, if it interprets the speech as a threat of violence. It's not much of a stretch to consider this a threat of violence. Tweeting that you plan to shoot black people on your campus would be speech, too, but it could get you thrown in jail.

There may be other reasons that hate crime charges are inappropriate here, but speech can be a crime.

GREAT NEWS!!!! So glad to see that this racist is actually being prosecuted, not given a slap on the wrist.

Graeme Harris Indicted