I think the police have asked for it to be a hate crime. See Action against Elderly Abuse charity, they have worked with the police to get this cruelty classed as a hate crime. So many elderly are treated very cruelly at the end of their days and that makes us ask questions about how civilised we are?
If children were beaten up, called names, property stolen, sexually assaulted and/or raped we have laws too arrest the perps. Likewise, our elderly vulnerable deserve the same protection from everyone they are in contact with. That is not how it is now. It's an epidemic.
When we show respect to our elderly by caring and respecting them then we can start calling ourselves civilised again. A clear line has to be drawn between what is hate crime, and it is cruelty and hatred.