Puerto Rico's Anthony Weiner is much more thrilling than ours: Last week, images from Puerto Rican senator and GOP cheerleader Roberto Arango's alleged profile on gay hook-up app Grindr surfaced. When a Puerto Rican TV show confronted him, Arango neither confirmed nor denied making the profile but offered this excuse: 
 
 You know I've been losing weight. As I shed that weight, I've been taking pictures. I don't remember taking this particular picture but I'm not gonna say I didn't take it. I'd tell you if I remembered taking the picture but I don't. 
 
 All an innocent mistake. Simple misunderstanding. I thought "Grindr" was a community for trading work-out tips? I've been having trouble toning my torso. Also, this area right here, lemme get the angle right so you can see it — 
 
 Aahh, there, much better. Really been trying to tone my grundle these days! Better post this picture on Grindr, too. Need advice on how to lose these three extra pounds from the inside of my asscrack. 
 
 Arango, a member of the Puerto Rican Senate, vice-chaired George W. Bush's 2004 Puerto Rico campaign. [Guanabee] ||||| The Chicago man shown in a viral video berating a woman for wearing a Puerto Rican flag T-shirt has been charged with a felony hate crime. 
 
 “After a review of the case, we approved felony hate crimes charges,” said Robert Foley, spokesman for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. 
 
 Foley said Timothy Trybus faces two counts of felony hate crime, which are enhancements on the charges of misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor disorderly conduct he was previously charged with. 
 
 Trybus, 62, was arrested Thursday by Cook County Forest Preserve District Police and is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Skokie courthouse. 
 
 The incident in question occurred June 14 in Caldwell Woods Forest Preserve on the Far Northwest Side. But it became widely known this week when a video of the encounter was posted on social media, prompting condemnation from many local activists and politicians and from the governor of Puerto Rico. 
 
 READ MORE: Familiar questions about ‘bystander effect’ arise after man berates woman for Puerto Rico shirt » 
 
 In the video, a man later identified as Trybus confronts and screams at a woman about her shirt, telling her she should not be wearing it in the United States. 
 
 Besides the man’s actions and comments, it was the apparent inaction of a forest preserve police officer, seen in the background, that elicited heavy criticism. The footage showed the officer seemingly ignoring the woman’s requests for his help as she explains that the man is harassing her and that she has a permit to be in the public space. 
 
 Cook County Forest Preserve District Timothy Trybus faces two counts of felony hate crime after being caught on video confronting a woman over her wearing a Puerto Rico T-shirt. Timothy Trybus faces two counts of felony hate crime after being caught on video confronting a woman over her wearing a Puerto Rico T-shirt. (Cook County Forest Preserve District) 
 
 The fallout since the video’s dissemination has been swift: The officer, Patrick Connor, who had been placed on desk duty on June 25 during an internal investigation, resigned on Wednesday amid calls for the forest preserve district to terminate his employment. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez said in an interview it’s clear to him the state’s attorney did “the right thing.” 
 
 Gutierrez, a national leader on immigration who has been vociferous in his criticism of President Donald Trump, tied the comments on the video to the general political atmosphere in the country. 
 
 “There should be consequences. People have to learn there are consequences, especially in the era of Trump,” Gutierrez said. “I really do believe there are people who say to themselves, ‘If Trump can do it, I can do it. Why can’t I go out there and say the things the president says?’” 
 
 READ MORE: Forest preserve officer who didn't help woman in Puerto Rican flag shirt 'tarnished the whole department with his failure to act,' commissioner says » 
 
 He said this is a moment in time where local authorities must step in on racial and other issues, as he said the more conservative federal Justice Department is less interested in these issues than past administration. 
 
 “I think this is the way until we retrieve rational governance at the federal level,” Gutierrez said. 
 
 Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia had called for a hate crime charge earlier and said prosecutors’ actions were “the right thing to do in this situation.” 
 
 “This should have happened sooner but sometimes it takes an incident like this to go viral and for the public to chime in to really make us appreciate the consequences of our actions,” Garcia said. 
 
 Watching the video, Garcia said, “it’s reasonable to conclude that the way this individual confronted the woman constituted a hate crime. It was threatening and menacing and obviously full of racial ethnic hatred.” 
 
 A representative of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office declined to comment about the charges. 
 
 Preckwinkle earlier this week apologized to the woman in the video, Mia Irizarry, while speaking at an unrelated event, calling the incident “completely unacceptable.” 
 
 Preckwinkle also released a statement Tuesday saying she’d had a phone call with Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who’d referenced her directly in a Tweet about the video. 
 
 “I expressed my regret over the June 14 incident in the Caldwell Woods Forest Preserves and assured him that what is shown in the video does not represent our values in Cook County,” Preckwinkle said in the statement. 
 
 mwalberg@chicagotribune.com 
 
 Twitter @mattwalberg 
 
 gpratt@chicagotribune.com 
 
 Twitter @royalpratt 
 
 MORE COVERAGE 
 
 Forest preserve cop resigns after apparently failing to help woman being harassed over Puerto Rico shirt » 
 
 Preckwinkle apologizes to woman berated by man at forest preserve for wearing Puerto Rican flag shirt » 
 
 5 things: A civics lesson on Puerto Rico after man rants about woman's flag T-shirt, questions citizenship »
– Another day, another politician who cannot keep his clothes on around cell phones. This time, the exhibitionist seems to be Puerto Rican conservative Sen. Roberto Arango, who had several anatomically vivid pics show up on popular gay cruising app Grindr, reports Gawker. When asked about the photos by a Puerto Rican TV station, Arango responded with an Anthony Weiner-esque non-denial: "You know I've been losing weight. As I shed that weight, I've been taking pictures. I don't remember taking this particular picture but I'm not gonna say I didn't take it. I'd tell you if I remembered taking the picture but I don't." Even more damning than the initial photo, which showed a shirtless man with his face covered (but wearing a necklace similar to one Arango commonly wears), was a second pic apparently found on the same Grindr account, showing a nude man bent over, from behind. Several prominent Puerto Rican politicians, including the governor, called on Arango to resign if the photos are of him. Arango, who was vice-chair of George Bush's re-election committee in Puerto Rico in 2004, is known for opposing gay rights legislation.