!!FridgeBrilliance
* This is mostly in the script and cut from the movie. Danny is an impressionable kid who follows Derek's lead. Henry, the black kid who Danny has a conflict with at school, was pressured into it by his big brother (who he seems to idolize). He's in the exact same position as Danny.
* When Derek's cell mate Lamont is making fun of the KKK, Derek is trying to suppress laughter. It could be that he's beginning to succumb to Lamont's charms, but it also fits with how he already sees the Klan as ignorant rednecks (as he articulated during the dinner scene) and an embarrassment to the neo-Nazi movement.
* One of the opening scenes features an argument between Murray and Sweeney over what to do with Danny after he turns in an essay describing Hitler as a civil-rights hero. Their differing perspectives become more understandable with later scenes depicting earlier events. We learn that Murray is Jewish; that he briefly dated Danny's and Derek's mother and wound up in a hostile, terrifying confrontation with Derek that led to him ending the relationship on the spot; and that Sweeney has been meeting with Derek in prison and guiding him out of his white-supremacist ways (a fact Murray may or may not be aware of), partly because Sweeney sees in Derek the troubled young man he once was. These revelations help explain why Sweeney is more open than Murray to the idea that Danny can be saved.

!!FridgeHorror
* The entire CycleOfHatred and violence in Derek's life was started when his hardworking albeit bigoted father was murdered by a black man while doing his job. Looking at the circumstances of Danny's death, what's stopping Derek from snapping right back into the mindset that made him such a notorious monster in the first place? This was, in fact, [[DownerEnding the original ending of the film]].
* Near the end, Derek is asked by Dr. Sweeney and a Police lieutenant to use whatever influence he still has with the Neo-Nazis to help them de-escalate tensions on the street after Cameron and Seth were assaulted in a DeletedScene. Because of Danny's murder, there is no way he's still going to do that (either because of RedemptionRejection or simply because he's grieving), and the murder itself can also be used as a propaganda boost by the Neo-Nazis. ''No matter what Derek decides to do (or not do),'' there's going to be a lot more violence after the credits roll.