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New York Giants fullback Nikita Whitlock had his house in Moonachie, N.J., broken into Tuesday night, and the perpetrators scrawled racist graffiti including a swastika, "KKK" and the phrase "Go back to Africa." The word "Trump" was also included.
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Whitlock is on injured reserve and was not available to speak to the media on Thursday, but wide receiver Victor Cruz was ready to share his thoughts on the incident.
"I think there's a specific mindset that comes with supporting a guy like Donald Trump and supporting what he stands for, and there's a certain type of person that comes with that. I'm not sure that person is always a positive-minded person, if you know what I mean. You've just got to be careful," Cruz said.
"As (a) minority, you have to be careful, as a person of influence you have to be careful and you've just got to make sure your family is safe and give them the knowledge that they need to stay safe in this world."
Moonachie Police Sgt. Richard Behrens told The Record that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
"You can't think of anything that that person that follows Donald Trump -- that they're going to do something positive," Cruz said. "And for someone to vandalize someone's house and write Trump's name or whatever they wrote on the walls, it's just proving that exact fact that I'm saying -- that people that may follow him aren't necessarily the most positive people in our community.
"... To see something like that happen around here and to happen the way that it did -- breaking into a home, the vandalism ... Nikita has children. He's got to explain that to his children. Not just right now. Five years from now, 10 years from now when they ask, 'Hey, dad, remember when that happened?' They have to answer those questions. He has to answer those questions to his children."
