The Idlings and Backups of James Fields' Car

In his testimony at the preliminary hearing of James Fields on December 14, 2017, case agent Detective Steven Young mentioned that, while on Fourth Street and before driving into the crowd, Fields stopped and idled his car at least once and drove backward at least once.

Young stated that Fields did so because Young wanted to inform the court that Fields drove into the crowd deliberately. The idling and backing up gave Fields time to think about his decision to drive forward into the crowd. From Young's perspective, specifying exactly where and when Fields did the idling was rather irrelevant to the issues of that legal proceeding.

Indeed, when Fields' lawyer, Denise Lunsford, cross-examined Young (pages 32 - 44), she did not ask him to elaborate about the idling or backing up.

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However, people who suspect that Fields might have been guided by someone else would like to know more details about the idling and backing up -- where, when, how long, how many times?

Were the idling and backing up related to the presence on Fourth Street of someone who was guiding Fields?

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During the preliminary hearing, someone in the courtyard caused a disturbance when Young was testifying about a place where Fields stopped his car and began to back up. While Young is being questioned by the prosecutor Nina-Alicia Antony before Judge Robert H. Downer, Jr.

Young is showing the court the video from the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) restaurant. The video has just shown a white Camry drive past the RPK, followed closely by Fields' car.

Detective Young
And as you can see, he [Fields] proceeds south on Fourth Street onto the crossover and many witnesses said he then made his way to the 100 block of Fourth  Street SE, which is where he stopped.

Prosecutor Antony
About how long is Mr. Fields Challenger out of view?

Detective Young
Approximately, a minute and ten seconds.

Prosecutor Antony
And during this time, had the vehicle struck the crowd yet?

Detective Young
No. At this point, you’ve got many witnesses testify that the Challenger began to back up, assuming that it would head back onto Market Street and leave the area.

Judge Downer
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge Downer
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

Detective Young
Your Honor, as you saw, that was the silver Dodge Challenger that drove south at a high rate of speed.

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

(Page 31, line 24, through Page 32, line 18)

I suspect that someone in the courtroom audience said something aloud Brennan Gilmore, a suspected character in this incident, who had been standing in the area, described here by Young, where Fields stopped and began to back up.

[Correction on March 1, 2018 -- The courtroom disturbances were not about Gilmore.]

Gilmore made the following video.

During the four months between the incident and the preliminary hearing, a controversy developed about whether Gilmore might have been an accessory to Fields.

Gilmore has said that he was standing in the middle of Fourth Street before this video began. Perhaps Fields stopped there because Gilmore was standing in his way and then drove forward as soon as Gilmore got out of his way.

======

During that disturbance in the court, the RPK video continued to run. Nobody in the court was paying to the video, however, because of the disturbance. After the trouble-makers were removed from the courtroom, Young and the court resumed watching the RPK video. A minute had passed since the disruption began, and so just now the video was showing Fields' car -- after being unseen for 1:10 minutes -- pass by the RPK camera northwards and backwards.

Judge Downer
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge Downer
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

[The court resumes watching the RPK video.]

Detective Young
Your Honor, as you saw, that was the silver Dodge Challenger that drove at a high rate of speed.

Detective Young (elaborated)
Your Honor, as you saw, that [the car now driving northwards and backwards in the RPK video] was the silver Dodge Challenger that [during the preceding 1:10 interval] drove at a high rate of speed [into the crowd].

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

(Page 32, lines 11 - 18)

In the above passage, I have edited Young's statement to clarify his intended sense.

Again someone in the courtroom audience spoke aloud. During this new disruption, the RPK video continued to run. After the disruption ended, prosecutor Antony showed the RPK's video last part, during which no vehicles were seen. The RPK camera's clock ran 13 minutes fast, so in the below passage I show the correction to real time.

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

Prosecutor Antony
I’m pausing and starting again at 1:54:49 [corrected, real time = 1:41:49].

Detective Young, you said it [Fields' car] left view at a high rate of speed?

Detective Young
Yes. At this point, many people began to run after Mr. Fields and, at that point, encounter police as they [people on Main Street] ran east towards the police department.

(Page 32, lines 17 - 24)

The RPK video did not show any cars after 1:54:49. The absence of additional cars was demonstrated to the court by running the video to its end.

======

The RPK video showed Fields' car pass by twice (pages 28-31) :

1) driving south when the camera's clock showed 13:52:56 [13:39:56]

[not seen for 1:10 minutes]

2) backing up north when the camera's clock showed 13:54:06 [13:41:06]

A few seconds after the court saw the second passing on the video, the courtroom was disrupted again. After that disruption ended, the video was restarted at 13:54:49 [13:41:49] so that the courtroom could watch the last part, during which no vehicles were seen.

======

If you re-watch the above video made by Gilmore, you will see in the period 0:35-0:38 a black SUV parked along the left side of Fourth Street. That vehicle is a suspected element in this incident, and so Fields' idling or backing up in its vicinity might be relevant.

Watch the following video, made by SonofNewo, from 20:30 to 24:30.

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There are no videos (known to the public) that show Fields' car idling or backing up. No such video was shown during the pretrial hearing. Unless Young has seen some such video, his findings that the car idled or backed up are based entirely on eyewitness statements.

Any idlings or backups (other than getaway backup after the drive into the crowd) happened entirely within the areas north or south of the RPK camera's view, which I think covered the area illustrated below.

No backups before Fields drove into the crowd
were seen by the RPK surveillance camera,
which filmed the area marked by the red lines

It's clear from Young's testimony that eyewitnesses said that Fields began to back up at least once in an area south of the Main Street crossover. It's not clear whether eyewitnesses said that Fields also idled there.

It is not clear from Young's testimony whether eyewitnesses said that Fields idled or backed up in the area north of the RPK camera.

Fields did not idle or back up his car within the RPK camera's view before he drove into the crowd.

The Anti-Racism Protesters' Decision to Turn North onto Fourth Street

At the pretrial hearing of James Fields on December 14, 2017, case agent Detective Steven Young testified that the anti-racism protesters decided in the following manner to turn from Water Street left -- i.e. north -- onto Fourth Street.

They were just marching ... simply marching east on Water Street in a celebratory mood. They were singing songs, and there was a sense of victory throughout the crowd.

At Fourth and East Water Street, the crowd came to a halt. There’s a little bit of confusion as far as where they would go next. At one point, someone said, "we always go left", and many people started chanting "go left, go left".

Just before this, a maroon van, a black pick-up truck and a white ragtop sedan made their way south on Fourth Street from Market Street to Water Street. As the crowd converged right there at Fourth and Water, these vehicles were forced to stop. The black pick-up truck parked on the side of the road, whereas the maroon van and the white ragtop sedan, stayed at the intersection on Fourth Street just north of Water Street and they remained there for a few minutes.

(Page 18, line 23, through Page 19, line 14)

The red boxes mark the streets relevant to this discussion.

The Unite the Right protesters had walked east on Water Street and then turned north onto Fifth Street.

The anti-racism protesters likewise walked east on Water Street, far behind the Unite the Right protesters. However, the anti-racism protesters turned north onto Fourth Street.

Third Street and Fifth Street were pedestrian-only streets. Permanent obstacles prevented any vehicle traffic on those two streets.

Fourth Street was a street for vehicles traveling one-way south. The decision to turn north onto Fourth Street enabled Fields to drive south into the crowd of anti-racism protesters.

If the anti-racism protesters had turned north onto pedestrian-only Third Street or onto pedestrian-only Fifth Street, then Fields would not have been able to drive his car into their crowd.

======

Young's testimony indicates that the decision to turn north onto Fourth Street was made spontaneously, simply because someone said "we always go left".

They had to turn left onto narrow, ugly Fourth Street ...

The view north from the intersection of Water and Fourth.

... instead of turning left onto wider, rather beautiful Fifth Street.

The view north from the intersection of Water and Fifth

Obstacles at the intersection of Fifth and Main prevent vehicles from traveling south. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)

======

The following video shows a video that was made by a pedestrian standing on the southern sidewalk of Water Street, about a half-block west of Fourth Street. This pedestrian is pointing his camera westward, toward the protesters who are walking eastward toward Fourth Street.

Watch the following video beginning at 13:00. From that point for the first minute, the protesters are spaced and are walking at a normal pace. Then at about 14:00, the protesters gradually became less spaced and slow down, because the way forward on Water Street past Fourth Street has been impeded by the left turn.

=========

Update on March 5, 2018

The above video is no longer available because YouTube has purged all the files of American Everyman (Scott Creighton), who created and posted it. I'll try to find the video elsewhere or find some other suitable video.

=========

At about 14:45, the protesters come to a complete stop. By this time, the intersection of Fourth and Water has filled with protesters, who are making a slow turn north onto Fourth.

Continue watching the above video to 15:30. The video shows north pointing downward, so I have made a screenshot and flipped it so that north is pointing upward. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

The protesters turning from Water Street north onto Fourth Street

The protesters had been walking east on Water, but their way forward was blocked, so they had to turn north onto Fourth Street.

You might think that their way forward was blocked by the cars on the intersection's east side. However, the protesters had been walking on the street's south side with the flow of traffic. Therefore the protesters' way forward on Water was not blocked by cars or barriers.

Now watch the above video from 21:00 to 21:15. (Keep in mind that north is pointed downward in the video.) As the protesters scatter from the intersection as Fields' car drives into the intersection, you will see that the way forward on Water was not blocked physically.

Again I have flipped a screenshot so that north points upward. As a car enters the intersection from the north, protesters inside the intersection scatter freely toward the east on Water Street.

An a vehicle enters the intersection southward from Fourth Street,
protesters scatter freely eastward onto Water Street

As far as the public knows, no police officers were involved in the decision to turn north onto Fourth Street. The decision was made entirely by someone leading the anti-racism protesters.

I suppose that the police might have asked the anti-racism protesters' leaders to turn north onto Fourth Street in order to keep those protesters separate from the Unite the Right protesters who had turned north onto Fifth Street. If the the police had asked the anti-racism leaders to turn north on Fourth, then the leaders could have simply given that reason to their followers. Instead, however, the reason that the leaders gave was We always turn left.

The Red Pump Kitchen's Surveillance Camera

In the preliminary hearing of James Fields conducted on December 14, 2017, the case agent Detective Young testified that the movement of vehicles on Fourth Street was filmed by a surveillance camera on the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) restaurant, which is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Fourth Street and Main Street. While the video is being shown to the court, Young describes the camera's view in the following passage:

This is the silver Dodge Challenger that Fields was driving. And as you can see, he proceeds south on Fourth Street onto the crossover, and many witnesses said he then made his way to the 100 block of Fourth Street SE, which is where he stopped.

The camera's view includes the part of Fourth Street, but does not include the part of Fourth Street that enters into the 100 block. For the latter part, Young had to depend on eyewitnesses.

Below are some photographs of the building's front.

My guess is that the camera is mounted inside the restaurant and looks out the window that is seen in the third photograph. The camera's main purpose is to film people approaching and entering the restaurant.

I imagine that the camera's view is something like the following.

======

The RPK video showed Fields' car twice (pages 28-31) :

1) driving south when the camera's clock showed 13:52:56

2) backing up north when the camera's clock showed 13:54:06

The camera's clock ran "approximately" 13 minutes fast (page 29, line 6). If the clock ran precisely 13:00 minutes fast, then the camera's clock times are corrected as follows.

1) driving south at 13:39:56

2) backing up north at 13:41:06

The backup shown in this video was Fields' backup after he had driven into the crowd, which he had done between 13:40 and 13:41.

Keep in mind that the discrepancy between the RPK camera's clock and real time is only approximately 13 minutes.

======

Young testified:

At one point it [Fields' car] was idling near the crossover on Fourth Street, and this is confirmed through video.

(Page 20, lines 15-17).

If I am correct about the RPK camera's view, then that camera was not the camera that confirmed that idling.

I assume that this particular confirmatory video was made by some pedestrian.

======

Young summarized his evidence sources in the below passage:

There were several sources. From ...

* open-source videos, i.e., Facebook, YouTube,

* as well as private-business surveillance camera footage,

* officers' body-worn cameras

* and speaking to several victims and  many witnesses, both at the intersection of Fourth and Water, as well as the intersection of Fourth and Market Street during the incident.

(Page 13, lines 18 - 24; reformatted)

The only private-business surveillance camera that Young mentioned in his testimony was the RPK camera.

Many videos made by pedestrians were posted on Facebook and YouTube, and I suppose that one of those videos happened to show Fields' car idling somewhere on Fourth Street.

======

In the above passage, Young mentioned the importance of witnesses at two intersections:

1) Fourth and Water

2) Fourth and Market

He does not mention witnesses at the intersection of Fourth and Main.

Therefore I speculate that the video confirming that Fields idled his car near the crossover might have been made by a person standing at the intersection of Fourth and Market and filming intermittently southward toward Main Street.

=======

Correction on March 3, 2018

At about 5:38 in the following video, SonofNewo shows where the RPK camera was mounted.

The Pretrial Hearing Did Not Show a Video of James Fields' First Backup

This article follows up my previous article titled James Fields' Backward Movement Before He Drove into the Crowd. One reader responded to me that the journalists who attended the pretrial hearing on December 14, 2017, saw a video there that showed Fields backing up a long distance before he drove into the crowd.

Please read my clarification that follows and then study the hearing transcript.

======

Detective Steven Young's finding that Fields' car backed up before driving into the crowd was based on statements of people who had been standing at the intersection of Fourth Street and Market Street and who had been looking south down Fourth Street.

The backup was reported to police by people
who had been standing at Fourth and Market

Young testified:

There were several sources [of information] -- from open source videos, i.e., FaceBook, YouTube, as well as private business surveillance camera footage, officers' body-worn cameras, and speaking to several victims and many witnesses, both at the intersection of Fourth and Water, as well as the intersection of Fourth and Market Street during the incident.

(Page 13, lines 18 to 24; emphasis added)

Later, Young testified in particular about the statements of the people who had been standing at Fourth and Market.

Many witnesses I spoke to noticed [Fields' car] a gray Dodge Challenger slowly drive on Fourth Street from Market Street towards Water Street at a slow pace. At one point it was idling near the [Main Street] crossover on Fourth Street and this is confirmed through video.

One witness I spoke to actually commented that the Dodge Challenger was an unfortunate driver [who] is stopped here on the downtown mall but [it is a] good thing there’s no one at the intersection of Fourth and Market and that the Dodge can simply back up and leave the area.

Several witnesses claim and confirm through video that no one was at the intersection near Fourth and Market. There were some people but no crowds whatsoever at Fourth and Market, which is where the Dodge Challenger came from.

Many witnesses saw the Challenger back up towards Market Street, thinking that the Challenger would just simply get back onto Market and leave the area.

(Page 20, lines 13 through page 21, line 8; emphasis added)

The above passage is Young's summary of statements made by people who had been standing at the intersection of Fourth and Market. Those people provided important information to Young about what had happened. They ...

... saw the Challenger back up towards Market Street.

(Page 21, lines 5-6; emphasis added)

Those eyewitnesses were Young's only evidence about this particular backup of the car.

There is no video evidence of this particular backup of the car.

======

Two videos were shown in court.

1) A video from the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) showed cars driving past the restaurant.

2) A helicopter video showed only the southern end of Fourth Street.

The helicopter video shown at the hearing showed Fields' car driving into the crowd (page 23, line 15, through page 25, line 25).

======

The RPK video showed Fields' car twice (pages 28-31) :

1) driving south when the camera's clock showed 13:52:56

2) backing up north when the camera's clock showed 13:54:06

The camera's clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast (page 29, line 6). If the clock ran precisely 13:00 minutes fast, then the camera's clock times are corrected as follows.

1) driving south at 13:39:56

2) backing up north at 13:41:06

The backup shown in this video was Fields' backup after he had driven into the crowd, which he had done between 13:40 and 13:41.

Keep in mind that the discrepancy between the RPK camera's clock and real time is only approximately 13 minutes.

The RPK video showed also each of the other three vehicles (maroon van, black truck, white Camry) driving south past the restaurant one time.

======

At the hearing, there was no video that showed the previous backup that had been described by the people who were standing at the intersection of Fourth and Market.

This distance of that previous backup was not specified by Young in his testimony.

The journalists' reports about the distance (e.g. "more than a block") must have been based on off-the-record statements of an informed official after the hearing.

James Fields' Backward Movement Before He Drove into the Crowd

James Fields drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters on August 12, 2017. Four months later, the preliminary hearing on the charges against Fields was conducted on December 14.

After the hearing, journalists who attended the hearing reported that before Fields drove into the crowd, he backed his car up about a block. For example, The Washington Post reported:

Fields' Dodge approached ... from behind at a moderate speed. It then backed up, traveling more than a block, before accelerating at a rapid clip.

Image is from a SonofNewo video

In my article here, I will clarify that this backward movement took place entirely in the area between Market Street and Main Street.

My annotation of a MapQuest screenshot

=====

The hearing comprised mostly the testimony of the case agent, Detective Steven Young. The hearing transcript has become available on a Scrbd webpage. Nowhere in the transcript does Young say that Fields backed his car up before he drove into the crowd.

======

I summarize Young's testimony as follows.

Young's findings are based mostly on:

* Police body-camera videos of people at the intersection of Fourth Street and Water Street

* Police body-camera videos of people at the intersection of Fourth Street and Market Street

* The video from a surveillance camera mounted on the Red Pump Kitchen, a restaurant located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Fourth Street and Main Street.

* The video from a police helicopter.

After Fields drove into the crowd at the intersection of Fourth and Water, he backed up to the intersection of Fourth and Market. Then Fields drove east on Market Street to Ninth Street, where he turned right.

A police officer wearing a body camera (or more than one such officer) came to the intersection of Fourth and Market and interviewed people there. The people there said that the car had turned right on Ninth Street and so was headed toward Monticello Avenue (a main street to the south).

The police officer sent a radio message about the car's getaway route. A few minutes later, Fields was caught a couple blocks south of Monticello -- near the intersection of Avon Street and Blenheim Street.

=====

The police officer wearing the body camera questioned further the people at the intersection Fourth and Market. They remembered that arrived at the intersection from Market Street and then turned south on Fourth Street. Fields drove slowly south toward Main Street and then backed up, returning toward the intersection. Then Fields resumed driving south on Fourth and stopped and idled near the Main Street crossover.

Young testified:

Many witnesses I spoke to noticed a gray Dodge Challenger slowly drive on Fourth Street from Market Street towards Water Street at a slow pace. At one point it was idling near the [Main Street] crossover on Fourth Street, and this is confirmed through video.

One witness I spoke to actually commented that the Dodge Challenger was an unfortunate driver is stopped here on the downtown mall but good thing there’s no one at the intersection of Fourth and Market and that the Dodge can simply back up and leave the area.

Several witnesses claim and confirm through video that no one was at the intersection near Fourth and Market. There were some people but no crowds whatsoever at Fourth and Market, which is where the Dodge Challenger came from.

Many witnesses saw the Challenger back up towards Market Street, thinking that the Challenger would just simply get back onto Market and leave the area.

All this happened in the area between Market Street and Main Street.

=====

Then Fields resumed driving south, crossed Main Street, and stopped and idled his car south of the Main Street crossover. He idled his car in an area that was not seen by the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK).

Young testified that the RPK camera showed the following sequence of events.

13:48:40 -- maroon van drives south past RPK

13:51:55 -- black truck drives south past RPK

13:52:50 -- white Camry drives south past RPK

13:52:56 -- Fields' car drives south past RPK.

The above times are what the RPK clock showed, but the clock was about 13 minutes fast. When that 13-minute discrepancy is corrected, the sequence of events is:

13:35:40 -- maroon van drives south past RPK

13:38:55 -- black truck drives south past RPK

13:39:50 -- white Camry drives south past RPK

13:39:56 -- Fields' car drives south past RPK.

Then, according to Young, Fields' car was not seen for 1:10 minutes. During that interval, Fields' car idled near the Main Street crosswalk and then drove into the crowd and then backed up until it returned into the view of the RPK camera.

Fields' car returned into the RPK camera's view at 13:54:06 according to that camera's clock. When the 13-minute discrepancy is corrected, the time is 13:41:06.

=====

So, Fields' car idled in this area -- close to the crosswalk but out of the RPK camera's view.

The red circle is where Fields idled his car.

Fields idled his car in the area where Brennan Gilmore was standing in the middle of Fourth Street.

After idling his car there, Fields drove south into the crowd and then drove back north, past the RPK camera, and further back to Market Street.

=====

Young testified that Fields' idling his car near the crossover was confirmed by video (transcript page 20, line 17). The video that confirmed that idling cannot be the RPK camera, because the car was out of that camera's view for 1:10 minutes.

The video camera that confirmed that Fields idled his car near the crosswalk is someone else's video camera.

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After the pretrial hearing, someone told the journalists that Fields' car backed up a distance that was something like the distance of a city block. If Fields' car actually had backed up such a long distance, then it backed up from 1) somewhere between Main and Water to 2) somewhere between Main and Market.

However, the backup happened entirely in the area between Main and Market, and it happened before Fields crossed Main Street and idled south of Main Street.

In fact, Fields idled his car near where Gilmore was standing in the middle of Fourth Street, and from that proximity Fields drove south into the crowd.

=====

For more clarification, read my next article, titled The Pretrial Hearing Did Not Show a Video of James Fields' First Backup.

The Vandalism of Nikita Whitlock's Home in Moonachie - Part 4

This is the fourth, last part of a series.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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Nikita Whitlock moved his family into their Moonachie home in about July 2016. On September 15, he was suspended from the NY Giants football team, where he was a fullback, for ten games after he was caught using performance-enhancing drugs. The ten-game suspension would cost him $204,705 in expected salary.

At some point during the family's Moonachie residence, two other people moved in -- Nikita's sister and a downstairs roommate (sex unknown). Perhaps these two roommates were taken in to help pay the rent. The only White person living in the household (Nikita's wife Ashley is Black) was the downstairs roommate (the graffiti in the roommate's bedroom said NIGGER LOVER).

Shortly before Thanksgiving 2016, the Whitlocks decided to move out of their Moonachie home. If they had a normal year-long lease, however, they would lose their security deposit, which normally is at least one month's rent. At the worst, they would have to continue to pay rent until a new renter moved in.

During the Thanksgiving weekend -- Thursday November 24 through Sunday November 27 -- Whitlock perceived that an attempted break-in had happened at his home. When he and his son returned home from seeing a movie, they saw that a side door had been damaged. Specifically, the door included a window that was cracked, and metal wiring embedded in the window glass was mangled.

Later Whitlock learned that some packages had been delivered at the home and then had disappeared during the movie outing. The packages were the only items that disappeared during this incident, and so the break-in seemed to be unsuccessful.

Since packages normally are not delivered on holidays and weekends, this attempted break-in happened probably on Friday or Saturday, November 25 or 26.

Whitlock indicated that only he and his son went to the movie. Therefore the circumstances indicate that the other four inhabitants -- Nikita's wife, baby, sister and downstairs roommate -- were gone from the home during the package delivery and the subsequent noisy attempted break-in.

The time of the attempted break-in could be determined as happening between 1) the package delivery and 2) the time when the movie ended. Since the son was only six years old, the movie probably was a matinee or early-evening (not late-night) showing. Therefore the attempted break-in happened in the afternoon or early evening. The public has not been informed whether the attempted break-in was reported to the police or whether the police investigated it.

A plausible explanation of the attempted break-in would be that an opportunistic, thieving passer-by noticed that some packages had been left at the house's front door. He deduced that nobody was home, and so he stole the packages. He then tried to open the front door, which turned out to be locked. Because the front door was visible from the street, he went around the building and tried to break through a side door. He tried to break the side door's window so that he could reach through and unlock the door. He failed and left.

Another plausible explanation would be that the culprit was not a passer-by, but rather a person who was targeting that particular house. He knew who lived in the house, and perhaps he also knew that some particular valuables were located inside the house. He watched for an opportunity when all its inhabitants had gone away, apparently leaving the house empty. He was not able to break in on that occasion, so he departed with only the delivered packages that were outside. He returned on December 6 and entered some other way.

-------

Then the actual break-in and vandalism happened on the evening of Tuesday, December 6, between 6:30 and 8:45, while the Whitlocks' were eating out. The sister and downstairs roommate must have been gone during that time too.

Although a rainstorm had been forecast and although rain had begun to fall by 6;30, Whitlock did not take along an umbrella for the outing. When they returned home at 8:45, rain was pouring down. Whitlock left his family in the car, and he and another, unidentified person went into the home to fetch an umbrella. When Whitlock opened the door, however, he saw a swastika drawn on an inside wall. Whitlock and the other person immediately walked back to the car, and he reported the break-in to the police. Then the police investigated the home for about four hours until they allowed him to enter the home.

After he entered the home, he was able to ascertain that some jewelry and a video game system were missing. This was described as only "a few items". Other valuables, such as a laptop computer, remained.

During the following hours, Whitlock hung bedsheets over the graffiti so that his son would not see the graffiti. However, a bedsheet was not hung over the NIGGER LOVER graffiti in the bedroom of the downstairs roommate -- presumably because the son never went into that room.

On Wednesday morning, Whitlock showed the vandalism to Andrew Wyrich, a reporter for the local Record newspaper. Wyrich filmed the graffiti. Later that day Wyrich wrote an article that mentioned the damaged side door's window, giving readers the impression that this particular damage was related to the break-in that happened on December 6. Wyrich did not report how the culprit entered the home.

Later on Wednesday, however, CBS2 News broadcast a video in which Whitlock showed that a small window had been completely cut or broken out. Whitlock explained that "we think they started here and then worked their way around to the other door". Presumably, the culprit entered through the broken window and then unlocked a door from the inside.

-------

ESPN reported that "a representative for Whitlock told ESPN's Josina Anderson that the player's previous residence was also burglarized", and other statements indicated that the family experienced two break-ins during a period of six months (not merely ten days). If indeed there were two actual break-ins at the beginning and end of a six-month period, then a hypothetical time-line for the year 2016 would be as follows:

* June  = Actual break-in at the pre-Moonachie home

* July  = Move into the Moonachie home, signing one-year lease

* September  = Ten-game suspension = loss of $200,000 expected income

* October  = Sister and downstairs roommate move in

* Right before Thanksgiving = Whitilocks decide to move out of Moonachie home

* Thanksgiving Weekend = Attempted break-in

* December 6 = Break-in and racist vandalism

* Late December = Whitlocks allowed to move out early with full security deposit

Most of that timeline is mere speculation based on sketchy statements. Only the attempted break-in during the Thanksgiving weekend and the actual break-in on December 6 are based on good information.

---------

During roughly the first half of 2016, Whitlock was using performance-enhancing drugs. He was caught and suspended during (it seems) the summer. He certainly stopped using the drugs, but perhaps he continued to keep a valuable supply of the drugs and intended to sell them. Perhaps an acquaintance knew about those drugs and broke into steal them. The acquaintance drew the graffiti so that Whitlock would not suspect the acquaintance.

Whitlock has told reporters that jewelry and video game systems disappeared from his home during the December break-in. The public has not been given any idea of the value of the missing items,. nor whether they were insured.

If an acquaintance broke in to steal the drugs, he might have taken the jewelry and game stuff to create a false impression that the culprit was a random burglar. Really, the acquaintance wanted only in the drugs, but he did not want to be suspected by Whitlock, and so he also took other stuff and wrote racist graffiti. By writing NIGGER LOVER in that downstairs bedroom, the acquaintance unintentionally revealed that he knew that this particular bedroom was inhabited by a White person.

--------

The racist vandalism happened on December 6, 2016. As I write this article on January 28, 2017, there have been no other such incidents. Before December 6, there was no other such incident. Such a racism vandalism has happened only in one home -- the home of Nikita Whitlock.

There is no racist Trump supporter going around and breaking into ethnic minorities' homes and writing racist graffiti on their inside walls -- in Moonachie or anywhere else.

=============================

Following are sources for particular details.

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http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/giants-nikita-whitlock-burglars-defaced-home-swastika-racist-message-120816

Whitlock suspended for ten games in September for using performance-enhancing drugs. The burglar entered through a window and stole jewelry and a video game system. The second break-in in the last six months.

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http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/12/07/giants-player-home-vandalized/

Burglar entered through a small window. The Whitlocks decided before Thanksgiving to move out of their Moonachie home.

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http://abc7ny.com/sports/suspended-giants-fb-whitlock-burglars-left-swastika-kkk/1645342/

The Whitlock's previous home was burglarized. The ten-game suspension cost $204,705.

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http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2016/12/giants_players_neighbors_expected_drive-by_shootin.html

Sister and downstairs roommate (NIGGER LOVER). During Thanksgiving weekend, went to movie with son, side door's window cracked and packages taken. On December 6, only a few items were stolen. Family had decided before Thanksgiving to move out.

The Vandalism of Nikita Whitlock's Home in Moonachie - Part 3

This is the third part of a series.

Part 1

Part 2

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Some people like to make racism accusations against other people, and they try to prove their accusations by concocting hoaxes. Graffiti is a frequently used hoax method. Here are some examples.

William Tucker, a 58-year-old Black man, spray-painted TRUMP RULES on homes, stores and automobiles. He was filmed by a surveillance camera, and then an anonymous tipster identified him to police.

Olander Cuthrell, a 41-year-old Black minister at a Virginia church, set his house and car on fire. He had painted a racial slur on his house.

Jesus Cabrera, a 19-year-old Hispanic, told police he was attacked by three white men because of his ethnicity. Later he admitted that he made up the story and that he had been stabbed by a rival graffiti crew while he was tagging a bridge overpass.

Curtis Sliwa, the 26-year-old (in 1980) founder of the Guardian Angels, reported the vandals had written the graffiti KKK and WHITE POWER on his group's headquarters. Later he admitted that he himself had done it in order to win sympathy for his group and to prevent its eviction from the building.

An unnamed Hispanic student at Elon University wrote BYE BYE LATINOS, HASTA LA VISTA on a classroom blackboard. He was identified from the campus security cameras.

Mirza Akram, a 37-year-old Pakistani immigrant, spray-pained anti-Muslim graffiti and a white cross on his own store and then set it on fire in order to collect insurance money.

Amjad Abunar, painted GO HOME on his own delicatessen and set it on fire in order to collect insurance money.

Kassim Alhimidi, a 49-year-old Iraqi immigrant, beat his wife to death. Near her corpse, he wrote GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY, YOU TERRORIST.

Unnamed Albanian Muslims wrote anti-Muslim graffiti and swastikas on their own store and then set it on fire to collect insurance money.

Safia Z. Jilani, an Elmhurst College student, reported that she had been attacked in a campus bathroom because of her Muslim religion. A week before that attack, a swastika and DIE MUSLIMS, RID US OF YOUR FILTH had been pained on her school locker. Jilani confessed that she had concocted all the incidents.

Kareem Khoury, a 36-year-old Arab, admitted that he hired someone to paint graffiti on his Dairy Queen and set it on fire in order to collect insurance money.

Dylan Bleier and Matt Alden, two Jewish students at Oberlin University, admitted that they spray-painted racist, anti-Jewish and anti-gay graffiti on their campus in order to promote leftist politics.

An unnamed Asian-American student at Oberlin University admitted that he was the person who had written DEATH TO CHINKS and DEAD CHINKS, GOOD CHINKS on a campus monument.

Sarah Marshak, a student journalist at George Washington University, admitted that she was the person who had drawn six swastikas on her dorm-room door. She confessed after a hidden camera filmed her drawing the final three swastikas.

An unnamed 17-year-old lesbian student at Tamalais High School admitted that she was the person who had written DIE FAG on a school wall and on her car in the school parking lot.

Nezar Maad, an Arab-American wrote NOT IN OUR TOWN and WE HATE ARABS on his print shop and set it on fire in order to collect insurance money.

Donald Maynard, a Black firefighter-paramedic, admitted that he himself had displayed a noose and a threatening note in his fire station.

Andrew McClinton, a 45-year-old Black, admitted that he himself had written VOTE TRUMP on his Black church before setting it on fire.

Jenny and David Williams admitted that they themselves spray-painted NIGGER LOVERS on their garage door and set their truck and motorcycle on fire in order to collect insurance money.

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Many of the above examples are from a website called Fake Hate Crimes. Below are some other examples for which the links to the source articles are broken:

Ivory Lee Scott, a Black military policeman, was charged with writing racist graffiti on his base's dormitories.

Two unnamed Jewish teenagers were charged with painting swastikas and anti-Jewish graffiti on 51 apartments.

Charles A Lewis, a Black politician, admitted to paying someone to write racist graffiti on his own house.

Pedro House Jr, a Black student at Union County College, was caught painting anti-Semitic and racist slurs on a restroom wall on campus.

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Many of the above hoaxes have one or both of the following two motives:

1) Collecting insurance money for property lost in fires and burglaries

2) Gaining sympathy from other people after personal humiliation.

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This is the third of a four-part series of articles.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4