The New York Mets Class-A affiliate the Brooklyn Cyclones found a very unwanted scene on Wednesday when employees discovered that someone painted graffiti and racial messages on the statue outside the stadium of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese.
According to ESPN.com, employees found the statue defaced with swastika and racial and anti-Semitic epithets painted on and the police in the city are looking into the incident. There are surveillance cameras in the area and the NYPD said it was being looked at as a biased hate crime. The graffiti was removed from the statue and it depicts Reese putting his arm around Robinson, a famous picture that was recreated in the recent movie "42."
According to ESPN.com, The New York City Parks Department, which is charged with maintaining the statue, has dispatched help to treat the statue's base.
"This is being treated as a bias crime," detective John Nevandro of the 60th precinct said in a statement. "Hate Crimes will investigate the incident."