Racist binge, but ‘not an ugly person’

A man who claims he was punched in the head and derided as a “white boy” later went on a hate-filled tirade, defacing a city bus with a string of anti-black slurs, authorities say.

Safet Cucaj, 46, was nabbed after police traced his MetroCard back to his mother — and provided a full confession, an apology and an argument that he has “a wife, a mother and even black friends,” a law enforcement source told the Daily News. “I’m not an ugly person,” Cucaj said in his confession, the source told The News.

His racist scrawls on a Q54 Queens bus inspected in Spring Creek, Brooklyn, suggest otherwise. “F—k n——-s,” Cucaj allegedly wrote in black marker the afternoon of March 21. “White power.”

On another bus on the same line that night, he elaborated on his racist rantings, police said.

“BAD AGAINST BLACK MEANS the person is a hater,” he scrawled, police said. “No!!! N——-s ARE F——-G GARBAGE AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT.”

Cucaj claims he went on the rampage a day after a black man supposedly punched him in the head on a Q54 bus and called him a “white boy.”

Police, however, said it doesn’t appear Cucaj reported the incident, nor could the claim be corroborated.

By the time the graffiti was discovered, Cucaj was long gone, but police, lead by Hate Crime Task Force Detective Jacob Habib, reviewed video and traced the suspect’s MetroCard to his mother.

On Monday, police went looking for the suspect, couldn’t find him at his last known address in Queens, then headed to his mother’s home — but spotted him at Metropolitan Ave. and 69th St., in Queens and arrested him. Once in custody, he poured his heart out, the source said.

“I’m very sorry,” he said in his confession, according to the source. “Please have mercy on me. There is no excuse.”

Cucaj was charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments. He was released without bail.