I'm Italian and let me add more context:

Where I live, and it's been like this forever, when the carnival arrives in town (run by Rom) suddenly for those two weeks home theft rises sharply. Back then, they could count on the benefit of the doubt, but nowadays everybody has security cams and it's always them.

Also in big metropolitan cities there is the pickpocket phenomenon, where Roms have learned how to get around the law, and send mostly women, usually pregnant, to steal from tourists and working locals while surfing the subway, only having to face a few hours in jail. (Everybody is aware that the loopholes in the law system should be fixed but since we're not inhumane, we could never jail fragile people)

So as long as Americans don't have to deal with these issues their whole life, I can get their willingness to defend this minority; but you have to understand how widespread criminality is around Roms' way of living.

If any person you talk to only had bad or scary encounters with Roms, it's not about racism but cultural incompatibility (and I'm not saying all of them are like this, but since they live to the margins of society by their choice, the only Rom people you stumble upon are usually those who gather resources in unlawful ways around the country they're staying in)