Geraldo Rivera, host of Fox News’s show Fox Friends, believes that, “the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.” He went on to say, “I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies.”
His comments on the show this morning drew a fierce response from critics, with one person calling him a “moron” on twitter. Geraldo backed up his claim by saying:
“It’s those crime scene surveillance tapes. Every time you see someone sticking up a 7-Eleven, the kid’s wearing a hoodie. Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or they get the old lady in the alcove, it’s a kid wearing a hoodie. You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a gangsta — you’re going to be a gangsta wannabe? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace.”
Geraldo does believe that Trayvon was innocent. He took a moment to comment that, “Trayvon Martin, God bless him, an innocent kid, a wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hands. He didn’t deserve to die.” Afterwards though, he claimed that he would “bet money” that if Travyon Martin had not been wearing a hoodie, he would not have been killed.
He also responded to Al Sharpton’s Million Hoodie March that “you cannot rehabilitate the hoodie.” Apparently Martin believes that parents need to stop letting their kids wear hoodies, because they are the real reason innocent children are killed.
Do you believe that Trayvon Martin’s death is the result of him wearing a hoodie, more so that the fault of the man who killed him?
Check out the video from Fox New’s Fox Friends here:
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