Geraldo Rivera Stands By Hoodie Comment [Video]

According to Geraldo Rivera, Trayvon Martin was killed because he was wearing a hoodie. Rivera knows that his comments were incendiary but he insists that he’s only speaking the truth because he wants to protect children.

The Fox News host said:

“I’ll bet you money, if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way.”

The comment drew instant outrage as people said that Rivera was blaming the victim and not the shooter, George Zimmeman. But Rivera insists that if Martin wasn’t dressed like a hoodlum he wouldn’t have been treated like one.

Rivera said that when people see hooides they think of other people who have worn hoodies like “everybody that ever stuck up a convenience store, D.B. Cooper, the guy that hijacked a plane, Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber…'” Rivera fails to acknowledge, however, that Kaczynski also occasionally wore T-shirts, D.B. Cooper was known for wearing shoes, and convenience store robbers have also been known to wear sunglasses.

Rivera also seems to forget that he dons a dangerous hoodie from time to time. A new Tumblr, Geraldo in a Hoodie, is dedicated to photos of Rivera in a hoodie. Surprisingly, none of the photos show Rivera being mugged, shot, or murdered.

But Rivera insists that the Hoodie is responsible for Travyon Martin’s death. Rivera told Bill O’Reilly while discussing New York’s controversial “stop and frisk” laws, (which disproportionately targets people of color) that:

“Half of it is the way the young men look… If a cop looks at three kids on the corner, and they’ve got those hoodies up — and this is where I got in trouble with the Trayvon Martin case — if they’ve got those hoodies up, and they’re hanging out on the corner, the cops look at them and say, ‘Hmm, hoodies. Who else wears hoodies? Everybody that ever stuck up a convenience store, D.B. Cooper, the guy that hijacked a plane, Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber…’ Parents, don’t let your kids go out wearing these damn hoodies!”

What do you think of Geraldo Rivera’s comments? Are hoodies dangerous?