Geraldo Rivera knows what to blame for Trayvon Martin's death: the teen's choice of clothing. The Fox News host said today on Fox & Friends that he would "bet money" George Zimmerman wouldn't have shot Martin if Martin hadn't been wearing a hoodie, Politico reports. Rivera went on to urge parents—particularly those of "black and Latino youngsters"—not to let their kids wear hoodies. "I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was," he said. (And, in response to the Million Hoodie March in support of Martin, Rivera argued that "you cannot rehabilitate the hoodie.")
Kids in hoodies—"particularly a dark-skinned kid like my son Cruz," Rivera noted—are seen as threats thanks to the prevalence of hoodies on "crime scene surveillance tapes," he argued. "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," he said. "When you see a black or Latino youngster, particularly on the street, you walk to the other side of the street. You try to avoid that confrontation." As for Martin, "I 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." (Click for one take on when hoodlums started wearing hoodies.)
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