Geraldo Rivera On Trayvon Martin Hoodie Comments: ‘Half Of It Is The Way The Young Men Look’

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geraldo-riveraGeraldo Rivera doubled down on his incendiary comments about Trayvon Martin during a Friday appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” saying that hoodies reminded people of criminals like the Unabomber and thus put them in danger.

The Fox News host caused a firestorm on Friday morning when he said that Martin was shot to death in part because he was wearing a hoodie. “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,” he said.

Instant outrage, and a fair amount of ridicule, followed. Rivera admitted that his own son told him he was ashamed of him. But he stood staunchly behind his comments when speaking to O’Reilly. The two began talking about New York’s controversial “stop and frisk” laws, which disproportionately affect people of color. Rivera said he supported the laws, and then brought up hoodies again.

“I’m telling you, half of it is the way the young men look,” he said. “…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…'”

O’Reilly said supportively that Rivera was merely trying to protect people.

“Parents, don’t let your kids go out wearing these —- hoodies!” Rivera continued. He called the negative association with the clothing “repugnant” but said it was “reality.”

Rivera also kept defending himself on Twitter: “Critics of my hoodie comments think they’re mad at me but they’re really mad at the undeniably unfair reality of young male black/brown life.”

{Huffington Post/Matzav.com Newscenter}


9 COMMENTS

  1. I totally agree with him!!!

    anyhow, generally, these days when u see the media have a fit you know someone said something right and they cant admit the truth, so they kill the messenger.

  2. I DONT AGREE WITH ANYTHING RIVERA SAYS BUT
    this time he is 1001% correct.
    He was pursued from that volunteer nut.
    No witbesses that the kid attacked or moved in any foward motion.
    This is a wanna be cop that should be charfed with something, even if they are dropped, this must show that he acted imnpulsively.
    listen the radio reports bring up another impulsive irrational act by cops in new york for 2 other killings. but no one mentions ”A’H’ GIDEON BUSH KILLED IN BORO PARK BECAUSE HE WAS SWINGING A HAMMER.
    Any student of karate for 6 months couldve disarmed Gideon from his hammer. Those cops had years of training before the badge and experience on the job and they shot poor Gideon I heard 8 times…..

  3. Blame the Hoodie? Walking while black with a hoodie, punishable by death?? Have we come to this???
    GIVE ME A BREAK. It was raining …. the kid was running …..and being stalked …….and ….SORRY, but we don’t ALL use Totes umbrellas when going to the corner grocery store for a snack. Nor should we risk losing our very lives while doing so! Mr. Rivera: you should be ashamed of your inane, insensitive comments about Trayvon, and your attempts to create “excuses” for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman (and those that would imitate him). We are becoming a society that seeks and sees threats under every rock; a frightened society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us;  a manipulated society with control-freaks running rampant (whether politicians or mayors or police chiefs or individuals). Power-hungry people that are only too eager to take advantage of our fears; that are only too willing to get away with anything and everything that they can, as they deprive us of our our liberty (and sometimes our lives)…..all in the name of defending it. What a shell game. But were it only a game. For it includes the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, the police spying on innocent people, “papers-please” and stop&frisk gone wild, the “right” to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, and out-of-control homicidal vigilantes such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a serious, slippery slope… one that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba – NOT the America that I know and love. We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such sorry places. Now we imitate them. Our country is better than this. Our values are better than this. WE are better than this. Don’t blame the hoodie……blame what we are becoming, and allowing, and doing as a society. As Shakespeare once said: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves: For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time… it’s way past time, to reverse course. Let bring some good out of this tragedy…. and never let it happen again.

  4. Wearing a hoodie while being a young black male is chayav the death penalty? Discrimination is discrimination.

    Let’s get real – this sort of thinking threatens EVERYBODY who’s not “majority,” and that includes us Jews. The shooter wasn’t even a police officer – he was just a neighborhood watch patrolman. There are kids with hoodies all over my neighborhood – and half of them are Jewish. If the guy had shot a Jewish kid wearing a hoodie because he looked “suspicious” and the light wasn’t good enough to see he wasn’t black, does that mean he gets off on a mistaken identity plea?

    A sidelight: there are now photos all over the Web of Mr. Rivera himself in a hoodie. Does that mean I can shoot him if I see him walking down my street after dark?

  5. none of us knows what really happened but how many of us have been intimidated/ offended by the actions of or clothing(or manner of wearing clothing)groups of loud rowdy black kids. however sad it is how many jews get mistaken for being about to do bad things? how many congregate and get rowdy so yes it creates a stereotypical view. Whos fault is that? is it the fault of small minded prejudiced people or is it the fault uf the groups that dont care about their image?

  6. # 6 – Hanging on a street corner being a teenager does not make a kid of any color deserving of death.

    And take responsibility for your own actions. If Shimon is eating treif, does that make it OK for Reuven? You have to do the right thing no matter what other people are doing. You have an obligation not to be “small-minded and prejudiced” period, no matter what other people are doing. That kid hanging on the street corner right now might be an honors student, who dresses the way he does because that’s how all the kids dress nowadays. Have you seen how some of the whte kids dress? They wear hoodies and baggy pants too. Does that make it OK to shoot them because they’re on the street after dark?

    Why are so many people looking for excuses? Is because they’re really horrified too and they’d rather not face it? Are we worried it could be one of us?

    Undisciplined watch groups are a serious danger – recollect that the 911 operator told the man who killed Trayvon Martin that he shouldn’t follow him. There’s a lot going on here, and trying to pretend it’s all OK because it’s the kids’ fault for “looking like hoods” is dodging the issue.

  7. Blame the Hoodie? Walking while black with a hoodie, punishable by death?? Have we come to this???
    GIVE ME A BREAK. Hey, the poor kid was running in the rain …..and being stalked …….and ….I’M SORRY…but we don’t ALL use Totes umbrellas when going to the corner grocery store for a snack. NOR should we risk losing our very lives while doing so! Mr. Rivera: you should be ashamed of your inane, insensitive comments about Trayvon’s death, and your attempts to create “excuses” for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman (…AND…those that would imitate him). We are becoming a society that seeks and sees threats under every rock; a frightened society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us;  a manipulated society with control-freaks running rampant (whether politicians or mayors or police chiefs or individuals). Power-hungry people that are only too eager to take advantage of our fears; that are only too willing to get away with anything and everything that they can, as they deprive us of our our liberty (and sometimes our lives)…..all in the name of defending it. What a shell game. But were it only a game. For it includes the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, the police spying on innocent people, “papers-please” and stop&frisk gone wild, the “right” to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, and out-of-control homicidal vigilantes such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a serious, slippery slope… one that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba – NOT the America that I know and love. We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such sorry places. Now we imitate them. Our country is better than this. Our values are better than this. WE are better than this. Don’t blame the hoodie……blame what we are becoming, and allowing, and doing as a society. As Shakespeare once said: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves: For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time… it’s way past time, to reverse course. Let bring some good out of this tragedy…. and work to never let it happen again. You DO have the power, my friend. USE IT.

  8. he never said that the hoodie warrants getting shot, but if you ask anyone they’ll tell you straight away they wear hoodies cause it makes them look “Gangsta”, or “rugged”. Now what does that mean? what does Gangsta and rugged imply? So yes, from a kid in a T shirt to a kid in a hoodie lies a very big and sometimes life threatening difference.(dont be the idiot who says “but you can wear hoodies for other reasons”, true, but an impression is an impression).

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