Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Things That Tick Me Off

Haughty Couture: Geraldo Rivera Blames Hoodie For Trayvon Martin Slaying

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

With leaders from all sides of the political spectrum coming together and calling for a Grand Jury investigation into the senseless slaying of teenager Trayvon Martin, surely there has to be one wacky voice. And who better than Fox & Friends contributor, Geraldo Rivera. On the show, Rivera recently blamed Martin’s hoodie as the culprit for the fatal attack:

I believe that George Zimmerman, the overzealous neighborhood watch captain, should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law, and if he is criminally liable he should be prosecuted. But I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.

Rivera had opened the bidding with an equally inane column styled,  “Trayvon Martin Would Be Alive but for His Hoodie.”  There, after deriding low slung pants, he admonishes parents to take the hoodies off their kids too, imploring them, “don’t let your child go out into the hard cruel world wearing a costume that is really a sign that says ‘shoot me.’” Fleece as fomenter? Really?

That stupidity brought immediate comment from the saner and hipper side of the planet. “i didn’t even know geraldo still did stuff ppl listened to. damned if i listen to him now. but #BEATEMDOWNhoodies ARE on sale for $25,” media personality Bomani Jones tweeted. “Dear Geraldo Rivera: I’ll use small words so you can follow me, okay? Hoodies don’t kill people. Paranoid racists with guns kill people,” tweeted Wil Wheatonof Los Angeles. “That’s like saying Martin should not have left the house while being Black. As the Million Hoodie marches emphasize, there is nothing inherently devious about hoodies. It’s our culture’s racist stereotype for “suspicion” that makes hoodies worn by people of color — not soccer moms or Anderson Cooper —  an act that could be met with violence,” journalist Kristen Gwynne wrote on AlterNet.

With President Obama saying that if he had a son he’d look a lot like Trayvon Martin, and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum both calling for a Grand Jury inquiry into the matter, and calling the case a “tragedy”  and a “horrible case,” respectively, Rivera looks like an old gum-shoe newsman looking for a story and some notoriety.

Clothing manufacturers must have thought the same thing. American Apparel, who makes the popular outerwear, noted its product is bought by “every type of person you can imagine—pink hoodies to toddlers, black and navy hoodies to businessmen and successful entrepreneurs, as well as plenty of college students of all backgrounds and everyone else in between. We even sell hoodies for dogs.” Creative Director Marsha Brady (no, not that Marsha Brady) added, “To say that this classic garment implies that its owner is a dangerous criminal to be ‘feared’ is absolutely ridiculous. We’re incredibly sorry about the young man who was shot while wearing one, and feel very strongly that oversimplifying the discussion by criticizing the victim’s clothing does the country, Trayvon Martin, and all those who support the end of crimes such as this one a massive and dangerous disservice.”

So it seems the journalist who brought us the underwhelming mystery of Al Capone’s vault on live TV, and who regaled us with wild claims about a million Satanists lurking among us and raping children during secret rituals, now finds himself saddled with another self-inflicted wound.

Blaming a hoodie for a shooting?  If that’s true, innocent African-American kids and other hoodie affectionadoes like New England Patriots football coach, Bill Belichick, had better look out.

Source:  msnbc

~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

119 thoughts on “Haughty Couture: Geraldo Rivera Blames Hoodie For Trayvon Martin Slaying”

  1. BTW since you mentioned the photos,this young man seemed to be living a well rounded life,I can count on one hand the people I know in the Black Community who take their children skiing.Only using this as and example.

    and by the video reports it looks like he lived in a well kept complex.

    Eniobob in re to skiing you got to get out more brah. 🙂

  2. Bda:

    ” From day one most articles read white man shoots black teen.”

    Well I haven’t seen that and again you an take this to the bank,its all about “JUSTICE” and doing the right thing.The demonstrations show that its not a Black or White thing for the crowds are a mixture of all races of “AMERICANS”.

  3. Why doesn’t the media instruct these kids to call 911 immediately when they fear they are being targeted by anyone? Where is the instruction on how to handle these situations?

  4. ABC News also learns that Zimmerman violated major principles of the Neighborhood Watch manual, which states, “it should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers, and they shall not carry weapons or pursue vehicles.”

    and there you have it. NUff said.

  5. “Neighbors said Aliyah Shell was playing on the porch of her home in the 3100 block of South Springfield Avenue about 3:40 p.m. Saturday while her parents sat on the front steps. A small gray pickup truck stopped in the street and one person inside got out and fired four shots — two of them hitting the little girl.

    Aliyah was struck twice and initially was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. She was declared dead at 5:24 p.m., the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said.”

    But there will be an investigation,and there will be an arrest in this case if the shooters are found,no comparison to the Taryvon Martin case.

    BTW since you mentioned the photos,this young man seemed to be living a well rounded life,I can count on one hand the people I know in the Black Community who take their children skiing.Only using this as and example.

  6. eniobob 1, March 24, 2012 at 10:15 am

    Bda:

    No one is questioning the race of Mr Zimmerman,they are questioning the procedure that is allowing him to walk the streets after a cold blooded shooting.
    **********************************
    eniobob, maybe not in this thread but this is what is being seized upon in the media. It is very dangerous to do so. They are throwing gas on the fire and I pray it doesn’t burn out of control. From day one most articles read white man shoots black teen.

  7. Trayvon Martin Case: Timeline of Events
    3/23/12
    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/trayvon-martin-case-timeline-of-events/

    Excerpt:
    The slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Florida high school student who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, has captured national attention.
    Petitions calling for justice for Martin have exploded, amid allegations of racism and calls for more scrutiny into how local police handled the investigation. George Zimmerman has yet to be charged in the case.
    Below is a timeline of events:

    Feb. 26: Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Florida high school student, is found shot and killed, in Sanford, Fla., a community north of Orlando.
    Several eyewitnesses report to police that they heard a scuffle, then a cry for help, and then a gunshot.

    According to the Sanford police report, George Zimmerman, 28, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, is found armed with a handgun, standing over Martin. He has a bloody nose and a wound in the back of his head.

    Martin is unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. He has no weapons on him, only a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea.
    Zimmerman tells police he killed Martin in self defense. Taking him at his word, police do not arrest him, nor administer a drug or alcohol test. They also did not run a background check.

    March 9: Trayvon Martin’s family demands that police release the 911 tapes or make an arrest nearly one month after Martin was killed. Police declined to comment at the time, but told ABC News the tapes would be released the following week.

    March 12: ABC News uncovers questionable police conduct in the investigation of the fatal shooting of Martin, including the alleged “correction” of at least one eyewitness’ account.

    Sanford Police Chief Billy Lee said there is no evidence to dispute Zimmerman’s assertion that he shot Martin out of self-defense.

    March 16: Police recordings made the night Zimmerman allegedly shot and killed Martin sent the boy’s mother screaming from the room and prompted his father to declare, “He killed my son,” a family representative tells ABC News.

    ABC News affiliate WFTV publishes excerpts from the 911 calls.
    One of several petitions for Zimmerman’s arrest has garnered more than 250,000 signatures on a change.org site, and at one point signatures were pouring in at the rate of 10,000 an hour, according to the website.
    March 18: Martin’s family asks Attorney General Eric Holder and the FBI to get involved in the investigation of their son’s death.

    March 19: A 16-year-old girl tells Benjamin Crump, the Martin family’s attorney, about the last moments of Martin’s life, ABC News is there exclusively. Martin was on the phone with her when George Zimmerman began following him. She recounted that she told Martin to run, then she heard some pushing, then the line went dead.

    The U.S. Justice Department announces it has launched an investigation into Martin’s slaying.

    ABC News also learns that Zimmerman violated major principles of the Neighborhood Watch manual, which states, “it should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers, and they shall not carry weapons or pursue vehicles.”

    The state attorney in Seminole County, Fla., announces that a grand jury will review the evidence of the case on April 10.

    March 20: Sanford police department admits to ABC News that investigators missed a possible racist remark by the shooter as he spoke to police dispatchers moments before the killing.

  8. Bdaman,

    I do think it looks like a “racial incident.” I doubt Zimmerman would have been as suspicious of a white teenager.

    Zimmerman is 28 years old–not 23–and outweighed Martin by approximately one hundred pounds.

    Ok thanks for the age correction. Must be thinking of Fluke but could have sworn he was 23.

    Also in re to weight. Zimmerman I read was 5’5″ and Trayvon 6’3. I also read that the photo’s of Trayvon are when he was younger and not recent photo’s. In essence baby face photo’s. Either way it’s a shame all the way around when black on black violence and gang wars are out of control. It was a bloodbath in Chicago a few days ago with 10 dead, 39 wounded.
    Among the dead is a six year old girl who was killed in a drive by shooting.

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/11392878-418/story.html

    Ten people were killed and at least 39 others were wounded in shootings across the city this weekend.

    Most of the victims, male and female, ranged in age from their mid-teens to 30s, with the notable exception of a 6-year-old girl who was shot dead as she played on the front porch of her home in the Little Village neighborhood.

    Neighbors said Aliyah Shell was playing on the porch of her home in the 3100 block of South Springfield Avenue about 3:40 p.m. Saturday while her parents sat on the front steps. A small gray pickup truck stopped in the street and one person inside got out and fired four shots — two of them hitting the little girl.

    Aliyah was struck twice and initially was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. She was declared dead at 5:24 p.m., the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said.

  9. Bda:

    No one is questioning the race of Mr Zimmerman,they are questioning the procedure that is allowing him to walk the streets after a cold blooded shooting.

  10. Mespo:

    “(no, not that Marsha Brady)”

    what are you talking about, who is this Marsha Brady?

  11. It’s time to get the dimestore cowboy out of the justice system. Any law knicknamed the ‘stand your ground’ law WILL have the effect of encouraging people to not leave a tense scene in favor of ‘standing’ there. It doesn’t even matter if that is or is not the fine point intent of the law. The majority of citizens are not only law abiding they are civil and civilized. They do not have the access or time or inclination or training to decipher legalese to read every damn new law that comes down the pike. It’s tuff enough to try to do the taxes without being screwed.

    If I were driving alone at night I wouldn’t pull over on a dark road for a cop…I would drive to the nearest brightly lit area with my cell phone dialing 911 to tell them so.

    There is nothing unreasonable about not sticking around to get beaten, bullied or killed. And a law that encourages otherwise is in essense a trap, not a law.

  12. Dredd

    Whether or not there is a valid defense to that shooting is not a determination to be made by police — particularly when based solely on the word of the shooter.

    Here’s new info I haven’t seen and why Zimmerman probably wasn’t arrested. According to a witness and police.

    The witness reports that George Zimmerman was on the ground and Trayvon is on top of him punching him.

    The witness says that George Zimmerman was screaming and yelling for help.

    Police arrive and find Zimmerman bleeding on his face and the back of his head. He also has had grass stains on his back. All this confirms the story told by Zimmerman and the witness.

    Police play the 911 tape for Trayvon Martin’s father, who tells police that the voice screaming is not the voice of his son.

    http://news.yahoo.com/video/orlandowesh-16122564/sanford-police-speak-out-in-trayvon-martin-case-28640523.html

  13. Bdaman,

    I do think it looks like a “racial incident.” I doubt Zimmerman would have been as suspicious of a white teenager.

    Zimmerman is 28 years old–not 23–and outweighed Martin by approximately one hundred pounds.

  16. At one time at the age of 23 I owned a Beretta 9mm, a Florida State Issued Colt 357 magnum and a Coast Guard Issued 38. On one occasion, at that age, I found myself with the 9mm in my waist band at my then ex-wifes apartment complex ready to confront her then boyfriend. I banged on the apartment door knowing what was going on inside. After I banged on the door, I put my ear to the door to hear my ex-wife say, it’s ——– don’t open that door he has a gun. My ex-wife knew I carried. I knew I couldn’t stay there without someone calling the police so I fled. After calming down the next day I realized that I could have killed someone due to my jealousy and temper. I also realized I was not mature enough to carry a weapon in spite of all the training courses I’d taken on gun safety.

    I got rid of them and here I am today.

  17. Here is what a retired federal judge had to say:

    Imagine this scenario: a man shoots and kills someone. He tells the police he was temporarily insane at the time. So they say “OK you can go home and take your gun with you,” because they can’t contradict his claim of insanity at the time of the killing. Ridiculous? Yes, but according to CNN: “Police say they have not charged Zimmerman because they have no evidence to contradict his story that he shot in self-defense.” Am I missing something here? The only evidence of self-defense comes from the person who shot the victim. Doesn’t he have a motive to lie? Isn’t his credibility an issue? Aren’t there surrounding circumstances that place the claim of self-defense in dispute? What is undisputed is that George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Whether or not there is a valid defense to that shooting is not a determination to be made by police — particularly when based solely on the word of the shooter.

    (H. Lee Sarokin, emphasis added). The police became the trier of fact, a procedural error at best.

  18. Blame the Hoodie? 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, and your attempts to create “excuses” for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman. We are becoming a society that sees threats under every rock; a society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us;  a 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 eager 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. Were it only a game. For it’s part of a slippery slope that 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 homicidal “vigilantes” such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a slippery slope that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba – not America .We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such 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. For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time, way past time, to reverse course.

  19. Ms. Elaine here’s what it boils down too. George Zimmerman is 23 years old. TOO YOUNG to be in possession of a firearm EVEN IF HE HAD proper training in the use of to be carrying on the street AND NOT a law enforcement officer hired by the city or state.

    I’m curious if he had any training in the handling of a weapon.

  20. MS. Elaine

    No, but it doesn’t sound like he’s white to me does it to you?

    And it is looking like the incident wasn’t racial does it to you?

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