Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera: Guns Don’t Kill People, Hoodies Kill People

By now you’ve probably heard about the recent tragedy in Florida that resulted in the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin. In truth, I’ve avoided posting anything about it because it’s so damn depressing and I try my best to a) keep this website a happy place as much as possible and b) because merely thinking about it brings me down. But as the story has become bigger and bigger on the web I figured that sooner or later someone in media, probably employed by Fox News, would say something impossibly stupid about the whole thing and I’d no longer be able to ignore it. That day has finally come.

For benefit of those unfamiliar with the case, here’s a summary: Trayvon Martin was a 17 year-old black kid — by all accounts an upstanding young citizen (though Glenn Beck would like you to think otherwise) — who walked to the 7/11 near his dad’s house one recent evening for some iced tea and a bag of Skittles. On his way home, a local overzealous “neighborhood watch captain” named George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin for merely looking “suspicious.” Trayvon was wearing a hoodie at the time.

Now fast forward to this morning on Fox & Friends, Fox News’ morning orgy of stupidity, where Geraldo joined the usual overcooked vegetables to talk about the issues of the day. On the program, he actually said this: “I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.”

Yeah. He really said that.

Allow Geraldo to elaborate…

Every time you see someone sticking up a 7-11, the kid is 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 gonna be a gangsta wannabe? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace.

…

You can not rehabilitate the hoodie. You’re not going to — I understand that the reaction might be overzealous or even irrational in some extent, I mean, when you look at the statistics. It may be. But you’re not going to rehabilitate the hoodie….Stop wearing it! Don’t let your kid — you know the old Johnny Cash song, don’t take your gun to town, son. Leave your gun at home. There is some things that are almost inevitable. I’m not suggesting that Trayvon Martin had any kind of weapon or anything, but he wore an outfit that allowed someone to respond in this irrational, overzealous way and if he had been dressed more appropriately, I think unless it’s raining out, or you’re at a track meet, leave the hoodie home.

You know, I actually wore a red hoodie when I went out to get coffee with Maske this morning. I could have gotten both of us killed! Whew!!!

I’ll let our boy Aziz take it from here…