On Friday, Geraldo Rivera joined the case of Fox & Friends to discuss an increase in homicides that have left several children dead. Rivera said that some of the shootings in Chicago occurred because the victim was wearing ‘thug wear.’ This prompted Rivera to brag, despite being criticized, that he was right when he said that Trayvon Martin was killed because he was wearing a hoodie.
“I was right about the hoodie wasn’t I,” said Rivera. “I hate to brag, but I got criticized by every pundit in America when I said Trayvon Martin would be alive today but for the fact that he was wearing thug wear – he was wearing the hoodie. Turns out now that we look at George Zimmerman’s interviews with the police; he didn’t profile Trayvon Martin because he was black, he profiled him because he was wearing a hoodie.”
“The headline is: Zimmerman is not a racist. Trayvon Martin would be alive today if he wasn’t wearing thug wear, if he wasn’t wearing that hoodie,” Rivera said.
Rivera continued on the show by criticizing civil rights leaders Ben Jealous of the NAACP and the Reverend Al Sharpton for not going after the issue of Martin and for ignoring the murders in Chicago and other ethnic neighborhoods of the United States.
“Where is that same feeling of concern in Chicago where 275 African-American kids have killed each other this year alone,” Rivera asked. “Where is Jesse Jackson – it’s his home town? Where is Al Sharpton? Where is the protest? Where is the concern?”
Rivera noted that he is not comfortable with the racial profiling in the ‘stop and frisk’ policy employed by New York City. He also said that he is concerned New York City could see an increase in homicides related to the ones happening in Chicago right now. Rivera also said that he recently took part in a march against ‘stop and frisk’ but wants to see that same protest against the violence found in minority neighborhoods across the country.
