Bassmingo

A hoodie is a piece of clothing, nothing more. Millions of people wear them or have worn them. They are not limited to criminals or to any race or ethnicity. They can tell you nothing about a person other than this: he or she is wearing one. That’s it. They certainly are not the defining characteristic of young black gang members or any other violent criminals. A hoodie doesn’t define who you are or what you do. Should we claim that expensive Italian suits are the mark of criminals because Wall Street investment bankers convicted of securities fraud and some Mafia members favor them? I suspect persons who own an Italian suit would object to being categorized as a criminal simply because of what they wear, don’t you.

You know what makes someone suspicious to me. If that person (e.g., George Zimmerman) had a history of violent acts. If that person followed a young man in his car and made specific references to the race of the teenager, whom he considered “suspicious” to a 911 operator. If that person then got out of his car and shot the young man with a pistol after being told not to get out of his car by a 911 dispatcher. If the young man who was killed weighed 100 pounds less than the person who shot him to death. If the person shot dead had no weapons on him. If the shooter claimed he was justified in killing the smaller, young black teenager because he was acting in self-defense.